When marijuana legalization laws first began to gain traction in the U.S. (California being the first state, of course), there was considerable concern about what this would mean for road safety. After all, there is little question that driving under the influence of marijuana is unsafe. However, analysis of auto…
When voters in California legalized recreational use cannabis six years ago, a major component included a legal pathway through which courts could clear most past marijuana convictions – or at least lower the charges to something less severe. This made good sense for several reasons: Most marijuana convictions were for…
Measuring one’s degree of marijuana impairment has long been an interest of not only scientists, but law enforcement prosecutors and some employers. Many thought there could be a parallel to alcohol testing; but instead of measuring one’s blood-alcohol concentration they could measure the amount of THC (the primary psychoactive component…
Calls around the country to “defund the police” have been growing, with social activists decrying the systemic racism apparent in the criminal justice system and insisting many of the problems we trust to law enforcement agencies can be better handled by social service networks. Meanwhile, California’s Bureau of Cannabis Control…
Anymore when we talk about criminal charges for cannabis companies, it has to do either with unlicensed dispensaries or unlawful sales. Since the 2013 Cole Memo de-funded prosecution of state-legal marijuana businesses and especially since Prop. 64 nixed pot prohibition in the state three years ago, it’s rare that federal…
Police and prosecutors across the country are grappling with questions regarding the impact of federal hemp laws on criminal marijuana investigations. As one state attorney in Florida put it: Legal hemp is going to make state-level marijuana arrests a whole lot tougher. Los Angeles marijuana criminal defense lawyers understand it…
Lawmakers, worker rights advocates, cannabis industry leaders and criminal defense lawyers are expressing outrage after a trucker hauling hemp was arrested on felony state charges in Idaho for transporting an unlawful substance across state lines from Oregon. The incident occurred a month after the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill that legalized…
In California, vaping or smoking marijuana in public is not lawful. You’d be forgiven, however, if you didn’t realize that walking on any random strip in Southern California. Lighting up almost everywhere has become practically ubiquitous. Homeowners, renters and businesses have had their share of complaints. Some businesses have even…
Since marijuana became lawful in California for medicinal purposes, small-scale possession has been largely decriminalized in most local communities. This is especially true now that marijuana has legalized recreational use of the drug as of this year with Prop. 64. However, cannabis possession remains unlawful as far as federal law…
Arizona marijuana attorneys are asking the state supreme court to side with their argument that the state’s medical marijuana law makes no distinction between cannabis edibles, liquids, dried flowers or leaves. The appeal follows a decision by the Arizona Court of Appeals, which upheld the marijuana possession conviction of a…