420 FILE--It’s just cannabis, right? How important can something affectionately referred to as “wacky-tabbacky” be? In my case, very.

420 FILE--The legalization of marijuana is a more mainstream issue now than it has ever been.

420 FILE--Regulations for cannabis businesses in California have been issued by the Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC), the CA Dept of Food of Agriculture (CDFA), and the CA Dept. of Public Health (CDPH). A final 15-day comment period on the proposed regulations has opened.

420FILE--Governor Brown met his deadline of Sunday, Sept. 30 to sign or veto bills from this year's legislative session. 

420 FILE--Los Angeles is on the lookout for businesses selling marijuana without the required permits and licenses.

LA BIZ JOURNAL REPORT--Peace, love, and music, or at least the approved branding of such, awaits MedMen Enterprises Inc. after it announced Aug. 22 an exclusive license agreement with Woodstock Ventures LC.

420 FILE--One in five batches of marijuana has failed laboratory testing since new state safety requirements kicked in July 1, according to data from the California Bureau of Cannabis Control.

420 FILE--According to the Attorney General's annual crime report for 2017, arrests for marijuana offenses dropped precipitously in California following the passage of Proposition 64, which legalized the recreational use for adults in November 2016.

420 FILE--Gavin Newsom, a cannabis supporter who pushed for the passage of Prop. 64 to legalize adult recreational use in California, will be the new governor of the state.

420 FILE--The Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) has raided 254 illegal cannabis grows in the Golden State this year — less than half as many than they busted in 2017.

420 FILE--Cannabis consumers soon should be able to shop at licensed stores in California without worrying about whether products on the shelves are laced with pesticides and other contaminants often found in black-market weed.

420 FILE--Just weeks after a California measure legalizing the use of recreational marijuana went into effect, San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón announced on Wednesday that the city will wipe clean the records of thousands of individuals who have been charged with marijuana-related misdemeanors and felonies over the past several decades.

NEIGHBORHOOD POLITICS--The County of Los Angeles has made public input a priority as it grapples with the complicated and historic work of developing regulations for newly legalized cannabis in the unincorporated areas of the county.

POLICING THE POLICE-News reports last week suggest the city of Oakland may be ready to settle a civil lawsuit filed by the teenage woman at the heart of a sex-abuse scandal that rocked Oakland’s and other nearby police departments since 2015. 

All things considered, the city is fortunate. The reported settlement is just under $1 million, far below the $66 million she had originally sought. 

CONNECTING CALIFORNIA--Dig deep enough into any of California’s biggest problems, and you’ll eventually hit upon a common villain: our court system.

THE POLITICS OF RACISM-I wanted to believe that Jeff Sessions is not a racist. I wanted to believe that even if he was a racist as a young man that he has since converted to a higher plane of thinking. I wanted to believe that he is a changed man because I believe that anyone is capable of redemption. After-all, St. Paul hunted down early Christians. Tolstoy was a slave owner. And Nelson Mandela almost blew up a school bus as a terrorist. We are all capable of undergoing unfathomable transformation if divine grace and luck have their way.