Governor of California Gavin Newsom signed three new bills that would affect the unregulated and regulated cannabis markets in the US state. The move follows the news regarding minimum mandatory sentences applicable to nonviolent drug offences.
Assembly Bill 1138 speaks to civil enforcement concerning unlawful activity in the cannabis industry. As per the latest legislation, an individual who does unlicensed activity in the commercial cannabis sector will face civil penalties thrice more than the related license fee per violation. Every single day that person does the cannabis business will be regarded as an individual violation of the section. The same penalty will apply to any person who aids or abets another in the business.
With the fine amounts, the government of California will reimburse the Office of the Attorney General, the US county or city lawyer that looks into each offender. The state Attorney General would get the case if there are over 750,000 people living in the city. All of this is separate from the criminal penalties that the unlicensed operator faces.
LA Weekly communicated with Deputy Director of California NORML Ellen Komp for her views about the laws and more. About Assembly Bill 1138, Komp stated that the triple license fines can be levied for as many as three years. She also said that the industry likes the bill, even as she does not fancy it.
Assembly Bill 1222 is another bill that Governor Newsom signed into law. It pertains to the packaging that concerns the cannabis beverages sector, which is booming. The law necessitates not only labeling every cannabis beverage before being put in child-resistant and tamper-evident packaging but also meeting the California Cannabis Track and Trace (CCTT) program requirements. Komp has no reservations with the language of the draft law and reckons that the market for beverages is expanding.
The final bill that Newsom signed into law is Senate Bill 544 and will affect the THC-high cannabis industry the most. It will necessitate the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) to set a standard method of phytocannabinoids testing by January 01, 2023. If DCC establishes it, there would be standard operating procedures mandatory for the cannabis industry to use, versus whatever changes the tetrahydrocannabinol quantities the most.
As a result of standardizing how cannabis is tested, laboratories would create value differently from how these do right now. Some people entered the cannabis industry as they are cannabis nerds who wished to spend a lot of time testing pot in laboratories. However, there is also a shadier group of cannabis nerds. The shadier people will possibly spend many of their days before December 31, 2022, making those quantities maximum attractive to their customers.
When everyone adheres to identical rules, laboratories would put more emphasis on value than shopping about for THC quantities, presuming that that is enforcement. LA Weekly also communicated with one of California’s oldest laboratories, SC Labs, for its views about the law.
Founder of SC Labs Josh Wurzer said that it likes the plan of the law to standardize tetrahydrocannabinol numbers across the cannabis industry. Nevertheless, it believes that some laboratories could inflate tetrahydrocannabinol values even with the standardized method in place, whereas other labs cannot act freely in terms of method improvement and innovation. Wurzer wants to identify the reference laboratory that specializes in surveillance activity to know whether any labs are releasing bad data instead of forcing the whole industry into one method.
Komp stated that California NORML was OK with better cannabis testing standards as well as regards the latest progress on cannabis sativa in Sacramento as noteworthy. She regards the passing of Assembly Bill 45 as the main news here. The bill allows the use of hemp, hemp derivatives, extracts or phytocannabinoids in beverages, dietary supplements, pet food, cosmetics, or other food items. She also stated that California NORML opposed the prohibition of smokable hemp before it was lifted but only after it was taxed.
In her closing arguments, Komp stated that there was no announcement about Assembly Bill 1302, which would allow cannabis billboards under some restrictions in California. Anyhow, some time later, Governor Newsom vetoed Assembly Bill 1302 while citing his lack of desire to compromise the protections that legislators approved in Proposition 64.