California

The California Senate has unanimously voted to approve a bill that would prohibit marijuana use in motor vehicles. Senate Bill 65, proposed by state Senator Jerry Hill, would “make drinking an alcoholic beverage or smoking or ingesting marijuana or any marijuana product while driving, or while riding as a passenger in, a motor vehicle being driven upon a highway or upon specified lands punishable as an infraction.”

The bill was drafted in response to concerns over a potential increase in marijuana-impaired driving in canna-legal states.

In this photo taken Thursday, May 11, 2017, Andre Shavers, who runs a marijuana delivery business, walks up a street in Oakland, Calif. The City of Oakland is prodding cannabis businesses to pair with minority applicants if they want a license to sell, manufacture, cultivate or distribute weed in 2018 as part of California's massive expansion of legal cannabis.

If you’re a kind and rational American, we’re guessing that every day since November 8th has been pretty rough for you, to say the least. But, alas, while much of the country remains divided between conservative and liberal, Republican and Democrat, red state and blue state, there might be one common desire amidst all of our differences—and that’s the legalization of marijuana.



A liberal state like California passing legislation to permit recreational weed is no big surprise, but what may surprise you is that some conservative states also passed similar laws that cut restrictions on marijuana last November.

If you’ve ever gotten way too high because the delayed effects of cannabis edibles lead you to four or five magic brownies instead of the one that you needed, you’re not alone. But now, with new advancements thanks to legalization, several canna-businesses are looking to address that issue by creating “rapid delivery” edibles that take effect in only 15-20 minutes, making the experience closer to that of consuming alcohol.

Colorado edibles company 1906 introduced the first line of these “rapid delivery” edibles last year.

Weed is legal in California, but that doesn’t mean that you can buy your bud anywhere. Under state law, local municipalities have the authority to control the cannabis trade in their town or city. And yet still, just because a city bans dispensaries or grow-ops, doesn’t mean that people will actually listen. In Los Angeles County, dispensaries have been banned since 2011, but dozens of unlicensed medical pot shops are still operating, even without local sanctions.

Sherriffs in L.A.

Jeanine Moss, a 62-year-old grandmother of two, never expected to get into the cannabis industry. But that was before her hip-replacement surgery.Ms. Moss, of Marina Del Ray, Calif., had quit her job as a marketing consultant before she had her hip done in 2014. As she left the hospital, her doctors handed her a “shopping bag filled with opiates,” she said. The drugs made her disoriented and woozy.So she switched to medical marijuana, which is legal in California and was familiar to her, having grown up in the nearby Venice section of Los Angeles.

This week, two separate investors independently announced plans to invest $200 million in canna-businesses. On Tuesday, a California real estate firm announced plans to invest $100 million into medical and recreational cannabis over the next year. On the same day, a wealthy Florida attorney and MMJ advocate announced plans to invest $100 million into medical marijuana.

In addition to legalizing recreational weed in California, Proposition 64 allows individuals who have been convicted of low-level marijuana offenses to have their convictions reduced or dismissed.

The Southwest corner of the United States has become an indubitable hotbed for the cannabis movement. Both California and Nevada are preparing their own recreational systems, and although Arizona rejected full-scale legalization last November, they’ve still got a relatively robust medical system in place. The wild west truly is the cannabis capital of the world - that is of course, until you reach the ultra-conservative state of Utah.

Over the weekend, representatives in the Beehive State continued to suppress access to medical marijuana, striking down a resolution that would support treatment for a variety of medical conditions.

 

After voters in California approved Prop 64 back in November, local policymakers shifted their focus towards loosening the laws against recreational cannabis use. While penalties for minor pot crimes have been effectively eliminated, there is still a number of Californians who remain behind bars on marijuana-related federal charges.

According to a study conducted by the Drug Policy Alliance, in 2015 alone, more than 2,100 people in California were incarcerated for offenses strictly pertaining to cannabis. After recreational legalization was approved, hundreds of these prisoners have filed petitions to have their charges dropped.