opinion

California, what are we really telling ourselves with our pot policy?

I’m really looking forward to the upcoming Willie Nelson concert at the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert. Checking the tickets on my kitchen bulletin board for the umpteenth time the other day, I started to ponder something about this particular show.

My question: If I can have some gin at the McCallum lobby bar while I wait for my jazz show, why can’t I enjoy a little weed as a warm-up for Willie — an artist whose love of "the herb" is well known?

Truth be told, this is a rhetorical question for me.

I’ll likely have a gin and tonic or whiskey and soda at Monday’s Nelson gig as that’s just more my speed. But now that California has stepped fully into marijuana legalization for adults, it seems that pot should also be on the playbill for such events, along with cocktails and cigarettes.

The roadblock? California’s Proposition 64, the state voter-approved initiative that legalized recreational use of the drug by adults.

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While those 21 and over have been allowed to smoke and possess marijuana since the day after the initiative was approved in November 2016 — and retail sales began in parts of the Coachella Valley and the rest of the state on Jan. 1, 2018 — the law keeps a fairly tight rein on where you can use it.

The lobby of the McCallum? No dice. You can’t smoke a cigarette there either or, for that matter, in a laundry list of other public places.

Still, if I needed a quick smoke break, I could light up on the way to my car to get a coat or on a quick stroll around the building, right? Only if it’s a Camel — no cannabis use is allowed AT ALL in public view, and that’s across the entire state. So, no mellowing out with a quick toke while listening to ESPN sports scores in the parking lot if the band takes a set break.

Our new “fully legal” regime seems so tight, in fact, that even a scorpion might not be able to squeeze through its restrictions. And, as many desert dwellers are painfully aware, scorpions can get through anything.

Let’s say that after the show I decide to have some friends over for an after-party, with Willie on the stereo and “smoke it if you got it” as the order of the evening. Seems I’m good to go.

Proposition 64 allows me and everyone else of legal age to light up in the privacy of my home, though if I rent I need to discuss this with my landlord, apparently. Still, I’d be OK in this instance.

But, according to at least one cannabis law expert on NPR this week, it appears that turning my Willie after-party into a more organized “Willie Nelson appreciation society” that becomes a regular marijuana-featured thing theoretically could put me afoul of Proposition 64’s special event regulations. The lesson: Make sure my gatherings remain more casual to help keep me clear of overzealous authorities looking to crackdown on my good time, or else make Bud Light and not “buds” the party favor of choice to keep it all legal.

WHAT ABOUT ME?: A city-by-city rundown of local marijuana regulations

At some point, there are expected to be plenty of establishments where you can buy and smoke or otherwise ingest cannabis products, but even there the law restricts use to out of public view and no alcohol is allowed, so no quick puff on the sidewalk patio with a Bloody Mary at brunch.

And then there is this late wrinkle: The Justice Department announced Thursday that it has rescinded the Obama-era “Cole memo,” written by Deputy Attorney General James Cole and published in August 2013, that instructed U.S. attorneys to de-prioritize prosecution of most marijuana offenses in states that had legalized pot, though the drug remains a Class I controlled substance. It’s unclear how Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ move to allow federal prosecutors to make their own enforcement decisions on marijuana will affect California and the other states that have legalized it.

But back to the micro picture.

For the moment, it kind of feels like I can comfortably use pot in the privacy of my own home, perhaps in a dark closet, at midnight. Other than that, I better be looking over my shoulder.

This “full legalization” of something we seem intent on keeping hidden in the shadows has me wondering what we are actually telling ourselves here. It seems we went a long way to pass a law that nominally puts pot on par with tobacco and alcohol, only to relegate it to almost clandestine use.

All that said, I’m not naïve to the fact that pot is about is rare as sunshine in California and public use isn’t a novelty. I recall walking along Santa Barbara’s tony State Street corridor a few years back, passing through sickly sweet clouds of marijuana smoke here and there along the way. There was plenty of police presence, but the only action we saw that afternoon was a pair of officers unsuccessfully try to get an agitated man to stop harassing passersby before finally arresting him and taking him away.

And, yes, there’s clearly plenty of “green” to be made — in new taxes by state and local governments as well as by the various sectors of what is expected to be a multibillion-dollar per year legal industry — in this particular green, so the motivation in those quarters to make this all work is no mystery.

I get it. We can expect pot to continue to be ubiquitous in California — through both legal and black-market sources — and any violations you’re nailed for likely are going to be subject to “traffic ticket”-type penalties.

Still, I’ll wait to see how all the confusion, at least on my part, plays out before I consider taking a dip. For now, just thinking about it all has me needing a drink!

Email Opinion Editor Al Franco at al.franco@desertsun.com.