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Marijuana Cultivation

Health and Safety Code 11358 HS – California Marijuana Cultivation Laws

Believe it or not, even though marijuana has been legalized, there are still issues regarding its cultivation, its sale, its movement. The federal government still has prohibitions against marijuana. It's illegal, you can't own it, use it, and possess it according to their laws. It's just a matter of whether they're going to enforce those laws or not.

Usually, when they do, it's when people are moving it from state-to-state or out of the country or when people are making huge profits on it. All of a sudden, the feds will swoop in, arrest everybody, take product and take money.

So, marijuana cultivation is still an issue in Los Angeles County and I see them prosecuting people all the time for this drug crime. Basically, you're growing it at your own risk. The question becomes, is the state going to get involved. A lot of times the state is not getting involved like they used to, and the reason why is because marijuana has been legalized and even the state government feels like sometimes it's a waste of resources, so a lot of these cases can be defended when people are being arrested for marijuana cultivation in Los Angeles County. A lot of the charges have been reduced down to misdemeanors.

So, they're not going to bust as many people as they used to, although if somebody is doing something illegal, I do see them making moves, especially in downtown Los Angeles, because if you're selling marijuana in these marijuana dispensaries that have been cultivated in LA County, they're going to come in and if you don't have the right licensing, they're going to arrest anybody that's the owner of that property, they're going to cite them and send them into the downtown courthouse at 210 West Temple. It usually starts in Division 47 and they're going to prosecute those cases and deal with them.

Developing a Defense Strategy

So, if you're busted for marijuana cultivation, you need an attorney like me who understands how the system works, what it takes to win the case, when you should be trying to resolve the case, and if it has to do with a federal investigation and you're busted for having very large sums of marijuana and the feds come in a raid the location and start arresting people, obviously you don't want to talk to them and be careful what you say — get an attorney right away and let your attorney do the talking for you versus you trying to explain things to the federal government, because all that's going to happen is they're going to take what you say and use it against you.

So, in marijuana cultivation, the landscape has changed significantly over the course of the last five to ten years, but still, when you're talking about guns, large amounts of marijuana, movement from one state to another from California, the feds will get involved. They wiretap. They have informants and they will still prosecute these cases.

Whether the Trump administration is going to do anything about this and whether the federal government's position on marijuana cultivation, the movement and the sale of marijuana is going to change, is unclear.

Obviously, we know that California is going in a direction of legalization and not attacking people any further who are using, cultivating, selling or moving marijuana throughout the state of California. Contact our criminal defense attorneys to review your case.

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