Legal Status of Cannabis Use in California

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Cannabis use has been legal in California since 2016 . As early as 1972, the Proposition 19 legislative initiative made the first attempt to legalize the use of cannabis , but this failed. In 1996, the Californians decided in another referendum, Proposition 215 , to allow the use of cannabis for medical purposes. In the further course there were various initiatives aimed at the general legalization of cannabis use. After this was rejected by the California electorate in Proposition 19 in 2010 , Proposition 64 , which took place in 2016, finally succeeded. Implementation began on January 1, 2018, and since then cannabis has been allowed to be sold to people over the age of 21 in licensed shops.

Legalized cannabis is an important economic factor in the country. The size of the legal cannabis market is estimated to be seven billion US dollars, with resulting tax revenues of around one billion US dollars. Almost two-thirds of the US’s total legal hemp harvest comes from California. In addition to legal cultivation, there is still a large market for illegally grown cannabis, which is preferably grown on land owned by the state. These illegal plantations, which produce approximately $ 31 billion worth of marijuana annually, are attributed to the Mexican cartels. The areas are laid out by Mexican workers and defended against police officers using weapons. Illegal cultivation is associated with considerable environmental damage, as the cannabis plants in the remote forests require a lot of water and so springs dry up, and because forbidden rodenticides are used in cultivation , which poison the animals and the water in the area.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ California's new pot economy valued at $ 7 billion. January 29, 2017, accessed September 9, 2017 .
  2. ↑ a b Julian Smith: drug war in the hinterland. In California, drug cartels grow cannabis on state land, endangering wildlife, natural water supplies, and recreational activists. A report from the crisis area. September 9, 2017. Retrieved September 9, 2017 .