Yes this is it, it’s called ‘dual sovereigns’ in legal terms. The state has sovereignty and the feds also. Note: In this you can be legally put into double jeopardy in certain circumstances for certain ‘crimes’, tried on both levels and getting off on one level does not get you out of the other level even if the wording of the law is exactly the same and you are found not guilty.
A small anecdote: we were returning from Oregon to our home in California. Mr. brown and I had argued about the wisdom of bringing back with us one leftover pre-roll we had bought in Oregon. He didn’t want to get rid of it, but I insisted. He thought I was paranoid.
It had been many years since we had driven into California across a state line, and both of us had forgotten about the agricultural inspection stops on major highways, where they ask if you’re bringing foreign produce into California. It was super early in the morning and the inspection station wasn’t open, and we had tossed the preroll back in Oregon. Still, this is something one must think about if you’re crossing state lines with cannabis. Just don’t do it. And why would you? Both of these particular states are awash in legal dispensaries.
To be fair, the agricultural inspection stations are only concerned with home grown produce so bringing a few oranges you bought at the grocery store is not an issue but bringing a bunch of apples from your home tree absolutely is and those will get confiscated. So long as your preroll came from a licensed dispensary it is not the concern of the agricultural inspection folks.
It amuses me greatly that you could buy some weed in Seattle and travel south through Portland, down to Sacramento then over to Reno and the ONLY time you’d be in violation of the law would be on the bridge over the Columbia, crossing the California state line and going past Donner Pass. Fuckin’ feds need to pull their heads out.
I recently read an article about WHY the federal law is unlikely to change in the near future, despite how public opinion is turning in favor of legalization. According to that article (sorry, can’t remember where I saw it) it has nothing to do with the ethics or medical side of this mind-altering drug.
It’s just business.
California and Oregon are great examples. California has more weed than they can use, and Oregon can’t grow enough to meet the demand. (Or so this article claimed.) The result is that if the feds would allow interstate sales, then California weed would flood Oregon and put the local growers out of business. So despite everything that the Oregon growers love about legalization within Oregon, they are lobbying hard to keep marijuana illegal on the Federal level.
Or so the article claimed. If you think it’s wrong, than just substitute the names of other states where there is a surplus or deficit of the stuff.
Interstate transfer is not legal, but I feel like it’s one of those things that gets routinely ignored. Especially since a lot of the growers are megacorps and you can’t always be sure that it wasn’t bought in the state even if they stop you near a border.
Eh, sort of. California has a lot of legal weed growers, the retail stores are much more expensive than Oregon, though I’m not sure if that’s all taxes. Additionally, the illegal California grow operations are still going strong in the Emerald Triangle, many can’t afford to go legal
Though they basically ignore people with NV, AZ, OR plates and wave you through. Not sure about WA. I once found an official statement that outright stated that. I can’t find it now, but amusingly I did find a website that has a map with methods to avoid the checkpoints, all in the name of smuggling in pest ridden produce ferrets(!)
Yeah, last time I ventured south they did just wave me through–I was expecting the bored, cursory “Any home grown fruits or vegetables?” question but nada. I’ve often thought that being the person in the agricultural checpoint kiosk on I-5 in the Siskiyous has to be the chillest job on the planet.
Sometimes they ask, but it’s more a courtesy, and they wave you through before you barely answer.
And of course the smaller ones sometimes just close. I think I-80 and I presume I-5 are 24/7.
I think I was asking mainly about small amounts carried by personal users. I think I’ve seen something about crossing state lines for medical marijuana is not allowed and we have passed recreational use as well. Our neighboring state is Massachusetts, and it’s legal for recreational use there also. As noted above it’s illegal according to the feds, which is pathetically funny.
So, there are houses near mine that straddle the border. Are they committing a federal crime by carrying legal weed from one side of the house to the other? There are people around here who think they live in the other state because they used to live at a different address on the same street that was in the other state. Just think of the fun the feds would have with that.