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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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Lucky Californians. Enjoy!
@Honeybadger197: Hope you enjoyed an Xmas bowl or 2 over the hols man.
@Nollaig Elliot: Sadly not. Its a very rare indulgence. Usually if I’m in the States or Amsterdam. Hope you blazed a few yourself :)
@Arfer Daly: I doubt it. You can’t exactly turn up pissed to most jobs either regardless of alcohol being legal
@Arfer Daly: And I take it that everyone who has ended up in work with a hangover is an alcoholic and should be fired for being one? Ps, your prejudice is showing.
@Arfer Daly: it actually stays in your system for months if you are a figuratively user. THC love those fatty tissues of yours ;)
And in Ireland you are only tested for drugs under contract. It would be random if couse. Only specific roles would require it.
You clearly don’t know what you’re talking about. Pfff to you calling people uneducated.
@Fabio Dillon: **regular user
@Arfer Daly: Jeez, lads, burn one already and mellow the fu(k out.
@Arfer Daly: If it is legalized here, they’ll do something also to protect a worker and restrict it levels in your blood. They don’t want anyone showing, after smoking a ton of it that morning or night before.
@Arfer Daly: you’re not arguing material because your are that stubbornly clueless.
@Damien Wallanger: but most Irish politicians are stupid enough as is. Can’t have them sparkin’ up on top of the booze they be downing while in the dail. They should be tested regularly for smarts, lies and treason.
California moving forward and coming out of the dark ages.
@Nollaig Elliot: maybe with regard to drug legalisation but definitely taking a step back into the dark ages with regard to public health as it is now legal to knowingly infect someone with HIV in California. Yayyy Progress!!
@Steve Lennon: Wasn’t that done by the governor who was caught up in the trans scandal if memory serves? Anyway, I was talking in regard to the legalisation of a natural ingredient of this planet that has been around a lot longer than us.
Well done California. Common sense is starting to prevail.
If you compare the amount of people who use pot to the amount of schizophrenic diagnoses annually, it kind of shatters the argument.
If there is even the slightest risk of the drug effecting a persons mental health do not use it. Schizophrenia is a very serious mental illness and some people may have no side effects while others might .
@aine
Schizophrenia is a very serious illness but with huge increases in cannabis use over the last 50 years a corresponding increase in schizophrenia has not been observed.
Cannabis is a relatively safe substance when compared with lots of legal ones such as paracetamol and caffeine. Obviously alcohol is orders of magnitude more harmful than cannabis.
@john doe: I’m all for legalizing cannabis, not because I want to partake, but because this Revenue should flow to the Government and not the drug dealers. However, even the most casual reading of the studies that have been done shows a link between weed use and schizophrenia. This is particularly true for the increasingly strong hallucinogenic weed that is available which is a different beast to its mellowing cousin of the Sixties. What is argued over is whether those that are schizophrenic are somehow predisposed to using weed or whether weed use brings on an underlying but pre-existing neurosis. Certainly for young teen brains that are still developing cannabis use is not healthy and while casual use is fine for some it is also true that long term use carries mental and physical risk.
When others go low, we go high.
@Fiona deFreyne: I was going to post comments on the Journal………………,……………..but then I got high.
also in California as of today it is perfectly legal to knowingly infect someone with HIV.
@Steve Lennon: Stay on topic, or go smoke a few and stop boring us with your attempt to discredit the act of legalizing cannabis..
@Arfer Daly: Are you an expert, on people?
Arfur is an expert on experts!!
Why would you want to buy non-medical. Sure it’s the best
Drugs and guns.. Whoop de fookin Whoop!
@Northern Craic: What’s your opinion on alcohol consumption, distribution and legality? Genuine question.
@Nollaig Elliot: I presume you are trying to draw a comparison? If so, there are two points to consider: 1. Alcohol and guns are obviously a bad combination but simply because one bad combination is legal doesn’t mean other bad combinations should also be legal. In fact guns and drugs should be a guide of what not to do.
2. Marijuana causes long term life changing mental health issues for a many users. Paranoia, depression, psychotic thoughts, etc. Since one of the main motivations for gun sprees is mental illness the combination of guns and marijuana are especially unsuitable.
@Northern Craic: i know if i smoked a joint id be more likely to use the gun as a bong than shoot someone with it.
@Northern Craic: I believe cannabis is now being used as a treatment for depression and psychosis.
@Arfer Daly: I can only presume you are a 13 yr old child.
Well done for joining in the conversation though. Like all children you need to educate yourself about the real world.
@cp: For most cannabis users that’s true, it mellows. But for those who have an adverse reaction it doesn’t at all. This is particularly evident in high dose marijuana and long term use. Making guns easily available to people who are experiencing psychotic thoughts (Dustin really tells you to shoot up KFC) is always a bad idea.
@Northern Craic: your point 2 above is not only a tsunami like sweeping generalisation, it’s also incorrect to say its use leads “many” users to get lifetime mental illness issues which causes them to go postal etc.
Get real ffs.
Yes there are various potent strains, which are not suitable for first time users etc (akin to spirits v pints), but the THC content is clearly displayed and regulated in these dispensaries.
CBD is highly therapeutic.
Alcohol and guns cause a lot more damage mentally and physically
@Northern Craic: Alcohol, makes most people aggressive and dangerous. Cannabis, has the opposite effect for most and only a tiny few are aggressive or dangerous. Have you ever used it yourself?
@Northern Craic: well they also banned the owning of automatic rifles, imports of ammo and no more having ammo sent through the postal service. Pretty good moves i think
@Arfer Daly: Leave my sphincter alone you dirty nasty pervert.
@Damien Wallanger: You may have some valid points there, but geez didn’t you learn to use capitals after a full stop?!! Your comment is like reading a telegram – my eyes hurt!
All drugs are evil and spawned by the devil. Hash is the devils semen. When the mind is weak, Satan’s semen attacks and destroys. Confess and repent. We will not see the end of 2018 because Satan will start a nuclear war by the work of his lovechild – the orange dotard. At least that is what jackal revealed to me when i was high on acid last week.
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