On February 7, 2024, California Assembly Member Aguilar-Curry introduced AB 2223. The bill, if passed, would significantly change the state’s cannabis and hemp industries – for better or worse. Today, we’ll take a look at how AB 2223 could change both the cannabis industry and hemp industry in the Golden State. First though, a brief
It’s no secret that state cannabis markets across the nation are suffering badly. Because of I.R.C. 280E, lack of access to financial institutions, massive operational expenses, plunging prices, and just gluts of production, it’s not pretty out there. However, there’s a newish light at the end of the tunnel, at least for California and other
I get asked a lot of questions about what California cannabis licensees can and cannot do under the Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (“MAUCRSA”). California is actually business friendly once operations get going with a license– despite its many issues with the cannabis industry. For example, vertical integration is allowed. There’s no
A few weeks ago, California lawmakers quietly introduced SB-1326, a bill that would amend the Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA) to legalize interstate cannabis sales, notwithstanding the status of federal law. Specifically, SB-1326 would authorize the Governor to enter into an agreement with other states authorizing medicinal or adult-use commercial cannabis
I’ve written a couple of times about the ongoing struggle that is the California cannabis tax situation, and I was recently on a great panel about the future of cannabis taxes in the country. California cannabis taxes are some of the highest in the U.S.. The situation seems to be, thankfully, evolving for the better
California cannabis taxes continue to plague the industry. California cannabis taxes are undoubtedly high (although not the highest in the country). The truth is that that’s not changing anytime soon. A few weeks ago, I did an interview with KCRW where operators bemoaned the current California cannabis tax situation. Their complaints are warranted given the
On the 25th anniversary of Prop. 215, I was recently interviewed on KCRW to give my take on how California (and specifically the City of Los Angeles) has done when it comes to legalizing and licensing cannabis businesses. I’m a pretty tough critic of California in general if you read any of my writings on
This week, Governor Newsom took a major step in reforming California’s (pretty tortured) cannabis licensing program by signing into law Assembly Bill 141, which generally consolidates all cannabis licensing and oversight into the Department of Cannabis Control (“DCC”). In our view, centralizing all licensing and regulatory oversight into a single agency in California is a
Back in 2015, when I was a regular columnist for Above The Law, I wrote a piece called “Cannabis Advertising: Is Pot Obscene?“. That article focused on general speech issues around cannabis ads. We’ve also written over the years about how various social media platforms broadly prohibit pretty much any speech with the word “marijuana”
In January 2020, Governor Newsom announced that he intended to have the Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC), California Department of Food and Agriculture’s CalCannabis Program (CDFA), and California Department of Public Health’s Manufactured Cannabis Safety Branch (CDPH), consolidated into a single cannabis agency: the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) (as summarized in the Governor’s 2021
