To survive in the 2024 California Legislative Session, May 24 was the deadline for bills to be passed out of their chamber of origin (Assembly or Senate), and it appears over a dozen cannabis bills have crossed this threshold by the May 24 deadline. These bills include:
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- AB 3054 to include certain Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) directors as prohibited from receiving any profit whatsoever from any person applying for or receiving any license or permit.
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- SB 1511 to allow general acute care hospitals to use medicinal cannabis for terminally ill patients.
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- SB 1059 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.
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- AB 2643 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.
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- SB 1064 to, among other changes, consolidate licensing for commercial cannabis activities, other than cultivation and laboratory testing, under one “operator license” type, and to remove the “excessive concentration” consideration from the Department when deciding on a license.
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- SB 1264 to exempt law enforcement personnel from employee nondiscrimination protections for off-site, off-duty cannabis use enacted under AB 2188 (2022).
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- SB 1109 to address collection of demographic information of licensees and applicants for licensure.
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- AB 2136 to curb overdose deaths by providing essential protections for drug checking program providers and encourage more jurisdictions to offer checking services.
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- AB 2555 to renew tax-free cannabis compassion programs for indigent patients, which were put into place with SB 34 (Wiener, 2019) and are set to expire.
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- SB 820 to authorize the DCC or any local jurisdiction to seize specified property where commercial cannabis activity is conducted without a license required by MAUCRSA.
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- AB 1775 to permit cannabis retailers to expand their operations to include serving food and beverages and holding live events.
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- AB 2223 to provide a path to integrate industrial hemp into the federal and state legal hemp and state legal cannabis supply chains and to eliminate access to intoxicating hemp products.
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- SB 1498 to authorize the Attorney General and local district attorneys and county counsel to bring a civil action to redress a violation of advertising and marketing restrictions.
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- AB 2841 to authorize the Research Advisory Panel to hold closed sessions for the purpose of discussing 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.
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- AB 491 to authorize a local agency to establish, by ordinance, a procedure to collect administrative fines or penalties by lien upon the parcel of land on which the violation occurred.
These bills must now make it through the Assembly or Senate by August 31, 2024 in order to make it to Governor Newsom’s desk before the adjournment of the 2024 California Legislative Session.
