The Sacramento Bee reports the BCC’s latest budget request calls for the creation of nearly 90 new police officers who would be tasked with enforcing the 2016-passed Prop. 64, which legalized recreational marijuana. This new branch of law enforcement would involve absorbing nearly 60 positions (47 sworn) from the Department of Consumer Affairs’ Cannabis Enforcement Unit and then hiring about 30 more.

BCC Vows to Crack Down on Black Market Sales

As our Los Angeles marijuana attorneys understand it, the main goal of the new LEO division? Illicit market cannabis control. The request comes three years after the state’s first recreational marijuana sales took place. Last year, the BCC seized more than two dozen tons of black market cannabis. While the legal market made about $3 billion, the under-the-table cannabis trade racked up more than $8 billion in sales.

An affiliate of the union representing the existing BCC employees argues that millions of units of untested product sales statewide put the public in danger by bypassing labeling and testing rules and failing to ensure the substance doesn’t fall into the hands of kids under 18. Plus, it jeopardizes above-board businesses.

Duties of the new police officers would include investigating criminal activity and unlicensed pot shops, as well as helping with on-site inspections. The BCC opines the agency will likely handle some 2,000 cases a year. If the agency were to continue at current staffing levels, the agency said that would amount to hundreds of cases backlogged. They insist only police officers would have the authority to carry out certain duties, such as seized unlicensed marijuana and related products, make arrests, verify unlawful possession of a firearm, request search warrants from judges or review criminal justice databases. The budget requests indicates that currently, their investigations sometimes overlap with local law enforcement efforts because their office cannot review criminal records.

But are more police really the answer? The BCC and some law enforcement agencies are partially funded by legal marijuana sales. This helped to sell the whole idea of Prop. 64 to more conservative voters. In fact, public safety was promised 20 percent of the estimated $ 1 billion in annual tax revenue the Adult Use of Marijuana Act was expected to generate. That created controversy from legal marijuana advocates when it was first proposed, but it was purportedly necessary to get the measure passed.

Should Police Still Get a Cut of Cannabis Profits?

Some could argue that paid off. While law enforcement lobbyists still opposed the measure, they didn’t launch a massive counter-offensive, and the law passed.

Cannabis legalization was also sold as a means to lower costs for law enforcement. After all, if possession and sales of marijuana is no longer criminal, that should amount to fewer investigations, arrests and incarcerations.

Yet police departments still argue that legalized marijuana is going to require more money, more resources, more labor – and that’s why they deserve a cut. Scholarly research is conflicted.

For instance, one study found that traffic deaths per million initially rose by one in three states where marijuana was first legalized for recreation. However, those rates returned back to normal after the first year. Another analysis revealed that three years after legalization, there was no significant uptick in fatal crashes.

Roadside searches of motor vehicles and individuals, meanwhile, did tumble by more than half in Washington state and Colorado following legalization. This aligns with what our Los Angeles marijuana defense lawyers have long known: Traffic stops are one of the primary means that law enforcement has kept the War on Drugs alive. And that, we know, has had out-sized and deadly consequences for African Americans.

And despite the high taxes imposed on legal cannabis businesses to help fund police efforts, police have largely been unsuccessful in shutting down illegal operations.

After the murder of George Floyd in late May, police in riot gear and armed with chemical agents were present at every major city in California to meet protesters. Meanwhile, organized and armed robbers burglarized countless legal cannabis businesses – some more than once. Several reported police failed to notify other owners of this known threat. Numerous business owners told The Daily Beast it took hours to respond, despite store owners being held at gunpoint. The product they made off with is now money no one is getting.

If cannabis business funding were to be diverted from law enforcement sources, it would likely need approval from voters to alter existing law, or else action from the state legislature.

The Los Angeles CANNABIS LAW Group represents growers, dispensaries, ancillary companies, patients, doctors and those facing marijuana charges. Call us at 949-375-4734.

Additional Resources:

California wants to hire more cannabis cops to get a handle on black market marijuana, June 2, 2020, By Andrew Sheeler, Sacramento Bee

As California marijuana lawyers can explain, the biggest problem has been the continued federal prohibition on the drug. Under the Controlled Substances Act defining cannabis as highly addictive and dangerous with no recognized medicinal purpose, those who possess, distribute and transport the drug have committed crimes – even if it was all perfectly legal under state law. This conflict has impacted everything from banking to commercial leasing to business partnerships.

Airline travel is just one more area in which the industry and its consumers need to be mindful. When in doubt, be exceedingly cautious. Check out the policies of airlines both at your departing location and destination city.

Los Angeles International, which is the No. 5 busiest airport in the world, recently announced a policy change pertaining to pot in the airport. Customers over 21 and older can have their marijuana on site. Similar policies are in place at Sea-Tac and Portland International, both of which abide by state laws in Washington and Oregon. That said, most airlines still won’t allow it on-board, but Portland International even allows travelers to carry their stash on the plane on flights within the state, despite the fact airlines prohibit it.

Indeed, it’s an increasingly tangled legal web, with airports and airlines alike scrambling to keep pace with rapidly-changing laws and public attitudes and consumer demands – while still balancing their obligation to federal law.

Keep in mind, no matter which airport you’re in, personal possession of marijuana won’t be allowed beyond the security checkpoint because this is a federal zone where U.S. law applies. That means no amount of marijuana is allowable. Most airlines won’t let you bring it either. Still, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) can confiscate your drugs. That’s not their purpose, mind you – they’re there to combat terrorism, not carry on the failed War on Drugs. So when they do find drugs, they call local police. If you’re in a state and city that allows legal marijuana, usually the most hassle you’ll get is an officer asking you either to throw it away, store it in a vehicle in the parking lot or call a friend to come pick it up. Police in Portland, Oregon have responded to roughly 80 calls pertaining to airline travelers so far in 2018, compared to 74 this time last year. TSA calls to police at the Los Angeles airport have been increasing also, according to authorities, since the law changed allowing recreational use. Most of these calls, police explained, are due to misunderstanding. They go to a California marijuana dispensary, purchase legal marijuana, pack it into their checked luggage for a flight to Texas, and soon they’re facing felony charges.

In instances wherein TSA doesn’t find your packages of pot, you might actually get through screening and make it onto a flight. That doesn’t mean you did nothing technically illegal, just that you got away with it.

Throughout the airport in Las Vegas, you’ll find 20 so-called “amnesty boxes” where you can toss away your leftover marijuana that you forgot to leave behind before you arrived for your flight. Whatever is left in those containers is destroyed, according to the county government.

Airport authorities in Las Vegas say marijuana isn’t a major issue for them. In fact, it’s the people who are drinking alcohol that tend to be more aggressive and pose a bigger problem. Those who are high on marijuana, they say, tend to be low-key and often apologetic. In Denver, officials say they have more problem with water bottles than marijuana. Canadian Customs and Border Protection indicated on that if a person is traveling from Canada to the U.S. for purposes related to the marijuana industry, they may be deemed inadmissible to the U.S. People who work in the marijuana business industry but are traveling to the U.S. for unrelated purposes can generally be expected to be granted entry. However, as our Los Angeles marijuana attorneys can explain, it may result in some tricky questions for those who are asked about their employment. In general, one should never lie, but also bear in mind you can answer these questions narrowly, succinctly. The less information you can give, the better. The TSA has been known to remove those working in the marijuana industry or those caught traveling with it from the PreCheck or U.S. Trusted Traveler programs (which reduce one’s return into the country).

The Los Angeles CANNABIS LAW Group represents growers, dispensaries, collectives, patients and those facing marijuana charges. Call us at 949-375-4734.

Additional Resources:

Legal Pot Is a Nightmare for Airports and Travelers, November 2018, Bloomberg

More Blog Entries:

California Cannabis Intellectual Property Licensing Just Got More Complicated, Oct. 31, 2018, California Marijuana Lawyer Blog