If voters approve Prop 64, which would allow adults ages 21 and older to possess and use up to an ounce of cannabis and grow as many as six plants, the initiative would pose a major expansion of an IT system that California is already in the beginning stage of developing to "track and trace" the movement of medical cannabis in the state.
Prop 64 says the track and trace program would be expanded "to include the reporting of the movement of marijuana and marijuana products throughout the distribution chain and provide, at a minimum, the same level of information for marijuana and marijuana products as required to be reported for medical cannabis."
"The expanded track and trace program shall include an electronic seed to sale software tracing system with data points for the different stages of commercial activity including, but not limited to, cultivation, harvest, processing, distribution, inventory and sale," the measure reads. Licensees would be able to use third-party "cannabis business software applications" to comply with the track and trace system via a secure API.
Several agencies and departments — the California Department of Food and Agriculture, Board of Equalization, and Department of Consumer Affairs' Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation — are currently working together to develop licensing and tracking systems for the medical marijuana industry.
This week the Department of Consumer Affairs released a Request for Information seeking input to explore possible solutions and alternatives for an online licensing and enforcement system. The new IT system is required as part of a regulatory framework enacted via legislation.
Prop 64 is backed by a coalition including former Facebook President Sean Parker and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, according to the L.A. Times.
Two other qualified ballot measures would, in part, expand technology:
- Prop 54 would put in place a 72-hour wait period before a final vote on legislation after a bill is amended and require the Legislature to make audiovisual recordings of all its proceedings (except in closed session) and post them on the Internet. The recordings would be archived for a period of 20 years, The measure is backed by former Republican State Sen. Sam Blakeslee and Stanford professor Charles Munger. The Legislative Analyst's Office estimates $1 million to $2 million in one-time funding would be needed to buy additional video cameras and install them in hearing rooms at the State Capitol, and another $1 million to pay staff wages and buy archival storage. Blakeslee and Munger discussed the measure at a hearing last month.
- Prop 63, also backed by Newsom and others, "prohibits possession of large-capacity ammunition magazines, and requires their disposal by sale to dealer, destruction or removal from state," according to the Secretary of State's Office. The measure, called the Safety for All Act of 2016, would amend the California penal code to require vendors who sell or transfer ammunition in the state to fill out a form and submit it to the California Department of Justice. Data points would include the sale date, purchaser's full name and his or her driver's license or ID number, the purchaser's address and birth date, and the salesperson who processed the transaction. A new CalDOJ database likely would result.
