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By Miriam Raftery
November 25, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) – Proposition 64, approved by voters on November 9th, not only legalized recreational marijuana for adults in California. It also provides opportunity for reprieves to people arrested or convicted of certain pot-related crimes.
Before Prop 64, it was a felony to grow more than six marijuana plants, transport more than an ounce of pot, sell it without a license, or possess marijuana with intent to sell it.
If you were convicted of any of those felonies, you can have those crimes reduced to misdemeanors—unless you are a repeat offender, have a record of violence or sex crimes, or sold to minors.
Also, certain older marijuana crimes can be expunged from your record completely, so that you won’t have to report a long-ago conviction to a potential employer or landlord.
The state does require you to get a local license if you want to grow, transport, test or sell marijuana. But local governments have broad authority to impose their own regulations –even banning marijuana businesses if they choose.
Smoking pot in public is still illegal and landlords can opt to restrict growing of marijuana plants or smoking recreational marijuana if they choose, just as they can choose to allow or ban tobacco smoking.
Selling marijuana remains illegal without a license, though it’s now legal to share small quantities among adults.
However, all marijuana use remains illegal under federal law. Even a single seed can get you busted when going through a federal highway stop, such as a Border Patrol station or agricultural checkpoint.
President Barack Obama had instructed his Justice Department not to prosecute marijuana activities in states that had legalized those actions. But it’s not yet known whether President-elect Donald Trump will take a similar hands-off approach, or crackdown on weed users and cannabis businesses—potentially sending the burgeoning marijuana industry up in smoke.
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