If you’ll be spending time in the Golden State sometime after New Year’s Eve, you might be curious about how old you’ll have to be to smoke weed in California in 2018, writes Melissa Sherrard.
California residents voted to pass the Adult Use of Marijuana Act (Proposition 64) in November of 2016 to make it legal for any adult who is at least 21 years old to use cannabis at their leisure within the state’s borders, but you won’t be able to buy marijuana for recreational purposes until 2018.
Since the passage of Proposition 64, the California State Legislature (specifically the Bureau of Cannabis Control within the Department of Consumer Affairs in cooperation with the CA Department of Food & Agriculture and the CA Department of Public Health) has been crafting regulations for the recreational market, and in June 2017, it passed Senate Bill 94 to create the Medicinal and Adult‐Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA), which merged the regulatory systems for medical and adult use industries.
However, just because you’re 21 years old doesn’t mean you’ll be able to smoke weed wherever you want in California in 2018. The state limits the consumption of marijuana to private residences, though a few “weed-friendly” hotels and private establishments do allow the open use of cannabis. You also can’t smoke weed while driving a car, or be under the influence of cannabis while operating a motor vehicle.
You may be aware that some California airports let passengers fly with cannabis products to other airports within the state’s borders, but keep in mind that none of these airports allow anyone to smoke weed on the premises, even in designated smoker’s areas, and that’s not likely to change in 2018.
