California Governor Gavin Newsom took his final actions of the 2023 legislative session yesterday, October 13, ending the law-making year by signing a total of fourteen (14) cannabis-related bills into law. Here are the new cannabis laws in California at the culmination of this year’s legislative session:
- SB 540 – Directing the DCC to develop a brochure with health warnings and to re-evaluate warnings every 5 years beginning January 2025.
- SB 302 – Expanding Ryan’s Law to allow patients over 65 years of age with a chronic disease to use medicinal cannabis within a health care facility.
- SB 622 – Removing the mandatory requirement that a plastic plant tag be affixed to the base of each cannabis plant.
- SB 833 – Requiring the DCC, by no later than March 1, 2024, to allow cultivators to select a smaller license type or place their license in inactive status.
- SB 700 – Making it unlawful for an employer to request information from an applicant for employment relating to the applicant’s prior use of cannabis.
- AB 993 – Expansion of and meetings for state/local task force on cannabis regulation established by last year’s AB 195 (2022).
- AB 1126 – Specifying that a citation may be issued for unlicensed use of cannabis universal symbol.
- AB 1171 – Authorizing a licensee to bring an action in superior court against a person engaging in commercial cannabis activity without a license.
- AB 1448 – Authorizing local governments to assess an administrative penalty for illicit cannabis activity.
- AB 1684 – Allowing a local jurisdiction to declare unlicensed commercial cannabis activity a public nuisance.
- SB 753 – Providing that a person engaging in cultivation of cannabis that results in environmental harm to surface or groundwater may be charged with a felony.
- SB 756 – Providing explicit authority to the State Water Resources Control Board and regional water boards to inspect an unlicensed cannabis cultivation site.
- SB 51 – Authorizing the DCC to issue a provisional license for a local equity applicant for retailer activities, indefinitely.
- AB 623 – Requiring regulators to develop “appropriate testing variances” for low-THC products.
