Citing a recent statement made my U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions alluding to a federal crackdown on state-based marijuana production and distribution regardless of state law or regulation, legislators in the city of Berkeley, Calif., have proclaimed their city a sanctuary city for recreational marijuana.
This new measure states, “The city of Berkeley does not support cooperation with the Drug Enforcement Administration in its efforts to undermine state and local marijuana laws.”
Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin, Councilman Ben Bartlett and Councilwoman Cheryl Davila created the resolution because they all felt that Sessions, in his decision to overturn the Obama administration’s Cole memorandum, is attempting to undermine state and local law.
“Millions of peaceful Americans have been fined, arrested, imprisoned, or otherwise needlessly criminalized and stigmatized, sometimes for life, because of their use of marijuana,” Arreguin stated. “Ending this misguided policy is long overdue.”
Berkeley has long since been known for its liberal approach to cannabis. The Berkeley Marijuana Initiative, passed in 1979, demanded that cultivation, possession and distribution within city limits be of the lowest priority for the city’s Police Department. In 2008, Berkeley City Council affirmed that Berkeley was a sanctuary for medical marijuana patients, as well as those dispensaries and cultivators who provide the product.
In addition to this, California led the way for cannabis legalization and normalization with the passage of Proposition 64 in 2016. And, while statewide approval of the law was 57%, a whopping 83% of voters in Berkeley voiced their support at the ballot box.
This new sanctuary law does not attempt to involve any other Title I drugs in this resolution, nor does it make any effort to prevent city resources being used for the investigation of marijuana related crimes that are still considered illegal under both state and federal laws.
