Last week I spoke on a panel about compliance at the Cannabis Cultivation Conference hosted by the Cannabis Business Times. If you’ve been following the latest developments in California you’d know that compliance with the myriad of regulations is the biggest obstacle for businesses looking to join the state legal cannabis market. For commercial cannabis
On Thursday, SB 1409, which proposes changes to California’s industrial hemp laws, was referred to committee. This piece of legislation proposes some much-needed updates to California’s industrial hemp laws. In our experience, states with adult use marijuana regulations, like California, tend to move more slowly building out their industrial hemp programs, which often come in
California is just starting to get its cannabis packaging and labeling regulations right under MAUCRSA. California has a mandated transition period from January 1 to July 1, 2018, during which time adult use and medical marijuana licensees can do business with each other and temporary and annual state licensees can transport and sell cannabis products already
As we’ve discussed time and time again, California’s voter-passed cannabis legalization initiative, as well as all subsequent statutory and regulatory additions to that law, maintains local governments as the ultimate arbiters of whether and how commercial cannabis operations can take place within any given county or municipality in the state. The most prominent exercise of
California cannabis businesses are now acquiring temporary permits to enter the new cannabis marketplace made possible under MAURSCA. As part of that process, all cannabis businesses have been introduced to the California Department of Fee and Tax Administration (“CDTFA”), the agency tasked with administering the new cannabis cultivation taxes and sales tax. The CDTFA administers
This week, the Bureau of Cannabis Control (the “BCC”) announced that as of January 9, 2019, Section 11362.775 of the Health and Safety Code (the “Code”) will no longer be in effect. The BCC notice ends the popular collective and cooperative models of cannabis cultivation, manufacturing and distribution in California. These models were promulgated through
When it comes to ending federal prohibition, some public officials are do-ers, and other are talkers. Here in Oregon, we are lucky enough to have Congressman Earl Blumenauer, who is a relentless advocate for ending prohibition. Blumenauer helped found the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, and appended his name to the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer Amendment (RBA), which prohibits the
Even though the Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act ("MAUCRSA") stripped distributors of massive amounts of power, they are still relevant and 100% necessary if cultivators and manufacturers want to get their products to retailers. Why? There are three primary reasons: Distributors are the only license type that can transport marijuana products and they're also the
Beginning January 1, California employers with five or more employees will be prohibited from asking about an applicant’s conviction history and cannot consider an applicant’s criminal history until after a conditional job offer has been made. A conditional job offer is an offer made contingent on the completion of a background check. Only after the
When it comes to cultivation, one of the biggest developments in California’s new emergency cannabis regulations has to do with something conspicuously missing from the rules: a cap on the amount of land a licensee can cultivate for medicinal or adult-use cannabis. While 2016’s Adult Use of Marijuana Act (Prop. 64) and subsequent SB 94 made
