The California Marijuana Industry has grown immensely since 1996 but things are about to change! Legal crackdowns now threaten to shut it down. Click below to read more.
Since 1996, the state has allowed marijuana growers and distributors to operate legally with little oversight. All it takes is a doctor’s note or a claim that one is a “caregiver,” a loosely interpreted term. More than 1,000 dispensaries are in business, employing thousands more and providing state and local governments as much as $105 million in taxes each year.
But federal prosecutors are getting tougher. Last year, law enforcement agents seized 3.9 million plants and could collect more this year.
Marijuana advocates say the attack collides with California’s law and goes against a campaign promise by President Obama to not circumvent the state’s relaxed rules. But California’s four U.S. attorneys, who banded together last year, cite a need to combat spillover to states where the substance isn’t legal.
California cities are also on the attack, imposing new regulations to contain an industry that has grown out of control.
In some cities, streets are lined with dispensaries and doctors who, with minimal examination, hand out notes suggesting marijuana treatment.
