Thrive dispensary

Some illegal pot shops look so legitimate that customers may not even realize they are illegal unless they figure out they aren't being charged tax. But with all criminal penalties for illegal sale or cultivation of marijuana reduced to misdemeanors under proposition 64, city officials believe civil fines and utility shutdowns are more effective and less labor intensive.

Los angeles, san francisco, san jose and san diego have laws allowing cannabis businesses, but most smaller cities and towns in the state do not — 80 percent of california's nearly 500 municipalities do not allow retail marijuana businesses the ballot measure legalizing recreational marijuana passed in 2016 with 57 percent approval, but that relatively broad support has not translated to the local level.

Advocates for marijuana legalization argue that prevalence of use and addiction will not increase significantly; it will not lead to an increase in underage use, social and health problems will not increase, the black market will be reduced or even eliminated, burdens on courts system jails will be eased, and it's safer than both legal substances ( tobacco and alcohol).

In the first of 2019, the state's AK 47 of cannabis control confiscated 2,500 pounds of illegal marijuana, worth $16.5 million. The bureau of cannabis control, the agency charged with regulating marijuana in the state, has received around 7,500 complaints, most of them about illegal operations, and has sent out more than 3,000 letters ordering illegal businesses to shut down.

The haul — a whopping 23,000 pounds of marijuana — turned out to be the imperial county sheriff's office's biggest drug bust of 2018. Experts estimate that at least 30 percent of cannabis ­cultivated in legal states is being diverted” to illicit ­markets across the country. A half-dozen police and city vehicles sat near the entrance of the white castle cannabis dispensary near the los angeles harbor, where a sign bearing a giant green cross faced pacific coast highway.

Some industry insiders say there is growing suspicion that some licensed brand names are selling to illegal shops, possibly under pseudo labels. In canada, the passage of the cannabis act made marijuana legal throughout the country, so this particular issue isn't of concern to our neighbor to the north. Law enforcement in oklahoma city do not have a problem with changing cannabis laws, since officers are simply enforcers and not lawmakers, said mark opgrande, public information officer at the oklahoma county sheriff's office.