It looks like 2017 is the year that marijuana legalization finally takes off a full three years after Guam voters approved the legal use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.
During the waning days of the 33rd Guam Legislature, senators passed Bill 343-33, which provides for the rules and regulations of the medicinal marijuana program. Gov. Eddie Calvo then allowed the bill to lapse into law.
Calvo, however, vetoed a related piece of legislation, Bill 344, which would have allowed qualified patients or caregivers to grow marijuana at home for medicinal use.
The governor then made a surprise move, announcing that he is in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana and taxing it heavily to finance costs related to the legalization of medicinal marijuana, as well as fund other pressing government priorities.
In his veto message on Bill 344, Calvo said home cultivation of marijuana would only add to the workload of the already overstrained government health and law enforcement departments, which would be tasked to monitor compliance with the new medicinal marijuana law.
Unless the means of how the regulation of home cultivation is to be funded or staffed is identified, the anticipated enforcement of Bill 344 will impose new and different duties upon our health and law enforcement agencies that will deplete their already strained resources, the governor said. Bill 344 places a huge burden on our public health and safety which I cannot permit.
Earlier, health department officials failed to come up with the implementing rules for the Joaquin KC Concepcion Compassionate Cannabis Use Act, which Guam voters passed in 2014. Officials said those rules would have incurred new costs related to the establishment of new enforcement and regulatory agencies needed to determine the eligibility of who can get medicinal cannabis and who will be allowed to prescribe and dispense marijuana.
By legalizing recreational marijuana, Calvo hopes to generate enough funds to finance not only the medicinal marijuana program but also other vital government services like education, health, and law enforcement.
Other states
If Guam legalizes recreational marijuana, it will be the first U.S. territory to do so and will join four states that voted last Nov. 8 in favor of recreational marijuana legalization: California, Nevada, Maine, and Massachusetts. These states join Washington, Oregon, Colorado, and Alaska, which approved recreational marijuana use prior.
In announcing his plan, Calvo said GovGuam will study how states that approved legalization taxed marijuana and how they used the tax proceeds for their government programs.
We’re talking about cutting what would be red tape and concerns about funding for required enforcement on the new marijuana legislation that became law, he wrote in a Facebook post. I want us to look at how states navigated into recreational marijuana; let’s figure it out and then tax the heck out of it and use those taxes to help fund our hospital, public safety and education.
According to The Tax Foundation, an independent tax policy research organization, marijuana tax collections in Colorado and Washington two early adoption states have exceeded initial estimates, and a nationwide legalization-and-tax regime could see states raise billions of dollars per year in marijuana tax revenue.
In Colorado alone, where retail marijuana sales began on Jan. 1, 2014, after voters approved Amendment 64 legalizing marijuana, marijuana tax revenues now greatly exceed original estimates of $70 million per year. Collections of $56 million in calendar year 2014 grew to $113 million in calendar year 2015, and will likely exceed $140 million in calendar year 2016 after all figures are collated.
Special report
In a special report entitled Marijuana Legalization and Taxes: Lessons for Other States from Colorado and Washington, the Tax Foundation concluded that tax rates on final retail sales have proven to be the most workable form of marijuana taxation compared to other forms of taxation that have been proposed, such as taxing marijuana buds at a certain dollar amount, taxing at the processor or producer level rather than the retail level, or taxing products by their level of THC, which have faced practical implementation difficulties.
According to the report, medical marijuana is usually more loosely regulated and less taxed than recreational marijuana. In Washington, moving non-medical sales to the retail market has proven difficult given the enormous differentials in tax rates and regulatory structure. Given the choice, officials there wish the two systems had been tackled simultaneously.
Calvo also alluded to this during a press conference in Adelup discussing his recreational marijuana proposal, saying it would be harder to move from medicinal marijuana to recreational marijuana than to totally legalize marijuana and just make medicinal marijuana one aspect of the total package.
Finally, the special report concluded that while the revenue from legalizing marijuana can be in the tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars, it takes a lead-time to develop. Revenues started out slowly in Colorado and Washington as consumers became familiar with the new system after state and local authorities spent time and money setting up new frameworks and regulatory infrastructure.
Significant attention must be given to health, agricultural, zoning, local enforcement, and criminal penalty issues, the Tax Foundation report stressed. These important issues have generally been unaddressed in ballot initiatives and left for resolution in the implementation process.
Support
Andrea Pellacani, the head of the marijuana advocacy group Women Grow Guam, is in favor of Calvos plan to legalize recreational marijuana.
While we were disappointed by his lack of support for the home cultivation legislation, we are encouraged that he is finding ways to financially support the infrastructure for it, Pellacani told the Sunday Post in an interview. We are in support of full decriminalization and legalization of cannabis and support the governor’s efforts on this.
She added that marijuana legalization will not only provide another alternative source of revenue for the government, it will genuinely help many sick people around the island.
Cannabis has curative, palliative, and preventative properties. It is non-toxic and was taken away from the people for nefarious reasons. It needs to be given back to the people because marijuana is safer than most government-approved substances such as sugar, caffeine, alcohol, or tobacco, Pellacani said.
According to Pellacani, some of the ailments that medicinal cannabis could be useful for include cancer, glaucoma, diabetes, epilepsy, muscle spasms, ADHD, multiple sclerosis, lupus, hepatitis C, HIV, AIDS, arthritis, chronic pain, fibromyalgia, Alzheimers, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and other psychological conditions. She added that this list is not yet final and that more research is being done continuously to determine whether cannabis can be used to treat other conditions.
Challenges
Pellacani stresses that both medicinal marijuana and recreational marijuana can co-exist. However, she acknowledges that there are still a lot of challenges ahead in the areas of regulation and taxation.
Medicinal marijuana and recreational marijuana can co-exist and benefit both those who participate in the recreational aspect as well as those who purchase for therapeutic benefits, Pellacani said.
Although the business infrastructure for medical and recreational marijuana can be integrated, Pellacani said the main difference will be in the taxation.
Patients who use cannabis for medicine should not be taxed. And what products will be available should be determined by the market, Pellacani said.
For 2017, Pellacani said her organization will continue reaching out to the community, continue with its cannabis education initiatives, and monitor the implementation of marijuana legalization.
The governors office has already met with Women Grow Guam, Grassroots Guam, and other marijuana legalization stakeholders to discuss Calvos recreational marijuana proposal. The governor is also expected to consult with the new legislature and draft legislation for the legalization of recreational marijuana.
We will be monitoring all of this as well as other developments in medicinal and recreational marijuana, Pellacani said. And of course, we still have a lot of advocacy work ahead of us including workplace policy reform, school policy reform and medical tourism.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker
Full Article: Marijuana Legalization Takes A New Turn
Author: Gerry R. Partido
Contact: (671) 649-1924
Photo Credit: Seth Perlman
Website: The Guam Daily Post
