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Comment by wowzap | Hacker News Reader

1. Drinking in public in California is a $100 fine, smoking marijuana in public is $250.

2. Probable cause - "our drug dog is trained to detect over 30 grams of Marijuana.", "I smelled marijuana and suspected an open container, asked to see the open container to verify it was legal, open container held over 30 grams."

3.You're right about alcohol... fun fact - it's still federally illegal to distill spirits.

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> it's still federally illegal to distill spirits.

Without a distillery license. Which is not especially expensive, and is wholly reasonable considering the significantly higher technical and safety threshold of operating a distillery. Bathtub gin used to kill people.

Pretty sure you can get some kind of really cheap experimental type of license to distill as well.

DC's legalization effort has been incomplete due to Congress undemocratically stepping in and overriding local laws, but the legalization measure specifically changed the definition of reasonable suspicion so that "smell of marijuana" cannot by itself be used to effect a search. Makes sense since part of the point of legalization was to reverse the unequal enforcement of drug laws against people of color. Seems like other places could easily adopt a similar rule.

1. As far as the fines - it is kind of silly to fine people for doing those things. It's what they might to AFTER that should put them in jail. I DO think that "accident" should be considered "malice" when intoxicated in both cases (and other forms of mind alterations knowingly applied to oneself).

2. That's what I was going to point out about probable cause, that it's kind of laughable. Thanks!

3. I did not know that, crazy.

Only illegal to distill spirits if you aren't licensed as done improperly you can make people seriously ill or blind them.

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