California’s marijuana legalization law that voters approved a decade ago has been a “complete failure” and should be replaced with a new ballot initiative that prioritizes consumers and small businesses, the state’s treasurer says.
At a hearing she convened on cannabis industry banking challenges on Wednesday, Treasurer Fiona Ma (D) heard from multiple officials, financial services representatives and stakeholders who spoke about the complex marijuana policy landscape at both the state and federal levels.
On Prop. 64—the initiative that legalized adult-use cannabis in the state after voters approved it in 2016—Ma said the reform is not “working as intended,” particularly as it concerns excess taxes and regulatory barriers.
That’s because the initiative was written “by big companies that wanted to take over the smaller farms and kind of gobble it up and be the big dogs,” she said.
There’s limited money among interested stakeholders to put up a grassroots initiative campaign to replace the current law, however, so she said it’s likely up to legislators to pass a bill placing the issue on the ballot. And if they do, the treasurer said she’d be interested in championing it.
“That means they have to be educated about it, and
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