Pot POWs Head Home as AUMA Opens the Gates for California Cannabis Prisoners

Nuts and bolts policy arguments characterized much of the often-heated debate surroundingCalifornias Adult Use Of Marijuana act. But when Californianswent to the polls last week, the broad social justice benefits of legalization were the overwhelming concern for the more than 55% of voters who approved AUMA.

Prior to election day, there were rumblings that many California District Attorneys were waiting on the outcome of the AUMA voteto move on cannabis cases. Recent developments seems to confirmthose rumors, as various charges in relatively high-profile cases have been lowered to misdemeanors or infractions since pot won at the polls.

AUMA puts the terp train back on the tracks

Of all the cannabis cases that have seen DA action following Tuesday, none has been more at the forefront of industry discussion than that of Dabbenport Extracts.

Dabbenport found themselves on the wrong side of the law following a traffic stop over a minor violation.

Joe Phillips, brother of Dabbenport Extracts CEO Chris Phillips, and two Dabbenport employees were traveling home from another successful cannabis cup. It was late, they were tired and they didnt want to stop at their shop too late at night, so they decided to head directly home.

This meant when they had their unfortunate encounter with law enforcement, they were still in possession of the kind of product you might expect a concentrate company to have at a cannabis cup in this case roughly 1,100 separately packaged units, ranging in weight from a gram to a gram-and-a-half.

To make matters worse, Joe, being new to California, had some trouble remembering an address, which led to the men being arrested. All of the medicine was confiscated, along with $400 in cash the group had on their persons.

Information found on one of the Dabbenport employees lead police to Phillipshome, where he was arrested.

The first day in court, the team was still using their public defenders, much to the delightof the well-funded prosecution. The following day they showed up with a legal team including veteran cannabis attorney and activist Bill Panzer and NorCal-based attorney Joseph Tully.

As he had so many times in the past, Panzer navigated the case around the incident flawlessly. With the assistance of his co-councilor, Tully, Panzer forced one District Attorney after another to exit the case. This near-constant state of transition on the prosecution side has made it functionallyimpossible for the Dabbenport team toeven enter a plea.

They had six District Attorneys with their aides there all taking notes, they were blown away the day before, Phillips said. Now none of them want to take the case, every week we get a new one. We still havent been able to plead to our counts yet, even though we know theyre going to be reduced to misdemeanors.

With all this drama lead up to election night, whether in courtrooms or on Instagram, it only seems appropriate the voters of California would have more or less the final say on the case.

With Proposition 64 passing, all of our cultivation felonies and distribution felonies drop tomisdemeanors no matter what, Phillips said. It looks like now out of the four of us,two of us are going to get infractions, and my brother and I will get misdemeanors for having over an ounce for personal use.

Ironically, the concentrate scene that Dabbenport is such a beloved fixture of was also one of the most contentious places in general when it came to the Proposition 64 debate.

Phillips admits that even he was skeptical of AUMA at first, but he still has some sharp criticismfor industrypeers who came out swinging against the law that ultimately freed him, his brother, and employees.

I think it was a lot of propaganda and a lot of people being naive, They didnt take no time to read all 60 plus pages. At the beginning, even with the case, I was against 64 and didnt believe it was going to work, he said. A few weeks prior to the election I sat down to read the whole thing. I realized my rights as a medical user were protected and it was focused on people who dont have a recommendation. Me as a medical provider, me as a medical producer, Im not going anywhere. If folks cant follow the guidelines its on them. I decided the people who didnt want to deal with regulation strictly for the sake of personal gain were greedy, greedy people.

The gates are opening

Though thestory of Dabbenport has ...