Activists Celebrate 50 Years Of Marijuana Decriminalization In California

OG Article  By Ben Adlin Watch Today's LIVE Episode on YouTube, X, and Rumble

July 10, 2025

Advocates in California are celebrating the golden anniversary of cannabis decriminalization in the state, noting that it was 50 years ago—on July 9, 1975—that then-Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed a bill into law that reduced the state’s felony possession law to a citable misdemeanor, punishable by a $100 fine and no jail time.

Sponsored by then-Sen. George Moscone (D) and known as the Moscone Act, the law “resulted in an 80% reduction in felony cannabis arrests, saving the state an estimated $100 million per year in enforcement costs, and saving well over a million users from a criminal record over the years,” according to the advocacy group California NORML.

Prior to the law taking effect, possession of less than an ounce of cannabis was punishable by two to 10 years behind bars.

The Moscone Act was passed in the wake of several unsuccessful efforts to reform the state’s cannabis laws, California NORML explained in a press release this week, perhaps most notably the 1972 California Cannabis Initiative (CMI), described as “the world’s first ballot initiative to legalize the personal use and cultivation of cannabis.”

Among CMI’s backers were California NORML director Gordon Brownell and Michael Aldrich, co-founder of the group Amorphia, which financed the initiative by selling rolling papers.

“Every county had a coordinator gathering volunteers. We had 20,000 people circulating the initiative—no paid signatures,” Aldrich said in a statement. “No one ever recognized there was such an electoral group out there.”

Though the measure failed, it performed better than expected and propelled organizers to lobby for the Moscone Act.

“The CMI formed the basis for a statewide reform movement that has existed ever since,” Brownell said.

Initially, the Moscone Act included cultivation in the reform, as well as a higher possession limit, but to win passage by the legislature, proponents dropped homegrow and lowered the possession limit from three ounces to one.

The 50th anniversary of the Moscone Act—which became the foundation for later legal reforms in the state—will be the subject of a cannabis exhibit in Sacramento later this month at the California State Fair.

The July 19 event will feature interviews with Brownell and Aldrich, as well as felony cannabis arrestees slated to discuss how the drug war impacted their lives and their families, Cal NORML said in its release.

The group noted that the state fair this year will, for the second time, host an on-site consumption area.

It’s the fourth year that California’s annual event has invited cannabis entrepreneurs and consumers to join the festivities—and, for the second year in a row, on-site sales and consumption will be permitted.

A recent state-funded study found that more than a third of California adults are current cannabis consumers, and the vast majority of them say cannabis provides health benefits—regardless of whether or not they are specifically using it for medical purposes.

Lead author Linda Hill, a UC San Diego medical professor, said the study “provides the first comprehensive understanding of cannabis use patterns in California since the implementation of Proposition 64”—the 2016 voter-approved law that legalized cannabis for adults in the state.

Meanwhile, in California, state officials are inviting research proposals for a second round of grants under a program meant to better educate the public on the state’s cannabis law and help policymakers make informed decisions on the issue.

For the new $30 million round of the grant program, which is funded by cannabis tax revenue, DCC said it is prioritizing proposals in research areas including educational methods of improving public health and safety, crop yields, state and local cannabis policies, consumer preferences, environmental sustainability, and other topics.

“At a time when the federal government is pulling back funding for cannabis-related research, California is stepping up,” DCC Director Nicole Elliott said in a press release last month.

Some operators in the state, however, say a recent tax hike “could kill this industry.”

Separately, the state’s Senate recently advanced a bill that includes provisions to ratify a labor agreement ending random drug tests for cannabis among correctional officers in the state’s prison system.