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For Californians, legal cannabis is right around the corner. But we have questions. And as it turns out, many of you do, too. A couple weeks ago we wanted to know what\u00a0questions you had about pot<\/a>, and the responses were overwhelming. So we went through them and weeded out the most common questions.<\/p>\n First, let\u2019s be clear about what the law says. On November 8th<\/sup>, 2016, Californians passed the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, or Proposition 64. That law went into effect immediately, but licensed cannabis businesses aren\u2019t allowed to start selling recreational weed until January 1. On a basic level,\u00a0Prop 64<\/a>:<\/p>\n Still, the law leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Here\u2019s what you,\u00a0Mother Jones<\/em>readers, wanted to know:<\/p>\n Just because you\u2019re allowed to possess weed in California doesn\u2019t mean that cities and counties will let businesses sell it. So far, only a few places have passed legislation allowing the sale of cannabis\u2014and even fewer have started handing out licenses to pot shops. That means there will only be a small number of places you\u2019ll be able to buy recreational weed in California on January 1. Some of those places include\u00a0San Diego<\/a>,\u00a0San Jose<\/a>, and\u00a0Oakland<\/a>.<\/p>\n To find out if your city or county\u00a0does\u00a0<\/em>allow\u00a0recreational sales, you should check your local laws. The\u00a0San Francisco Chronicle<\/em>\u00a0has spent months building a local law lookup tool. You can try it out\u00a0here<\/a>. (While the tool is updated regularly, the best way to look up\u00a0your area\u2019s rules is on your city or county\u2019s website.)<\/p>\n At a basic level, Prop 64 allows those convicted with cannabis crimes to get out of jail\u2014though not immediately\u2014and have their records cleared in accordance to what the laws read now. It also makes a lot of crimes that were felonies now misdemeanors. For example, under Prop 64, the possession of weed with the intent to sell (previously a felony) is\u00a0now a misdemeanor<\/a>. So yes, a lot of those convicted with pot crimes could eventually get out of jail or have their sentences reduced.<\/p>\n Here\u2019<\/a>s more information on how to get a weed-related charge removed from your record.<\/p>\n This is the million-dollar question, and nobody really knows the answer. But other states like Washington and Colorado, which have already legalized recreational pot, may give us a clue about what to expect.<\/p>\n Recreational cannabis sales began\u00a0January 1, 2014<\/a>\u00a0in Colorado, and between then and July 2017, weed prices dropped from about $1,900 per pound to about $1,300 per pound\u2014a decline of about 30 percent, according to data from the\u00a0Colorado Department of Revenue<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0analyzed<\/a>\u00a0by research firm Fitch Ratings. Prices are similar in California, where the average wholesale cost of weed was\u00a0$1,525 per pound<\/a>for the first half of 2017, while the national average was $1,614 per pound, according to industry data firm\u00a0Cannabis Benchmarks<\/a>.<\/p>\n While this price decline may be good for consumers, without an increase in demand for cannabis, states will see a loss of tax revenue as the price of pot drops. \u201cA long-term decline in prices may ultimately be the greatest risk for state cannabis revenues,\u201d according to the Fitch Ratings report.<\/p>\n Yes, under Prop 64, employers still have the\u00a0right to a drug-free workplace<\/a>. Even medical cannabis users aren\u2019t exempt from workplace drug tests.<\/p>\n You\u2019re right. State economists\u00a0estimate<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0Golden State\u00a0farmers produce about 13.5 million pounds of cannabis per year while residents only consume about 2.5 million. That leaves a whooping 11 million pounds of weed that\u00a0probably<\/a>\u00a0gets shipped to the rest of the country. And even with legalization, economists predict about half of that 2.5 million pounds of cannabis consumed by Californians will still be bought from non-licensed sources.<\/p>\n The effect of California\u2019s legalization on the rest of the country\u2019s pot supply is uncertain. If taxes on legal cannabis are too high, researchers\u00a0predict<\/a>\u00a0that growers and buyers may choose to stay in the untaxed black market, which means, in theory, the out-of-state price of cannabis wouldn\u2019t change.\u00a0But, legalization\u00a0could also make it a lot harder to grow and sell pot illegally. For example, California\u2019s cannabis cultivation licensing office in the Department of Food and Agriculture is developing a system where anyone can report illegal operations, the\u00a0San Francisco Chronicle<\/em>reports<\/a>. And some local law enforcement agencies\u00a0plan<\/a>\u00a0to use\u00a0revenue generated from recreational sales to fund illegal pot busts, which would drive black market prices up.<\/p>\n While there is no physical difference between recreational and medical pot, California\u2019s recreational cannabis will be\u00a0taxed<\/a>\u00a0in three major ways: (1) a 15 percent excise tax on cannabis retail sales; (2) a cannabis cultivation tax of $9.25 per ounce of flowers and $2.75 per ounce of leaves; (3) local and state taxes ranging from about\u00a07.75 percent to 9.75 percent<\/a>. All of this adds up to what\u00a0experts predict<\/a>\u00a0will be an effective tax rate of about 45 percent on recreational pot. That\u2019s more than twice as much as Oregon and Alaska tax\u00a0their non-medical cannabis.<\/p>\n California\u2019s medical marijuana patients will have to pay these new taxes as well, but are\u00a0exempt from paying any sales tax.<\/p>\n This will make medical cannabis more expensive, but could ultimately be a good thing for the state of California.<\/p>\n If recreational pot is taxed at a significantly higher rate (making it more expensive) than medical pot\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0it\u2019s easy to obtain a medical cannabis card, many consumers would just choose to buy weed in an untaxed, medical market\u2014and the state would miss out on millions of dollars in tax revenue. That\u00a0happened<\/a>\u00a0in Washington following the beginning of retail sales in\u00a02014<\/a>\u00a0(though, in the first year of legalization, the state still raked in\u00a0$70 million<\/a>\u00a0in tax revenue from legal weed sales).<\/p>\n Other states, like\u00a0Colorado<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Oregon<\/a>, have chosen to fix this problem by enforcing strict laws\u00a0on who can obtain a medical cannabis card. Since California laws\u00a0prevent<\/a>the state from\u00a0making it harder for medical patients to access marijuana, lawmakers decided to tax both markets nearly the same.<\/p>\n On January 1, it will still be illegal to drive \u201cwhile impaired by marijuana.<\/a>\u201d However, law enforcement agencies in California haven\u2019t started using pot breathalyzers to enforce that law\u2014yet. That\u2019s because they don\u2019t have a reliable method of measuring how much weed\u00a0is\u00a0in someone\u2019s system. While most breathalyzers work by measuring a person\u2019s blood alcohol content, or BAC, the compounds found in weed take\u00a0much longer<\/a>\u00a0to dissolve in our bodies, so the same kind of blood test won\u2019t work. Oakland\u2019s\u00a0Hound Labs\u00a0is finalizing a breathalyzer<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0can measure (in parts per trillion) the amount of THC, an active ingredient in cannabis, on a person\u2019s breath. Still, it\u2019s unclear what the state will set as a legal limit, if anything all.<\/p>\n In terms of motor vehicle accidents\u2014we don\u2019t really know what the effect of legalization will be on this. Here\u2019s what other states can tell us: In one\u00a0study<\/a>conducted by the\u00a0Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, researchers noticed a three percent increase in the number of\u00a0insurance claims<\/em>\u00a0filled for auto collisions following recreational weed legalization in Washington, Colorado, and Oregon, compared to nearby states that did not legalize cannabis. Another\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0published in the\u00a0American Journal of Public Health<\/em>\u00a0around the same time found that legalization had no effect on the number of\u00a0fatal<\/em>\u00a0car crashes in Colorado and Washington following legalization. While the two studies may seem to contradict each other, they were actually measuring two different things: the\u00a0first measured the number of insurance claims filed and the second measured the number of fatal car crashes. This suggests\u00a0that legalization may lead to an increase in only non-fatal crashes. Both studies concede, however, that future research is warranted.<\/p>\n First, here\u2019s some background:\u00a0Prop 64<\/a>, as passed by voters in 2016,\u00a0originally restricted licensed\u00a0cannabis farms to one acre in size. That measure, set to expire in 2023, was intended to give small-scale farmers a head start in the new recreational market. Last month, however, a set of\u00a0emergency regulations<\/a>\u00a0issued by the state changed that. The new regulations now\u00a0allow farmers to seek an\u00a0unlimited<\/a>\u00a0number of small-farm licenses, beginning in January 2018\u2014opening the market to Big Ag.<\/p>\n \u201cCalifornia only has one chance to get this right, and it is already on the wrong path with this last-minute change that flies in the face of what the backers of Prop. 64 promised,\u201d\u00a0 Hezekiah Allen, executive director of the\u00a0California Growers Association<\/a>, a group that lobbies for cannabis farmers,\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0LA Times<\/em>\u00a0earlier this month. \u201cThis single decision will hand over the California marketplace to multinational corporations and a wealthy few at the expense of thousands of growers who are\u00a0ready to\u00a0play by the rules and provide\u00a0economic opportunity in communities that until recently were criminalized or\u2014at the very least\u2014marginalized.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, all cannabis grown in California will subject to the same quality standards as small-scale growers. If you do wish to support small business, we recommend asking your local budtenders (the folks who work at pot shops) about which farms to support.<\/p>\n Yup. For people with a medical card, THC-infused ice cream has been a thing for years. Ben & Jerry\u2019s founders even\u00a0considered<\/a>\u00a0making pot ice cream in 2015.\u00a0There are also places that sell THC-infused goodies including cookies, brownies, candy,\u00a0coffee<\/a>, nuts, teas, granola, potato chips, olive oil, butter, peanut butter, and\u00a0water<\/a>.<\/p>\n In states that\u00a0already\u00a0<\/strong>have legalized pot,<\/strong>\u00a0the market for edibles is\u00a0booming<\/a>\u00a0as more non-smokers get into cannabis. Across Washington, Colorado, and Oregon, edibles ranked third in terms of market share (after\u00a0flowers and concentrated cannabis products<\/a>), with 12 percent of the $2.33 billion weed market across all three states, according to cannabis market research group\u00a0BDS Analytics<\/a>.<\/p>\n Image credit: kazatin\/Getty<\/em><\/p>\n Retrieved from: http:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/politics\/2017\/12\/a-quick-guide-to-legal-pot-in-california\/#<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Quick Guide to Legal Pot in California We answer your burning questions\u2014and yes, there will be cannabis ice cream. JACKIE FLYNN MOGENSENDEC. 26, 2017 6:00 AM For Californians, legal cannabis is right around the corner. But we have questions. 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Where will I be able to buy it?<\/span><\/h3>\n
What will happen to people currently locked up in California jails for weed-related infractions?\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
Will legalization bring the cost of cannabis products down, and if so, how long will it take for prices to fall? And by how much?<\/span><\/h3>\n
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In states with legal pot, can one\u2019s place of employment continue to prohibit its use by employees?<\/h3>\n
I\u2019ve heard that California produces more cannabis than its population consumes. How will legalization affect California\u2019s legal market and availability throughout the U.S.?<\/span><\/h3>\n
How will taxes affect the medical marijuana market?<\/span><\/h3>\n
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<\/a>What is the legal limit for marijuana intoxication while driving? How will it be tested? Do law enforcement officials expect an increase of motor vehicle accidents after the legislation takes effect?<\/span><\/h3>\n
Now that Big Ag can start growing weed, what implications could this have?<\/span><\/h3>\n
Will there be cannabis ice cream? (This was a real question\u2014I swear.)<\/span><\/h3>\n