The Honorable Governor Gavin Newsom and Members of the California Legislature:

Those signing this petition are the consumers and patients who are forced to pay the unbearably high cumulative taxes imposed upon cannabis purchases. 

We respectfully request that the Governor work with the State Legislature to meaningfully end or reduce the cumulative taxes we are currently subjected to.  

These cumulative taxes are currently so high that we can no longer afford to purchase cannabis in the licensed marketplace. 

We must either do without, or risk acquiring cannabis from illicit entities who sell untested, unregulated products.

While we are encouraged to see all parties support an end to the Cultivation Tax, the solution offered by both the Governor and selected members of the legislature is to shift the burden of the lost cultivation taxes to another segment of the marketplace, a practice known as revenue neutrality. 

This means that we will have no tax relief at all. To add insult to injury, the proposals on offer mean taxes may rise over time. This is not tax relief, much less meaningful tax relief. Instead it constitutes an economic bar to safe access more profound than prohibition ever was. 

Please meaningfully lower the taxes that we must pay, so that the will of the people, as demonstrated by the passage of the Compassionate Use Act and Prop 64, is a reality rather than something only wealthiest among us can enjoy.  

We urge the Governor and the Legislature to follow the guidance encompassed in SB 1281 (Bradford) which would reduce the excise tax to 5% and to examine the bill for other helpful mechanisms in reducing the unbearable taxation we are currently subjected to.