Our efforts in drug enforcement took a hit on Election Day 2014. While Florida voters rejected their marijuana legalization initiative, marijuana was decriminalized in both Oregon and Alaska.
The state that took the hardest hit was California. There, an initiative changed strict drug possession (not sales) from felonies to misdemeanors. That means that possession of heroin is now a misdemeanor instead of a felony.
Here is a basic explanation of each of the measures related to drugs that passed this November.
Oregon Measure 91
Oregon’s Measure 91 was titled the “Control, Regulation, and Taxation of Marijuana and Industrial Hemp Act of 2014.” This measure passed with a 55.6 percent yes vote. It allows the possession of marijuana, it authorizes in-state manufacture of cannabis products, and it allows the processing and sale of marijuana by/to adults. The licensing, regulation and taxation are run by the state and it retains current medical marijuana laws.
The new law will allow any adult 21 and over to have up to four marijuana plants at their home. The law also allows up to 8 ounces at home or 1 ounce away from home and anyone 21 and older can possess up to 1 pound of solid edibles, 72 ounces of marijuana-infused liquid, and one ounce of marijuana extract. Smoking marijuana in public is not allowed.
The law will take effect on July 1, 2015.
Alaska Ballot Measure 2
Alaska voters passed Ballot Measure 2 with a “yes” vote of 52.15 percent. Measure 2 regulates the production, sale, and use of marijuana in Alaska. The bill allows a person to possess, use, show, buy, transport, or grow set amounts of marijuana, with the growing subject to certain restrictions. The bill also bans the public use of marijuana.
The bill prohibits a person under 21 years of age from using false identification to buy or try to buy marijuana or marijuana accessories. The bill also allows validly registered marijuana-related entities and persons 21 years of age or older who own or are employed by these entities to make, possess, buy, distribute, sell, show, store, transport, deliver, transfer, receive, harvest, process, or package marijuana and marijuana products, subject to certain restrictions.
Election results in Alaska have not yet been certified, but once that happens later this month, the 90-countdown clock to Measure 2 taking effect will begin.
California Proposition 47
A whopping 58 percent of the voters passed this proposition. The proposition reduces a number of crimes to misdemeanors including grand theft, forgery, fraud, and receiving stolen property if the value is less than $950. The ballot initiative reduced possession of drugs to a misdemeanor charge.
This was a complicated ballot measure — the measure was ironically titled “The Safe Neighborhood and Schools Act” — that sent the state’s law enforcement body reeling. The initiative took effect immediately and allowed for offenders already in custody to have their crimes reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor. That day, many jails began to release inmates from their custody.
Not only were inmates released immediately, but officers began to release people caught with methamphetamine, heroin, and cocaine with a citation to appear in court.
My feeling is that this is a grand social experiment. Proponents hailed that this move would save the state in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually. They further say that these savings would be spent on school truancy and dropout prevention, mental health and substance abuse treatment, and victim services. We will know if this experiment truly worked in the next decade.
Where Do We Go From Here?
So where do we law enforcers go from here? I’ve been working in the Golden State for the past 25 years — much of that time working on drug enforcement. In the past two and a half decades, we have passed all sorts of measures that benefited the criminal over the law-abiding public.
As enforcers of the law, we need to keep our heads high, keep fighting the good fight, educating the public on the dangers drugs pose and hope that at some point this listing ship rights itself.
