Over the weekend, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed eight new laws into legislation dealing with cannabis regulation. These eight laws are aimed at fine-tuning the 2016 ballot initiative that legalized the sale of cannabis as well as help legal vendors compete with a growing black market.
In order to combat this, the first new piece of legislation will allow legal vendors to receive tax deductions in an effort to even the playing field, and will be allowed to claim them from 2020 to 2024. This problem arose from the black market becoming more popular due to legal vendors having to apply taxes and fees to customers that the black market does not.
The next piece of legislation allows vendors to donate to medical patients without worrying about the law. Focused on low-income marijuana patients who often find it hard to pay for their medication due to the states high tax on the products. Senator Scott Weiner believes, “We should not burden these programs with taxes meant for businesses, and we should not force people with serious health problems onto the unregulated cannabis market.”
In the same vein, the next bill forces cannabis licensing authorities develop and implement a need-based fee deferral or waiver program by 2021 that would see 60% the waiver and deferral fees “allocated to equity applicants and licensees.” Co-sponsor of the bill, the Drug Policy Alliance, says that the legislation will “remedy the failures of the drug war by ensuring that applicants with prior convictions, communities that have been over-policed, and communities where poverty is significant are able to enter the burgeoning industry.”
The fourth bill signed by Newsom allows the re-testing of cannabis products to correct for minor errors. Previously, cannabis could only be tested once and if it did not pass, would be remediated or destroyed if it showed any trace of chemicals or contaminants. Under the new law, testing labs can amend their certificates of analysis with the approval of the Bureau of Cannabis Control.
The other four pieces are more minor things including: mandatory use of a universal vape symbol on all cartridges that must be ¼ inch by ¼ inch; allowing the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research, at UC San Diego, to cultivate cannabis for use in scientific study; requiring businesses with more than 20 employees to allow unionization without employer interference, and advertising restrictions that prevent saying a product was cultivated somewhere it was not.
