May 4, 2017

The known universe of cannabis policy is changing rapidly. With draft regulations released last week (click for draft regulations from the Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation, California Department of Food and Agriculture, and the California Department of Public Health), a new state cannabis portal unveiled. There is also legislation working through the process, and new budget trailer bill language to provide you with plenty of complex reading material!

In addition, thanks to the hard work of the CSAC Cannabis Working Group and the CSAC Agriculture, Environment & Natural Resources Policy Committee, CSAC is close to completing and adopting draft policy language on cannabis. This policy will undergo final review and action at the upcoming CSAC Legislative Conference.

CSAC is actively tracking and participating in draft regulations and legislation related to cannabis and will keep counties up to date as things continue to take shape. CSAC will provide comments on draft regulations, weigh in on legislation, and provide input at every step of the way to ensure that the county voice is heard in shaping the statewide landscape of cannabis regulation, as it will undoubtedly have a significant impact on local government operations.

The following are some of the major issues addressed in the proposed regulations released last Friday:

• Local Control/Authorization of licenses (Bureau). For an applicant to be in good standing, they must provide the name of the local jurisdiction that issued the license, permit or other authorization, name and contract information for the person authorized by the local jurisdiction to sign on its behalf, signature of person authorized to sign on behalf of the local jurisdiction and a statement that the named party is in good standing.
• General Provisions (All): Definition of premises, security requirements (including personnel and 24 hour video surveillance) and definition of ownership.
• Delivery (Bureau). All deliveries of medical cannabis must be performed by a delivery employee of a licensed dispensary.
• Cultivation Licenses (CDFA). Requires cultivation plans of all applicants, new license type for those not growing but drying and curing plants, and environmental protections.
• Dispensary Licenses (Bureau). Requires purchases to be in exit packaging, limitations on hours of operation, daily limits on sales to patients, no free samples allowed.
• Distributor Licenses (Bureau). Requires distributors to conduct testing of products, outlines quality assurance requirements and requirements for destruction of the product.
• Manufacturing Licenses (DPH). Adding two new license types for infused products and businesses that only do packaging and labeling.
• Product Limitations/Labeling and Packaging (DPH). No products with infusion of alcohol, nicotine and caffeine; list of all ingredients in the labeling, THC levels for edibles and other products.

In addition to regular articles in the Bulletin and email updates, we will be holding many events with state regulators and other experts in the coming months:

• The CSAC Legislative Conference will offer several opportunities to engage on the cannabis policy issue, including a workshop with state regulators on Wednesday and review and action on draft cannabis language for the CSAC policy platform on Thursday, in both the AENR Policy Committee and CSAC Board of Directors meetings.

  • Cannabis workshop Wednesday, 5/17, 10:20am-11:50am
  • AENR Policy Committee meeting Thursday, 5/18, 10:45am-12:15pm
  • CSAC Board of Directors Meeting Thursday, 5/18, 12:30pm-4pm
• CSAC will host a regional meeting on cannabis issues in Humboldt County on Thursday, June 29. Registration information will be available soon; save the dates were recently sent via email.
• CSAC, RCRC, and UCC will jointly host a Counties Cannabis Summit in Sacramento on Wednesday, July 19. Summit information and registration will be available in the coming weeks.