Medical marijuana was on the state ballot twice before.
- This time, the people voted overwhelmingly to approve legal medical marijuana for the state, but it only took 3 years before recreational marijuana was on the ballot too! The people turned out in fantastic numbers plus came to vote so the recreational marijuana bill was passed with 73% of the voters saying yes, after the laws were passed, so many things changed.
There was a clause in the law stating that all criminals that were in prison or the local jail for possession were going to be released from jail once the law passed. There were many criminals doing time for minor drug charges, but people were getting up to a year in jail just for possessing a second of marijuana. An ounce was considered trafficking plus carried a minimum of a 5-year sentence. After you could buy an ounce of marijuana from the dispensary legally plus hold it on your person, it was certainly hard to keep all of those people in jail. A lot of the convicts from the state jail were released at the same time. They flooded into the city at one time. All of us have a dozen or more released convicts staying in the hotel where I work. They all have regular jobs, but they have to live in the hotel because they can’t get a home due to their outstanding criminal record. I think the record should be expunged now that the crime is no longer on the books. This is not the way that the law was written in this state.