welcome to beyond the headlines. i'm cheryl jennings. every week we focus on a different topic. election day is coming up tuesday, november 2nd. today's show examines one of the most controversial issues on the ballot, it's proposition 19 which legalizes marijuana and allows it to be regulated and taxed. later on in the program we'll talk to yes on the campaign and we'll hear from opponents. but first, we have a story about medicinal marijuana. getting it in hand is almost as easy as ordering a pizza. pot prescriptions are delivered right to your doorstep. according to our media partner,

it raises a whole new set of issues that are lot more complex than pizza. here is dan ashley with the story from june. >> this may look like any organic farm, free range chickens roam on carefully tended fields. >> we also grow organic vegetables. >> but most farms don't go to the measures that north stone organics do to keep people out. >> from v secure. we have laser beams that connect a grid around the whole facility no kids can jump the fence. >> you see, this is a medical marijuana farm in mendocino county. >> this particular growing area has 72 plants. >> matthew cohen is the owner. the fact he is open about the farm isn't special, but what is special about he and growing number of pot farms get their product to patients. >> that is direct delivery, not

dispensaries, like we see in san francisco and other places, but people who will just bring it straight to your home or office or other locations. >> michael montgomery uncovered a growing trend in the state, medical marijuana delivery services. >> there is 750 services advertise ought internet for direct delivery of medical marijuana. what is interest becoming that number, it's increased by about 40% since february. >> california watch is part of the independent non-partisan center for investigative reporting. they shot much of the video for the story. he says his poll delivery business is growing 30% a month. >> i think we could take on quite a few more farms and grow a lot larger. >> he has in licenses in every county where his company delivers. >> california watch went along

with cohen on several deliveries including this one in the east bay. >> i've been coming here for the last month and a half or so. since the surgery, she looks way better. >> angel suffers from conditions related to a brain tumor. doctors suggested marijuana to help her feel better. >> i was really sick. >> she says she was too weak to get to a medical dispensary, deliveries were essential to her recovery. but they are not being regulated. they found no statewide directory of growers, no registry of dispensaries. they put all the responsibility for regulation in the hands of cash strapped local cities and counties. most have done little or nothing. >> to be regulated a little more carefully, dropping off one pound of marijuana in the middle of the night does not appear to

be well regulated pharmaceutical program. >> they pointed to the robbery of a pot deliveryman last week as evidence that more regulation is needed here. thieves got away with a pound of weed and a thousand dollars. >> in this case was set up for a robbery. it's all too easy for people to be victimized like that. >> both narcotics enforcement and the federal drug enforcement agency told us they won't be chasing legitimate delivery people because they fall under the protection of state law. >> do you think this is a concern this is a wide open area there aren't any regulations and it could be very easily exploited by unscrupulous dealers. >> that is why the county is taking action. he is working with the sheriff to ensure no illegal activity happens at his farm or with his delivery service. now he is helping create standards for other growers, too. they will only apply in

mendocino county now but will likely spread. >> some officials say they prefer to the delivery service more because it's less of a nuisance. there are not store fronts that bothers neighbors. it's more discreet. >> california watch is independent non-partisan project for investigative reporting in berkeley. stay with us, we'll be back with a frank conversation for an advocateñiñcñcmxñcñcwñwñwñwññcññ

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welcome back. i'm cheryl jennings. we've been talking about an important election issue, proposition 19 that proposes to control or tax cannibis. we're giving you information so you can make an informed decision. the co-proponent of the yes prop on 19 campaign, jeff jones. he is also the executive director of the patient i.d. center. thank you for being with me and we were talking before we got started here, that you've been involved with the marijuana movement for a long, long time, since you were 21? >> i got involved because my dad passed away from cancer so it was a personal issue for me to helpovers. he passed away at my home so i

saw it firsthand. >> a lot of people say it's completely validated malal marijuana is legal and this is the next step to make it legal across the state. >> yes, i think would what prop 19 would do is add regulation and controls from the medical cannibis marketplace. this is the number one cash crop in our state if not the country and we need to control it and regulate correctly. >> a lot of people are say how are you going to control it. i independence you can grow up to an ounce of it? >> what prop 19 would do, over the age of 21 would possess an ounce in their homes. right now its like a traffic ticket and allow them to grow in their home and keep it more restricted than medical of what they could use. there are restrictions, a lot of

folks, you can't smoke in it front of a minor. you can't commission to grow it or sell it and we're banning it the use of it in front of a minor. so we're trying to set up guidelines and controls that something that goes on in the community. i don't think we can ignore any longer. >> how would you tax it? >> home cultivation would not be the part that is taxed. what prop 19 invokes is the city's and county's right to commercially regulated sales and growing. in the city of san francisco where they are regulating the sales. they have raised over a hundred million dollars in sales tax. we think that could be a lot more if that same theory is used with adult cannibis. it's being bought and sold everywhere in california where an adult wants it.

california is not getting it's fair share. >> how would you regulate. that people on the road and people operate heavy machinery, children, the whole issue of education? >> well, i think what is clear in prop 19, private property rights are retained and rights for a drug free workplace. we prohibit a driver from using it in the car. to say we can't test somebody because they there isn't a quick test, there is no breathalyzer for pharmaceuticals. there is a sobriety test and that is what officers are doing every day. from hundreds of calls, they, te being cited, medical cannibis patients are being cited for d.u.i.s. we want to move the date and push it and have saliva tests. there is one being used in michigan that can tell if you have used in the last five hours

not like a urine test in the last 30 days. so adult action so i think the city attorney in oakland at the conference said we want to have this move forward and turn it from illegal under ground economy to an economy that is going to help pay california's budget deficit. allowing it to be sold in areas and given a permit. and medical cannibis law passed in 1996, cities to have opt in for commercial action. city has to give a permit for any activity is legal outside of possession or small cultivation in your home. that is where we think a lot of revenue will be generated. city of oakland is managing a large scale grow that is going to raise the city a million dollars in permit fees to hopefully end the public deficit. >> you had interesting support yesterday that was kind of surprising, joseph mcthat mere

rashes you have a judge and deputy chief retired? >> yeah, i think it goes to show that our collision is broader than we thought when we started first moving prop 19 over a year ago to the actual ballot box. law enforcement is in a tricky spot. we don't have a lot of law enforcement supporting us because they could risk their jobs. that is because the jobs make them come against us. >> we'll have you come back in a few minutes. thank you so much, jeff. we do have a to take a break. we'll continue the argument about the issue of prop 19. we'll hear from somebody that has spent many years in law enforcement.

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to sweet talk your taste buds it's for my heart health. so i can't have any? if you can deprive me of what can help lower my cholesterol... and live with yourself. right. mmm, i wry about your mother. cry herself to sleep every night over my arteries, but have yourself a bowl. good speech dad. [ whimper ] male announcer ] honey nut cheerios tastes great and its whole grain oats can lp lower cholesterol. bee happy. bee healthy. ♪ welcome back. we've been talking about proposition 19. that is the measure to legalize and tax marijuana. a local school board has taken a stand. educators in san mateo voted to officially oppose proposition 19. to as lisa amin gulezian reported in august, they hope the action con villages school officials across the state to do the same. >> i want to have something that

says this is a bad idea. >> this trustee feels that proposition 19 which tends to legalize marijuana will hurt schools and students. he urged board members to take a stand against it. >> it's bad for kids, it's bad for our employees. >> peter is worried if prop 19 passes. people can start growing pot inside their homes which may be near a school, unlike alcohol there is no way the measure how high someone is at work. anyone over 21 could legally have an ounce of pot in their possession. >> proposition 19 only prohibits adult consumption. so it allows adults to have marijuana on our school campuses? >> that's right. >> that is significant. >> we don't think this proposition in any way endangers school kids. >> dave hodges is the founder of the cannibis buyers collective. he agrees that pot should be

handled responsibly. that is why he doesn't think that adults should bring it on campus unless it's for malal use. he doesn't think that growing it near school is a big deal. >> it's like any other plant. it's not like a dangerous thing that is going to cause a problem in the neighborhood. >> it's not a tomato. there is a big difference are henley also says federal funding could be in jeopardy if a staffer brings pot to work. it could be a violation of federal. >> the h in san mateo, lisa amin gulezian, "abc 7 news." >> joining me in the studio is pleasant hill police chief pete dunbar and also the spokesman for the association. our earlier guest was talking about oakland and how it stands

to make quite a built of money from the pot growing on there. you worked in oakland for a long time? >> i did. and when they passed 96 it was a fiasco. the quality of life, it opened up. it was very difficult. people were being robbed. people were actually being killed that purchased marijuana from the dispensaries. it improved over time but there are still problems today. >> a store that lisa was talking about, the lady on the board that teachers and staff could have an ounce on pot on execution and that would be legal. would that mean that police officers could also have an oungs of pot if they were over 21? >> unfortunately the public policy would dictate otherwise but it's very confusing. >> you don't like the way the law is written? >> i don't like the way it's written and i don't like having marijuana legal in california. >> the compassionate part, you

understand that people that are sick need this? >> i can absolutely understand that. i can appreciate that. >> the problem, i think, a lot of peopler worried about is transportation issues, children most of all? >> it's very available to kids today. this would make it available to people under the age of 21. people will access it from their parents. it's accessible to grade school kids today. it will be more accessible. >> this is a county by county and city by city issue, there is a potential for different regulations all over the state. plus it's not federally allowed? >> it's still against federal law. marijuana is illegal. so that is a huge problem. you're right. there are 478 cities and counties, if they choose to opt in have different regulations. it's difficult enough to regulate it. it's been 15 years since it's been the law for compassionate use. oakland still doesn't have it

down and it's taken a long time to regulate. not everybody wants to be regulated that grows marijuana. >> if you legalize it throughout the state and then also transporting it from state to state you've got a bunch of different issues there. >> you have a lot of different issues. the bottom line is, this is not a good idea because different people can do different things in different counties and cities if the federal government could come in and say it's all bad. it's very confusing. >> can you see if you had this legalized in california around you take it to another state, what happens? >> technically that would be a violation of federal law and violation of laws of other states. so the idea that people can keep it at california and grow it at their homes, but when they use it, the problems happens after that. >> there is no test to detect a marijuana high.

>> marijuana odor. >> glass si eye and that sort of thing. and they are really impaired. >> with alcohol, it's .08, with marijuana which stays in the system much longer, who knows, it could vary from person to person depending how impaired they are. >> how are employers going to be affected? >> people could come to work, but they could have it in the system and likely would if passed because it stays in their system for many days. if there is an accident and they are tested, it's going to come back positive and that is big problem, especially given federal money to have a drug free workplace. >> could that cost billions if you can't have a drug free workplace? >> it may cost up to $30 billion federal government takes that money away. >> what is the worst thing if see if it were passed? >> we're going to have more and

more problems. people are going to have issues associated with it just like alcohol. alcohol issues even today cost us far more in taxes. we're going to have issues of treatment programs, a host of issues that we are not ready for. public safety is not ready for it especially with scarce resources and fewer officers we have the streets today. it's a bad idea. >> so if it's carefully written and all those issues in place this would be a good thing? >> i used to think so because we're liberal here in california, but i'm not so sure anymore. marijuana is very potent drug compared to what it used. i'm not sure with all the regulations and not have the open drug market. if we can get rid of the open drug market and cartels to bring in but that would take a federal act. >> chief dunbar, i know you're

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so you're really, rich and happy. yeah see, i like rich and hearty better. [ male announcer ] pgresso. you gotta taste this soup. welcome back to beyond the hid lines, i'm cheryl jennings. we're talking about regulating and taxing cannibis. we have both sides of proposition 19. police chief dunbar and jeff jones from the patient i.d. center, yes on proposition 19 campaign. jeffrey, we ended the last segment with the chief talking about cartels but you say prohibition didn't work? >> we tried that and it created some of biggest drug cartels. we don't want to continue an a failed policy in california. rand report says $380 million in

training police after changing the law. we believe that prohibition is not working with cannibis. it's causing the drug to be less available. you go on the school ground you can get cannibis, but you can't buy alcohol and the violence is going away just like alcohol. coors and budweiser don't shoot each other and cannibis will be treated just like alcohol. >> i want the chief to weigh in this. >> i think we're going to have open drug markets. this is just california. prohibition was about the united states. california is one of 50 states, there are people that are going to be selling marijuana from mexican cartels and the rest of the united states, so it's going to continue on. i agree that the drug war has

not worked but any money that is raised from this proposition is not going to be enough to pay for the regulation, for the treatment and the other indirect costs associated with this. >> i would say currently using budget, it's not going to cost benefit us. we are paying for those enforcement costs of cannibis on the streets right now. there is no benefit of cannibis in the community. they are not going to stop using it. we aren't even done with that prospect yet. i think we need the guidance that enough is enough. the insanity of being it prohibited needs to be ended and we need to send a message to washington, d.c. that this is vastly supported by the people of california. >> right now, for law enforcement -- someone driving

unimpaired the money saving is not there. marijuana possession, we're going the continue to go after people, cultivating illegally. that is not going to change. they will go to prison. >> we'll have the weeks up for both on proposition 19 also on our website. we're not going to resolve this debate here today. thank you both for your insight and expertise on this. i appreciate it very much. that is it on for us. there is so much more information about proposition 19 for you on our website. all you have to do is click on www.abc7.com and look at the community page. if you are looking for community resources in your neighborhood, dial 211 for help and all that and more at www.abc7.com. i'm cheryl jennings. thanks so much for joining us. we'll see you next time and have a great week. bye-bye.