California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who plans to make a run for a U.S. Senate seat, said she believes the legalization of recreational marijuana in the state is inevitable and that lawmakers must be diligent in crafting laws to regulate the industry.
Harris is watching how legalization plays out in Colorado and Washington and believes that strict regulations need to be put in place in California to protect vulnerable people, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Harris said she’s not morally opposed to marijuana legalization, she just wants to be sure it’s well-regulated.
California has the second-highest density of MMJ patients in the country, but has so few regulations that many dispensary owners aren’t sure whether they’re operating within the law, leaving them open to raids by federal and state authorities.
Lawmakers are trying to retroactively pass regulations governing the industry after the state became the first to legalize MMJ almost 20 years ago.
