In November 2016 uninformed voters passed Prop 64 in California, a regulatory and taxation bill, disguised as "Marijuana Legalization". Voters were told lies to sign the petition to get it on the ballot, one signature gatherer actually read the California Cannabis Hemp Initiative's talking points to me almost verbatim in North Hollywood at the train station. He did not understand the Adult Use Marijuana Act, was not the same thing, nor had the same points, he said that is what he was told to say... But everything he said was lies. Prop 64 did not "Legalize Weed".
The entire text of the initiative was not on on their petition as required by law, instead it was s microscopic summary of the 60+ page proposed bill, that few actually read, but many speculated on. The bill was picked over by Leticia Pepper, a lawyer who does not work in cannabis, her field is in professional legal research. She tore the proposed bill to shreds, pointing out it was not written the way a initiative should be, and contained a lot of misleading language that meant very different things when you looked at it in legal language, the biggest fault with it being that the bill handed over the rights to change cannabis laws out of the hands of the people, and put it strictly at the state legislators discretion. Including medical cannabis.
In June 2017, the legislature combined medical cannabis with "adult use" which will raise the price of medical cannabis so significantly many patients who depend on it will no longer be able to afford their medicine. Not only that, the new laws take away compassion laws that were enacted under prop 215, as you can no longer give away, or sample cannabis in California. It also makes it much more expensive to run a collective, if you are lucky enough to get both state and local permits, and you and your employees pass the required criminal background checks, and also get the required permits, as anyone who works for you, must have the same permit's you do, as prop 64 was written.
Many cities, and some counties, have outright banned cannabis production, and in many cases, consumption as well. This puts patients into more trouble and will force them to rely on the black market to get the medicine they rely on. The places where you are able to obtain cannabis legally for medical or adult use purposes, will have to give you pre-weighed, pre-packaged cannabis. No more smelling the terps or checking out those nug structures. You won't know if the extract you are getting looks like fire, or looks like mud, you are at the complete mercy of distribution companies. You don't get to decide where your medicine comes from anymore.
All of this is completely contrary to the 21 year old cannabis industry in California, and all the legal battles that were won, and cases overturned to get us where we are today, and it was all thrown away so some rich greedy white men could get richer, while people of color, specifically youth, still go to jail, and get targeted under this racist system. Not to mention the DEA frothing at the mouth to come get us "stoners" and keep the war on drugs going. It's not legal until nobody can go to jail for a plant.
AND NO CBD ISN'T LEGAL IN ALL 50 STATES EITHER!!!