Adult Use of Marijuana Act

Proposition 64

Marijuana Legalization

Results
	Votes	%
Yes	7,979,041	7001571300000000000♠57.13%
No	5,987,020	7001428709999900000♠42.87%
Valid votes	13,966,061	7001955900000000000♠95.59%
Invalid or blank votes	644,448	7000441000000000000♠4.41%
Total votes	14,610,509	100.00%
Registered voters/turnout	19,411,771	7001752700000000000♠75.27%

Source: California Secretary of State

The Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) (Proposition 64) is a 2016 voter initiative to legalize cannabis in California. The full name of the measure is the "Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act". The initiative passed with 57% voter approval and became law on November 9, 2016.

Possession or sale of cannabis in the United States is prohibited by federal law. In 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the Controlled Substances Act, establishing marijuana as a Schedule I drug, the strictest level of prohibition. Voters then rejected California Proposition 19 (1972), which sought to remove the criminalization of marijuana under California law. In 1976, Governor Jerry Brown signed the Moscone Act, which reduced the penalty for possession of marijuana from a felony to a misdemeanor.

Voters passed California Proposition 215 (1996), making California the first state to legalize medical cannabis in the United States. In United States v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative (2001), the Supreme Court of the United States found that California’s medical prescription providers were still subject to criminal prosecution. In Gonzales v. Raich (2005), the U.S. Supreme Court found that Congress’s interstate commerce clause power allowed it to prohibit an Oroville, California woman, who was following California law, from growing and consuming marijuana entirely inside her home.

In September 2010, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation reducing possession of marijuana from a criminal misdemeanor to a civil infraction. In November voters rejected California Proposition 19 (2010), which would have legalized recreational marijuana use, imposed no state taxes, and allowed employers to fire an employee for workplace use of marijuana only after showing it had caused impaired work.

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