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THE ARRIVAL OF the new year in California brought with it broad legalisation of marijuana, a much-anticipated change that comes two decades after the state was the first to allow pot for medical use.
The most populous state in the US joins a growing list of other states, and the nation’s capital, where so-called recreational marijuana is permitted even though the federal government continues to classify pot as a controlled substance, like heroin and LSD.
Pot is now legal in California for adults 21 and older, and individuals can grow up to six plants and possess as much as an ounce of the drug.
But finding a shop to buy non-medical pot in California won’t be easy, at least initially. Only about 90 businesses received state licenses to open on New Year’s Day.
They are concentrated in San Diego, Santa Cruz, the San Francisco Bay Area and the Palm Springs area.
Los Angeles and San Francisco are among the many cities where recreational pot will not be available right away because local regulations were not approved in time to start issuing city licenses needed to get state permits.
Meanwhile, Fresno, Bakersfield and Riverside are among the communities that have adopted laws forbidding recreational marijuana sales.
Just after midnight, some Californians were raising blunts instead of champagne glasses.
Johnny Hernandez, a tattoo artist from Modesto, celebrated New Year’s Eve by smoking “Happy New Year blunts” with his cousins.
“This is something we’ve all been waiting for,” he said.
It is something that can help so many people and there’s no reason why we should not be sharing that.
Hernandez said he hoped the legalisation of recreational marijuana would help alleviate the remaining stigma some still believe surrounds marijuana use.
“People might actually realize weed isn’t bad. It helps a lot of people,” he said.
For those who worked for this day, the shift also offered joyful relief.
“We’re thrilled,” said Khalil Moutawakkil, founder of KindPeoples, which grows and sells weed in Santa Cruz.
We can talk about the good, the bad and the ugly of the specific regulations, but at the end of the day it’s a giant step forward, and we’ll have to work out the kinks as we go.
The state banned “loco-weed” in 1913, according to a history by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, the pot advocacy group known as NORML.
The first attempt to undo that by voter initiative in 1972 failed, but three years later felony possession of less than an ounce was downgraded to a misdemeanor.
In 1996, over the objections of law enforcement, President Clinton’s drug czar and three former presidents, California voters approved marijuana for medicinal purposes.
Twenty years later, voters approved legal recreational use and gave the state a year to write regulations for a legal market that would open in 2018.
Today, 29 states have adopted medical marijuana laws. In 2012, Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize recreational marijuana.
Since then, five more states have passed recreational marijuana laws, including Massachusetts, where retail sales are scheduled to begin in July.
Even with other states as models, the next year is expected to be a bumpy one in California as more shops open and more stringent regulations take effect on the strains known as Sweet Skunk, Trainwreck and Russian Assassin.
The California Police Chiefs Association, which opposed the 2016 ballot measure, remains concerned about stoned drivers, the risk to young people and the cost of policing the new rules in addition to an existing black market.
“There’s going to be a public-health cost and a public-safety cost enforcing these new laws and regulations,” said Jonathan Feldman, a legislative advocate for the chiefs. “It remains to be seen if this can balance itself out.”
At first, pot shops will be able to sell marijuana harvested without full regulatory controls. But eventually, the state will require extensive testing for potency, pesticides and other contaminants.
A program to track all pot from seed to sale will be phased in, along with other protections such as childproof containers.
Jamie Garzot, founder of the 530 Cannabis shop in Northern California’s Shasta Lake, said she’s concerned that when the current crop dries up, there will be a shortage of marijuana that meets state regulations.
Her outlet happens to be close to some of California’s most productive marijuana-growing areas, but most of the surrounding counties will not allow cultivation that could supply her.
“Playing in the gray market is not an option,” Garzot said. “California produces more cannabis than any state in the nation, but going forward, if it’s not from a state-licensed source, I can’t put it on my shelf. If I choose to do so, I run the risk of losing my license.”
In 2016, the state produced an estimated 13.5 million pounds of pot, and 80% was illegally shipped out of state, according to a report prepared for the state by ERA Economics, an environmental and agricultural consulting firm. Of the remaining 20 percent, only a quarter was sold legally for medicinal purposes.
That robust black market is expected to continue to thrive, particularly as taxes and fees raise the cost of retail pot by as much as 70%.
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Shame he can’t sign one punishing anyone in the US from interfering in foreign elections. Although, in fairness, they have often just skipped the elections and went straight for the overthrow.
@WinstonSmith: He’s been asking why he just can’t assassinate world leaders he doesn’t like…
@WinstonSmith: “Overthrow” is politically incorrect. “Regime change to restore democracy” is more acceptable.
@John Ryan: Surprised he didn’t drone strike McCain’s funeral. Would be a fitting tribute.
@kartz: Yeah democracy all right. The voters at shareholder meetings for oil companies and companies that sell military equipment.
@kartz: or in Egypt’s case, ‘regime change to irradicate democracy’ when the Yanks didn’t like who the Egyptian people voted for.
@WinstonSmith: Because someone in the whitehouse snatched the documents from his desk before he could sign them
@Harry Whitehead: an observation is not whataboutary…. back under the bridge with you troll
@Cormac Ó Braonáin: …irradiate OR eradicate, not both.
@Harry Whitehead: The well documented interference of the US in hundreds of foreign governments is neither a conspiracy not disputed. It also happens to be the same topic, that topic being meddling on foreign governments. …. and I am not embarrassed, but I thank you for your concern.
Another document he thinks he signed. One of his own staff probably switched it out for an expenses claim form at the last second while making screw ball gestures behind his back.
@Tweed Cap: probably just a small loan of a million dollars…
Will that order include American interference in other countries elections also.
@Donal Desmond: No, that wouldn’t really make a lot of sense as they’d be punishing themselves. Hope this helped.
That horse has bolted Donald, much to your benefit.
That’s sorted so….!!!
@Paul Shepherd: Israel of course will be exempt
@Tommy C: I think you’ll find they are fully embedded
To be honest, lads, I jumped straight to the comments on this one….
@Eidhne Conlon: Can understand why. Down with anyway.
The real teflon don
@Kieran Stafford: Muller got Gotti…he’ll get Trump too…
@John Ryan: not likely
What’s he going to do? Go to some other country (I’m looking at you Russia) and prosecute someone there? Yeah right
McCarthyism Paranoia… I can see free speech on Twitter from people in foreign countries tweeting about the US elections being chased by the FBI and by the NSA now?
To all my cousins and friends living in America. Don’t vote for this annoying orange clown next election. Awaits the jackboots of Team America at my door.
Crickets……
What a knut.
I wonder if they will prosecute Israel now
Will he expect the ICC to do the prosecuting?
Waiting for the Journal to publish a story on how John Kerry may have violated the Logan Act on multiple occasions. I could be waiting a while.
This will backfire spectacularly on him.. dunce
have your say