BY HILARY BRICKEN On November 8, 2016, by voting for the Control, Regulate, and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act (“Prop 64”), Californians legalized adults possessing and using limited amounts of marijuana. As of November 9, 2016, any adult 21 and older in California can “possess, process, transport, purchase, obtain, or give away to persons 21 years of age or older without any compensation whatsoever”. Let's explore it further. (Photo courtesy of Drug Policy Alliance)
Possession of up to one ounce of cannabis flowers is legal. What happens if I get caught with more than an ounce of marijuana? Possession of more than an ounce of cannabis or more than eight grams of concentrated cannabis is a misdemeanor that nets either a $500 fine or six months of jail time. (GreenState file photo)
That's up to eight of these one-gram vaporizer cartridges from Jetty Extracts. (GreenState file photo)
Can I grow my own? Yes. Under Prop. 64, adults 21 and over can plant, cultivate, harvest, dry and process up to six plants within a “single private residence” or “upon the grounds of that residence,” if such cultivation is indoors. Prop. 64 allows outdoor home cultivation -- subject to local bans. If the yield from your plants exceeds one ounce, you must keep that excess marijuana within your home. Local governments can “reasonably regulate” home growing, but they generally cannot ban it. (GreenState file photo)
Can I accept gifts? Yes. Any adult 21 and older in California can gift any other adult in California with up to an ounce of non-concentrated marijuana and with up to eight grams of concentrated marijuana without any compensation whatsoever. (Photo courtesy of Lowell Herb. Co.)
What about driving with it? Prop. 64 provides for a civil penalty of between $100 and $250 for smoking or ingesting marijuana or marijuana products “while driving, operating a motor vehicle, boat, or other vehicle used for transportation.” It’s also a civil penalty of between $100 and $250 to possess an “open container or open package of marijuana or marijuana products while driving, operating, or riding in the passenger seat of a motor vehicle. (GreenState file photo)
Where can I smoke it? Prop. 64 makes it a civil fine to smoke or “ingest” marijuana in public. Under Prop. 64, “smoke” means “to inhale, exhale, burn, or carry any lighted or heated device or pipe, or any other lighted or heated marijuana or marijuana product intended for inhalation. (Photo courtesy of Drug Policy Alliance)
Photo courtesy of Berkeley Patients Group
Click on the above slide show to explore California marijuana laws under legalization Proposition 64. Learn how much adults 21 and older can carry and grow, and when you can go into stores.
Hilary Bricken is an attorney at Harris Bricken, LLP in its Los Angeles office and she chairs the firm’s Canna Law Group. Hilary is also lead editor of the Canna Law Blog.
