Business Listings - California Cannabis

California – allowed marijuana usage and limitations

Starting with the 1^st January 2018 and onwards, recreational usage of marijuana will be completely legal in the state of California.

This means that as long as you’re at least 21 years old, you can walk straight into a dispensary and acquire it without any problems. However, depending on where exactly you live, this may be relatively close, or it may not be near at all.

California, being as liberal as it is when it comes to smoking cannabis, allows you to do so virtually anywhere you’re allowed to smoke a regular cigarette. Most public places are fine, as long as they’re in the open. Closed spaces such as bars, workplaces, offices, etc., are out of the question, though, since the smoke cold be bothersome to other people. When it comes to smoking marijuana in private properties, it all depends on the owner.

Even though you generally don’t have to worry about smoking weed in California, if you combine it with cars and driving, it becomes a rather touchy subject. Not only are you not allowed to drive when under its influence, you also can’t smoke it while inside a moving vehicle. Moreover, having an open bag of marijuana in a car could lead to problems as well.

Not all marijuana dispensaries in California are created equal in terms of being able to sell recreational marijuana legally, however, some do operate without the state’s blessing. Don’t be surprised if some of them require a medical marijuana license to sell it to you. You shouldn’t expect to get a free sample either. While there are some exceptions to the rule, it’s mostly prohibited by law.

To ensure that the residents of California can access top-quality merchandise, the state has put several quality control measures in place. Before a cannabis distributor can ship its stock, certain procedures must take place, including checking the merchandise for mold, bacteria, and pesticide residue.

During the process, the inspection also checks and measures the amount of CBD and THC, the cannabinoids that marijuana contains. Furthermore, marijuana shipments must be properly labeled and also indicate the total weight of the shipment.

If you want to avoid the hassle of having to visit a dispensary in order to acquire it, you can also grow marijuana at home. This is good to know, especially if you consider that there currently aren’t any adult-use marijuana shops open in California yet, at least not at the time of writing this.

You can also freely share cannabis with your friends and loved ones (of course, as long as they’re of legal age). Prior to the laws set in place in 2018, it was possible for someone to legally give cannabis to you, with the only prerequisite being that no money exchanges hands in the process.

From 2018 and beyond, adults will no longer have to worry about only consuming cannabis in private. Other public smoking limitations still apply, but it’s no different than smoking tobacco. If you have a serious illness, you can still acquire a medical marijuana license (this facilitates the process of acquiring it), but given that recreational smoking won’t be limited any longer, you will no longer need to do that if you don’t want to.