Marijuana Around the Country

(Spring 2018) From the first legislature-approved recreational marijuana legalization to the legality of medical marijuana on college campuses, the drug continues to pose new situations and tricky questions.

• Under Proposition 64, California started the sale of recreational marijuana on January 1. Residents age 21 and older may possess up to one ounce of the drug and grow as many as six plants for personal use. The Golden State’s marijuana industry is expected to hit $7 billion within a few short years. Also due to Proposition 64, San Francisco’s district attorney will reduce or throw out thousands of older convictions going back as far as 1975. Over 100,000 Californians in all may be eligible to have their records changed.

• Employers in Maine will no longer be permitted to include marijuana in drug screening panels beginning February 1. Businesses will not be able to punish workers age 21 or older for off-duty marijuana use, providing it is not on an employer’s property. Employers are still permitted to take action against workers impaired due to cannabis during working hours.

• In January, Vermont became the first state to approve recreational marijuana via legislature instead of popular vote; the measure takes effect July 1 allowing adults to possess and grow small amounts of marijuana. Vermont is the ninth state to give the nod to recreational marijuana. However, recreational marijuana sales are not permitted under the new legislation because there is no system for taxation and regulation.  Disparaged by activists and legislators, and Vermont’s Governor Phil Scott will now have a committee investigate the feasibility of adding these components to the state’s laws.

• After Jeff Sessions rescinded the Cole memo Oregon U.S. Attorney Billy Williams assembled a group of experts to identify how much excess cannabis is being grown in the state since no quantity limits were placed on recreational marijuana growers. The summit was attended by state leaders, federal law enforcement officials, U.S. attorneys from several other states, leaders of the marijuana sector, representatives of the U.S. Postal Service and the FBI, and a few other federal agencies. Another summit goal was to calculate how much of Oregon’s marijuana is being siphoned into the black market and crossing state lines illegally. Estimates indicate that Oregon produces up to three times the amount of marijuana than the state can use in a year.

• Arizona moved to reinstate a law struck down in 2012 that ruled medical marijuana on college campuses a felony. In 2012 the state’s legislators widened the already-existing ban on medical marijuana in places such as prisons and public schools to also encompass the grounds of colleges and universities at their request. Some of the institutions were concerned with violating federal law and possibly losing federal monies and government-funded student loans. The Court of Appeals overturned the measure in 2017 but noted that state legislators or the universities themselves could institute mandates against possessing marijuana on campus.

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