Medical marijuana bills in the Legislature

The California Legislature is considering proposals, some of which conflict with one another, that would:

• Charge the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control with licensing medical marijuana dispensaries and the Department of Food and Agriculture with licensing growers (AB 34).

• Create a Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation to regulate the industry but give cities and counties a role in licensing and enforcement (AB 266).

• Create a Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation and allow counties to tax those who sell and cultivate cannabis for medical use (SB 643).

• Make it illegal to deny an organ to a potential transplant recipient because he or she uses medical marijuana (AB 258).

• Have state agencies, including the Water Resources Control Board, determine the environmental effects of marijuana cultivation and pursue new rules to reduce those effects (AB 243).

Source: Times reporting