Marijuana Growers Adjust To Prop 64 Regulations

When voters passed Proposition 64 legalizing recreational marijuana use for adults, California was still developing regulations for medical marijuana.

Now the governor has released his proposal for how to bring the two systems into harmony.

Hezekiah Allen heads the California Growers Association. He describes the task of aligning the rules for medical and recreational marijuana as "somehow you've got to get two trains on the same track."

One place where the two systems diverged was figuring out limits on the size of marijuana cultivation.

Under the state's medical marijuana rules there could be an unlimited number of small and specialty licenses. And the state would cap the number of medium grows.

"The governor's proposal does include those limitations in the new merged system. This comes in pretty stark contrast to Prop. 64, which essentially proposed no limits on any license of any size."

Allen says the cap on larger grows came as a relief to existing growers in his circle.

He points out California's unregulated marketplace was supplying the nation with cannabis. Going forward it will be a state marketplace so the marijuana cultivation will actually have to be scaled back.

Allen argues capping the number of larger licenses will help smaller cultivators survive that transition.

Growers have until Jan. 1 to adjust to the new regulations.