Last Tuesday, California passed Proposition 64 with fifty-six percent (56%) voting in favor of legalizing the recreational use of marijuana in California. Proposition 64 allows adults aged 21 years or older to possess and use marijuana for recreational purposes. The measure created two new taxes, one levied on cultivation and the other on retail sales. The cultivation tax is $9.25 per ounce for flowers and $2.75 for leaves. Medical marijuana sales and cultivation are excepted. The sales tax is 15% on the retail sale of marijuana.

Sales will be regulated through the Bureau of Marijuana Control (formerly known as the Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation). Growers will still be regulated through the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). As of this writing, the CDFA is in the process of preparing a Programmatic Environmental Impact Report (EIR) to provide the public, state and local agencies, and permitting agencies information about the potential environmental effects associated with the adoption and implementation of statewide cannabis regulations. In other words, stay tuned.