California has finally released the primary rules for the administration of adult-use cannabis, under the SB-94 Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act. This leaves scarcely a month for the state and industry to implement them. At least our hopes did not go up in a puff of smoke, pun intended. At the very best these are interim, with the California Bureau of Cannabis Control describing them as ‘proposed emergency regulation packages and summaries’.
Summary of Regulations by the Three State Agencies
The regulations are in three packages emanating from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the California Department of Public Health, and the Bureau of Cannabis Control itself. We summarize the highlights briefly in the paragraphs following and provide links to the detail at the source.
California Department of Food and Agriculture
- Cultivation, and processing licensing applications / fees
- Track and trace systems and training requirements
- Waste management rules and renewable energy phase-in
- Allowable generator types and permitted air pollution
- Standards for inspections, investigations, and audits
- Maintenance of sales invoice records and receipts
- Powers of suspension and revocation for regulation breaches
- Dollar value of fines for minor, moderate, and serious offenses
- Procedures for administrative holds on raw cannabis and products
Please visit this page for more information on the above summary.
California Department of Public Health
- Detailed listing of dozens of definitions
- Licenses required and prohibited persons
- License categories, types, and applications
- Limited waiver of sovereign immunity
- Application costs, processes, and license fees
- Disqualifying criminal offenses and rehabilitation
- Appeals against denials of license applications
- License constraints and changes in operations
- Security plans and implementations
- Permissible methods of extraction
- Product and employee health and safety
- Manufacturing procedures and standards
- Batch production records, complaints, and recalls
- Inventory management and control
- Waste disposal and documentation thereof
- Cannabis product standards
- Rules for failed product batches
- Labeling and packaging requirements
- Standards for record keeping, track and trace
- Standards for advertising and marketing
- Inspections by Department of Health / agents
- Temporary license application form
Please visit this page for more information on the above summary.
California Bureau of Cannabis Control
- Temporary and annual licenses
- Additional requirements by license type
- Conduct during transition period
- Procedures and standards for enforcement
Please visit this page for more information on the above summary.
A Forest of Paperwork Lies Ahead of Us
With the best will in the world, we are left wondering why we need such a legal minefield of rules. The California Department of Public Health’s document alone is 99 pages long. If the industry managed to deliver an acceptable product without all these prescriptions, what will become of small operators now? To the jaundiced eye, the rules almost seem intended for corporate minds.