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California launches legal sale of cannabis for recreational use
California will launch the world's largest regulated commercial market for recreational marijuana on Monday, as dozens of newly licensed stores catering to adults who enjoy the drug for its psychoactive effects open for business up and down the state.
It becomes the sixth U.S. state, and by far the most populous, venturing beyond legalized medical marijuana to permit the sale of cannabis products of all types to customers at least 21 years old.
Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Nevada were the first to introduce recreational pot sales on a state-regulated, licensed and taxed basis. Massachusetts and Maine are on track to follow suit later this year.
With California and its 39.5 million residents officially joining the pack, more than one-in-five Americans now live in states where recreational marijuana is legal for purchase, even though cannabis remains classified as an illegal narcotic under U.S. law.
The marijuana market in California alone, which boasts the world's sixth-largest economy, is valued by most experts at several billion dollars annually and is expected to generate at least a $1 billion a year in tax revenue.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @03:49AM (3 children)
This is NOT legal until the federal law changes. At any time, that federal law can be enforced against politically disfavored people.
One symptom of being a 3rd-world country is that there are lots of laws that are seldom enforced. Such laws are used to go after people that piss off those with power.
To avoid being a 3rd-world shithole, it is necessary to fairly enforce all laws. If we don't intend to enforce a marijuana ban, then we need to make it legal for real, by changing federal law. For every law we have, our goal should be 100% reliable enforcement.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @05:25AM
You can't fairly enforce unjust laws. Unjust laws must be ignored, violated, and challenged at every turn, and yes, they will hopefully be scrapped entirely. I understand concerns about selective enforcement, but slowly attacking federal law by opposing it on the state level is one way to get marijuana and other drugs legalized; eventually, they will no longer be able to ignore the situation.
In any case, the federal war on drugs is definitely unconstitutional, even if our courts refuse to recognize that. Where's the rule of law in violating the Constitution?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by takyon on Tuesday January 02 2018, @05:32AM
That's only one dimension. Yes, there is an unresolved conflict [wikipedia.org] between state and federal law. States have gone beyond mere decriminalization (make the feds do the work of arresting people if they want to) and are permitting sales, handing out licenses, and collecting taxes. The feds could swoop in and enforce the law if they were directed to. It shouldn't be left this way (spoiler alert: it should be legalized federally and Congress is doing the nation a disservice by continuing to kick the can down the road).
The other dimension is the people vs. the feds. Many millions of people support legalization (in the neighborhood of 57% [pewresearch.org] to 64% [gallup.com] polled), and many millions flout the law, engaging in disobedience and even civil disobedience (disobedience = growing/using but not trying to get arrested, civil disobedience = something like smoking on federal property as part of a protest [thecannabist.co]). People are also expressing their support by collecting signatures and affirming legalization by ballot initiatives, which set up the state-federal conflict in the first place. This at a minimum protects them from local and state law enforcement, and forces the issue with the feds by undermining laws that the feds are apparently not willing to enforce out of fear of a political backlash.
Are unenforced laws symptomatic of 3rd-world shitholes? Perhaps. But it doesn't mean the country is going to pot. Plus, any hint of the feds "fairly enforcing" these laws to go after people could become the catalyst that gets the laws changed for good. And in a long shot scenario, federal cannabis charges could be contested all the way to the Supreme Court (Constitutional challenges [wikipedia.org] have been attempted before unsuccessfully, but the Supreme Court undeniably bases decisions partly on shifting public opinion). Maybe we should just use the Religious Freedom Restoration Act(s) [wikipedia.org] to kill this Prohibition [wikipedia.org] without the help of Congress.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @08:00PM
State vs. Federal, its about time we started getting some progress on that front! I think the current example is precisely how it should be done. Allow states to test out their own laws before revoking or enacting it as Federal law. I think we're reaching the tipping point where Federal law will have to be updated, the midwest is getting a very clear lesson on marijuana from their close neighbor CO and the handful of other states that have yet to experience any negative side effects from legalization.