For Immediate Release
November 16, 2017
Contact: Mike Roth, 916-444-7170
Sacramento, CA — The United Food and Commercial Workers Western States Council released the following statement from Executive Director Jim Araby as the California Bureau of Cannabis Control convened the first meeting of the Cannabis Advisory Committee today:
“Voters passed Prop. 64 to bring unsafe, underground cannabis operations into the sunlight and make our communities safer. Unfortunately, the Brown Administration’s current plan for licensing cannabis operators contains no provision allowing the public to see who is applying to sell, manufacture, and grow the cannabis Californians will ingest, excluding members of the public and stakeholders who may have crucial information needed to determine whether an applicant should or should not be approved by the state agency.
“As the only recognized union of workers in the current medical cannabis industry, UFCW workers have considerable experience and insights when it comes to professionalizing cannabis. Through organizing, workers have made cannabis jobs and the public safer. Under current proposals, the state’s process for deciding who could be licensed for recreational operations would be conducted almost entirely in secret. The current regulation scheme put forward by the Administration contains no opportunity for workers to bring forward information about possible licensees that may be critical to public safety, and stifle the public’s right to know how well or how poorly the government is protecting the public’s health.
“Considering that cannabis is ingested in our bodies and contains a drug, the stakes could not be higher. That’s why the regulations should immediately be amended to permit public input and accountability.”