Proposition 64 passed in November 2016 legalizing marijuana for adults 21 and older. Specifically, adults can possess, transport, buy, and use one ounce of pot and up to eight grams of marijuana concentrates. Adults are also legally allowed to grow up to six plants at home as long as they are out of sight.

2018 initiates Prop. 64 allowing the adult use of Marijuana legally in California, meaning residents are allowed to possess, share, and consume pot. They are the sixth state following Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and Nevada. Both Massachusetts and Maine are set to legalize recreational use sometime this year.

California is now the largest state to legalize weed and connects the coast among legalized-cohort states. While analysts suggest legalization in California could generate more than $5 million, Colorado made $200 million in 2016.

Currently, 25 states have medical marijuana legislation, meaning that a quarter of the US now lives within states where adult use is legal. With legalization comes decriminalization and the process of working to resentence and reclassify those currently or having been sentenced for pot-related charges. More details can be found here.

The Drug Policy Alliance states that “Persons who are currently serving a sentence in prison or county jail, or who are on probation, post‐release community supervision or parole, may petition the superior court for resentencing.” Those no longer serving a sentence may contact the superior court to apply for reclassification.

While resentencing constitutes an evaluation of the charges and convicted, reclassification involves the court making, “no determination about risk to public safety and has no discretion to withhold resentencing. Instead, as long as a petitioner was convicted of an offense changed by Prop. 64, the court must reclassify the conviction.”

Hopefully, resentencing and reclassifying enacts justice and orients publics to the realities of the legal system and its impact on individuals.The absence of such charged individuals, in turn, undermines and disrupts communities. I can't help but be bothered by the bureaucratic intricacies that define an individual and the opportunities afforded to them.

With recreational use permitted in my home state, and along the coast, change abounds. Shops, spaces, and new modes of production and consumption will follow. Perhaps it won’t be as drastic, but legislation concerning weed has come a long way since it was first legalized for medicinal use by California in 1996.