Today, the last day for Governor Newsom to sign bills passed by both chambers in the 2024 California Legislative Session, Governor Newsom has now signed a total of ten cannabis-related bills into law including:
- AB 1775 (Haney) – To allow a microbusiness/retailer to prepare or sell non-cannabis food or beverage products, sell pre-packaged, non-cannabis-infused, nonalcoholic food and beverages, and tickets for live musical or other performances, all in consumption areas on premises.
- AB 2841 (Waldron) – To authorize the Research Advisory Panel to hold closed sessions for the purpose of discussing, reviewing, and approving research projects that require the sharing of trade secrets, potential intellectual property, or proprietary information in its possession, the public disclosure of which is prohibited by law.
- SB 1511 (Committee on Health) – To authorize a general acute care hospital to allow terminally ill patients to use medicinal cannabis.
- AB 2136 (Jones-Sawyer) – To curb overdose deaths by providing essential protections for drug checking program providers and encourage more jurisdictions to offer checking services.
- SB 1498 (Ashby) – To authorize Attorney General and local district attorneys and county counsel to bring a civil action to redress a violation of advertising and marketing restrictions.
- SB 1059 (Bradford) – To prohibit a city or county from including in the definition of gross receipts, for purposes of any local tax or fee on a licensed cannabis retailer, the amount of any cannabis excise tax imposed under the Cannabis Tax Law or any sales and use taxes.
- AB 2555 (Quirk-Silva) – To renew tax-free cannabis compassion programs for indigent patients, which were put into place with SB 34 (Wiener, 2019) and set to expire next year.
- AB 2643 (Wood) – To require a study to create a framework for cannabis site restoration projects funded by the Cannabis Restoration Grant Program and to complete the study by January 1, 2027; and to establish a Cannabis-Impacted Lands Restoration Fund, maintained by penalties assessed for violations of environmental laws associated with illicit cannabis cultivation and production.
- SB 1109 (Bradford) – To address collection of demographic information of licensees and applicants for licensure.
- SB 1064 (Laird) – To add a “combined activities license,” defined as a state license authorizing 2 or more commercial cannabis activities, except for laboratory testing, at the same premise; to remove the DCC’s excessive concentration consideration requirement in granting, denying, or renewing a license; and to specify that an owner is not required to resubmit owner-related information previously submitted to the DCC.
Governor Newsom has also vetoed one cannabis-related bill: AB 1111 (Pellerin), which would establish a small producer event sales license allowing small farmers to sell their own cannabis or cannabis products at state temporary events direct to consumers.
