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Resources for Lawyers Dealing With New California Pot Laws

By George Khoury, Esq. on January 04, 2018 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

For California lawyers, defending individuals on criminal marijuana charges was already a rare event. However, over the past two decades, medical marijuana businesses kept some lawyers busy.

But now that marijuana is legal for recreational purposes in the state, more lawyers will undoubtedly be needed to help the new pot shops keep on the legal side of selling pot. Below, you can find a few resources to help you help your legal weed selling clients in California.

Quick Primer

If you just need a quick hit of what is going on across the state to explain to clients that have nothing to do with the weed business, you can get that right here on FindLaw. For counseling non-marijuana business clients, short online primers will generally provide enough of an overview.

Generally, non-marijuana business clients will likely want to know about how to handle customers or employees that are using marijuana, and fortunately, not much has changed in those regards. Employees can still be fired for being high at work, or testing positive for marijuana on a drug test (even if they use it medically). Also, you can ban customers for smoking, or ingesting, marijuana on your business's premises, just like you could for them smoking a cigarette or drinking alcohol (that you didn't sell them).

Details of the Law

If you actually have clients interested in breaking into the bud business, then you need to really get into all of it. Because of the way the law is set up for recreational marijuana, you'll want to start at the state level, then review local city and county codes for any specific local laws regarding the cultivation, distribution, and/or sale.

Start at Business and Profession Code Sec. 26000 and work your way all the way to 26211. These codes explain the regulatory scheme for pretty much everything related to the sale of non-medical marijuana. However, as noted above, each city and county has the authority to implement their own regulations, even banning the cultivation, distribution, and sale, of marijuana, for recreational use. So get your local codes next, and get reading.

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