New recreational marijuana laws will take effect in California next week, albeit not within any of the eight U.S. Border Patrol checkpoints located near the state’s southern border.
Californians voted in 2016 to legalize recreational marijuana, opening the door for retail sales to begin at the start of 2018. California’s new cannabis rules don’t apply to every square inch of the state, however, and individuals caught bringing weed through any of the federal government’s handful of highway stops will still be subject to federal law, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.
“Prior to Jan. 1, it’s going to be the same after Jan. 1, because nothing changed on our end,” Ryan Yamasaki, an assistant chief of the Border Patrol’s San Diego sector, told AP. “If you’re a federal law enforcement agency, you uphold federal laws.”
Eight states and D.C. have legalized recreational marijuana since 2012, and adults can currently purchase retail weed from licensed dispensaries in five of them — Alaska, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington state.
California will join the list of states with commercial marijuana marketplaces in a matter of days, but AP cautioned that cannabis will still be considered contraband at the eight border patrol checkpoints operated by the federal government.
Separate from checkpoints along the nation’s actual border with Mexico, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security operates a handful of Border Patrol stations throughout southern California, including the eight located up to 100 miles away from the Mexican border.
The checkpoints exist primarily to apprehend immigrants who breached the border illegally, but the Border Patrol agents who staff there adhere to federal law and regularly confiscate marijuana from motorists, AP reported.
Border Patrol agents seized nearly 90,000 prohibited items near the Mexico border between fiscal years 2012 and fiscal year 2016, according to a report published by the Government Accountability Project last month. Ninety-two percent of those seizures involved narcotics, and 87 percent of seized narcotics were marijuana, the report said.
About 40 percent of the marijuana seizures that took place at Border Patrol checkpoints resulted in authorities finding an ounce or less of cannabis, according to the report — the same amount adults can legally possess under California’s new recreational law.
Marijuana is considered a Schedule 1 substance under federal law on par with heroin and LSD. The Obama administration declined to intervene in states that passed laws of their own legalizing cannabis, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions said last month that the Trump administration is weighing what to do regarding the plant’s legal status.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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