Since the marijuana legalization era began in 2012, the federal government has operated under an unwritten understanding that it would not enforce marijuana laws in states where the drug is legal.
So, how is that working out?
The Los Angeles Times looked for answers in rural California and published the results in a new series this month. California legalized the recreational use of marijuana by referendum in 2016. Proponents promised that a taxable and orderly marijuana trade would be the result, a clear improvement over the violent black market trade that had preceded legalization. They promised that the legal marijuana trade would squeeze the illegal trade out of business.
The exact opposite is now happening.
In short, the consequences of federal nonenforcement and reduced state penalties for marijuana offenses are not pretty. The emergence of a regulated marijuana trade has not reduced crime in California — rather, it has spread crime out into the rural areas and turned local politics across the state into a morass of corruption.
Local politicians now take and demand huge bribes in exchange for growing licenses and legislative support for expanding the industry. According to one source quoted by the Los Angeles Times, bribe requests are typically in the low six-figures. Federal law enforcement authorities have at least been somewhat involved in running sting operations and prosecuting corrupt officials. But for every rock they turn over, there have to be dozens they miss.
And that’s just the legal trade. Given the relative absence of federal drug enforcement and reduced state criminal penalties as a result of Proposition 64, illegal and completely unregulated marijuana growing operations have sprung up across California. Heavily armed camps filled with violent armed men, often tied to cartels, now dot the countryside. The neighbors are far too scared to ask questions or even go out into the reaches of their own land as these neighboring growers brutally exploit their low-level workers.
Local police find themselves completely overwhelmed, unable to enforce state law except in a small fraction of cases. In many police forces, officers face or fear retaliation against themselves and their families if they do or even say anything about illegal marijuana growers.
Even when police do conduct raids against illegal grows, the kingpins behind these operations are, at worst, mildly inconvenienced. Low-level workers are the ones swept up, and typically, the growing operations resume within days. The greatest irony is that the illegal trade has become so massive and moved so far outside the reach of law enforcement that the legal trade is now threatened by a bumper crop and plummeting cannabis prices. The reduced criminal penalties for serious marijuana offenses, as the Los Angeles Times puts it, has “lowered the cost of business” for black-market growers.
People need to be warned about what the marijuana legalization craze has done to California. When the weed wagon reaches your state, filled with false hopes and dubious promises of smoking one’s way to prosperity, don’t forget the experience of a state that is already struggling under the burdens of energy shortages, rising crime, and a fleeing population seeking safer and saner places to live.
