Will California Become a Sanctuary State for Marijuana?

Summary: California lawmakers have written a bill that would make it a sanctuary state for marijuana growers.

For a brief period of time, it seemed as if more and more states were embracing recreational marijuana like Colorado did, but new Attorney General Jeff Sessions extinguished that flame of hope. Sessions said that he wanted to enforce federal anti-marijuana laws, but at least one state said that weed smokers were safe from the AG’s wrath.

According to The Huffington Post, California legislators are aiming to turn the state into a sanctuary to protect marijuana users from federal prosecution. They introduced Assembly Bill 1578, which would prohibit cooperation between local law enforcement and federal authorities seeking to arrest marijuana growers and sellers with businesses that comply with California law. The law would also stop local authorities from taking potential detainees to federal facilities for purposes of enforcement and it would block federal authorities from requesting California marijuana license information.

Early on in his term, Attorney General Sessions said that he wanted to enforce anti-marijuana regulations more stringently, but he has since backtracked on that promise. However, California’s representatives took a preemptive measure to protect one of California’s most popular businesses.

Understandably, the new proposal has been met with joy and criticism in the state. According to The Huffington Post, advocates said that the measure is “the equivalent of noncooperation on deportation and environmental laws…to federal intrusion.” Critics, on the other hand, said that this potential law ties up local police and tells them how they should work.

California has a long history of liberalism and was the first state to legalize medicinal marijuana. Last year, it legalized recreational weed, joining seven other states such as Alaska, Colorado, Maine, and Nevada. While recreational marijuana is still allowed in only a small percentage of the country, medical marijuana is allowed in 28 states. and Washington, D.C.

According to President Donald Trump’s advisor Roger Stone, the pro-weed movement has been growing for some time, which is why it is a surprise that Sessions wanted to enforce federal anti-marijuana laws. When explaining why he wanted the crackdown, Sessions said last year that “Good people don’t smoke marijuana,” which is a seemingly outdated sentiment that defies current mainstream opinion.

“The Trump administration should be mindful that the recreational marijuana measures that passed in several states all passed this same way, with overwhelming popular support,” Stone told NBC News earlier this month. “This was clearly the Will of the People. It is not Jeff Sessions place to prosecute his version of morality and President Trump should not allow him to do so.”

While California is the only state to introduce a weed sanctuary law so far, the federal government may end up changing its policy to reflect the times. According to The Huffington Post, a new bill has been brought to the House and Senate that would remove marijuana from the list of dangerous drugs on the Controlled Substances Act and this bill would allow businesses to continue legally growing and selling.