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A Peek at California’s New Laws for 2018, Including Where to Buy Recreational Pot in San Diego

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Credit: Pixabay

Unlike Congress, the California Legislature actually passed (mostly) beneficial laws taking effect in 2018. And the provisions of various ballot measures passed by state voters are also kicking in.

Included in today’s column is an overview of how some of these 800+ changes will affect Californians. I’ve broken the coverage into the following categories: Crime, Immigration, Education, Voting, Working, Guns, Health & Safety, and Marijuana. Included throughout are short summaries, with links to more detailed explanations.

The biggie is, of course, marijuana legalization. Except that it’s more like marijuana regulation, as local governments struggle to either acknowledge/tax or ignore a $7 billion industry impacting everything from tourism to agriculture. Generally speaking, the state will treat cannabis like alcohol, allowing people 21 and older to legally possess up to an ounce of pot and grow six marijuana plants at home. (More on that subject at the end of this story.)

Crime & Punishment

Flickr / Ash Photoholic

Immigration

Education

Voting

  • Senate Bill 450, passed in 2016, begin the process (in five counties, not including San Diego for now) of making voting by mail the default choice. Every registered voter will receive a mail ballot. Drop-off locations will be available up to four weeks before election day, and temporary regional “vote centers” will open 10 days ahead of time to register voters and accept ballots.
  • Large donors to state ballot measure campaigns will have stricter standards for political ads.
  • Non-English speaking voters will have additional assistance available at polling places.

Working

  • Small businesses with 20 or more employees will be required to offer up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for new parents. Health insurance coverage cannot be interrupted during this period.
  • Businesses with fewer than 26 employees will pay 50 cents more per hour, raising the minimum hourly pay to $10.50. Employees that work for companies with 26 or more employees will earn $11 per hour. This applies to areas outside the City of San Diego, where the minimum wage is already $11.50.
  • Employers will no longer be able to ask about past salary history during the hiring process.  
  • The state’s equal pay law will be expanded to include government jobs in an effort to remove any gender-biased pay rates.
  • Businesses with more than five employees can not include questions about a person’s conviction history on employment applications. Consideration of a criminal record is allowed after the employer makes a conditional offer of employment.  
  • Business with more than 50 employees now have mandates requiring training covering harassment based on gender identity, expression, or sexual orientation.
  • General contractors on private projects in the state are now responsible for wages unpaid by subcontractors.

Guns

  • Credit: Wikipedia

    Proposition 63 requires ammunition sellers to be licensed and makes it illegal for individuals to bring ammunition in over state lines.

  • Convicted criminals are now required to turn in all guns before court cases can be considered closed.
  • Stolen weapons must be reported within 5 days.
  • California school employees are not allowed to carry concealed weapons onto campuses.
  • Local officials now have the option of banning open carry of rifles and shotguns in urban unincorporated areas.
  • As of July 1, 2018, self-made guns must have a serial number issued by the state.
  • Persons convicted of hate crimes lose the right to own guns for 10 years. Gun nuts, nativists, and racists are ‘up in arms’ over this one.

Humans, Health and Safety

Finally, Legalized Marijuana

  • California’s voter-approved law legalizing recreational marijuana commerce goes into effect.
  • Retail sellers need both a local permit and a state license. The City of San Diego is one of the few localities completing their permitting procedures in time for the new law’s start date.
  • Medical pot dispensaries will remain limited to serving customers with patient IDs, unless they have applied for and received licenses for recreational marijuana sales.
  • Revenues from state and local taxes in California are expected to add up to a billion dollars annually to government treasuries.

Here are some things remaining prohibited under the new laws, via Alternet:

  • You can’t purchase or possess more than an ounce–unless it is the fruits of your personal grow.
  • You can’t smoke it in public in most places, including bars and restaurants. Anywhere cigarette smoking is prohibited, pot smoking is prohibited. And if you’re a renter, your landlord can ban pot smoking on the premises.
  • You can’t get stoned while driving.  Getting caught toking up behind the wheel will get you a $75 ticket, but if the cops think you are too high, you could also end up getting busted for driving under the influence, and that’s a whole lot more than a $75 ticket.
  • You can’t use marijuana’s state-legal status to prevent your employer from firing you for smoking pot, even off the job.

Licensed businesses selling recreational marijuana as of January 1 in San Diego City include:

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Doug Porter

Doug Porter

Doug Porter was active in the early days of the alternative press in San Diego, contributing to the OB Liberator, the print version of the OB Rag, the San Diego Door, and the San Diego Street Journal. He went on to have a 35-year career in the Hospitality business and decided to go back into raising hell when he retired. He won numerous awards for his columns from the Society of Professional Journalists in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. Doug is a cancer survivor (sans vocal chords) and lives in North Park.

Comments

  1. FYI: when it comes to licensing legal adult-use cannabis, San Diego (city) has moved ahead of Los Angeles & San Francisco. The County of San Diego is another story… “San Francisco and Los Angeles will not have adult use marijuana for sale for weeks or months.”

    Kudos to those in the San Diego cannabis industry who lobbied effectively, educated many people, and worked with local regulators to ensure these licensing requirements would be managed by 2018.

    From: http://www.greenstate.com/explained/where-buy-legal-marijuana-california/

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