When Californians voted to legalize marijuana, they made it clear that criminalizing marijuana is the wrong approach.
Yet the legislature recently passed AB 1138, harmful bill that would create new penalties for people engaging in commercial marijuana activity without a license.
The war on drugs is a war on people of color and people experiencing poverty. All these new penalties will do is continue the cycle of disproportionately criminalizing these communities because they face unfair barriers to licensing compared to more affluent areas.
Governor Newsom could act at any moment: tell him not to sign AB 1138 and reject new crimes and penalties for marijuana.