Cannabis Tax Reform, Human Rights, Enforcement and Business Bills Introduced in California

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This year’s pending bills include:

HUMAN RIGHTS BILLS

• AB 2188 (Quirk) is a Cal NORML-sponsored bill to end employment discrimination based on testing for inactive cannabis metabolites. READ MORE and TAKE ACTION ON AB 2188.
• AB 1954 (Quirk) would end discrimination by doctors against pain patients and others who use medical cannabis. This bill is also sponsored by Cal NORML. READ MORE and TAKE ACTION ON AB 1954.
• AB 1706 (Bonta) to expedite record clearance for past cannabis crimes. Cal NORML supports this bill, which is headed for a hearing in the Assembly Committee on Public Safety on March 8. Take Action to Support AB 1706.
• AB 2595 (Jones-Sawyer) would prohibit a child from being found to be within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court solely due to the use of cannabis, possession of cannabis, possession of cannabis products, possession of cannabis accessories, or possession, cultivation, harvesting, drying, or processing of cannabis by the child’s parent or guardian or the presence of cannabinoid components or metabolites in the parent’s or guardian’s bodily fluids.
• AB 2150 (Lackey/Cooley) would require the CMCR to establish a study examining the effects of cannabis products that are currently in the commercial cannabis stream of commerce and, in consultation with the Department of the California Highway Patrol, evaluating the public safety consequences of cannabis use and improving understanding of the best methods for determining related driving impairments.

TAX REFORM BILLS

• AB 2506 (Quirk/Lackey) would suspend the imposition of the cultivation tax from July 1, 2023 to July 1, 2028, and would increase the excise tax for the same time period to cover the revenue that would have been collected pursuant to the cultivation tax.
• SB 1074 (McGuire) would discontinue, beginning on July 1, 2022, the imposition of the cultivation tax and increase, from July 1, 2025, until July 1, 2026, the excise tax by an additional percentage that the Department of Finance estimates will generate half the amount of revenue that would have been collected pursuant to the cultivation tax, and would, beginning July 1, 2026, instead increase the excise tax by an additional percentage estimated by the department to generate the full amount of revenue that would have been collected pursuant to the cultivation tax.
• AB 2792 (Blanca Rubio and Cristina Garcia) would, from July 1, 2022, to July 1, 2025, suspend the imposition of the excise tax upon purchasers of cannabis or cannabis products by licensees eligible for a fee waiver under the California Cannabis Equity Act. The bill would also suspend the imposition of the cultivation tax from July 1, 2022 to July 1, 2025.
• SB 1281 (Bradford) would discontinue the imposition of the cultivation tax, and reduce the excise tax to 5% (from 15%).
• SB 1293 (Bradford) would help equity licensees obtain a personal income or corporate tax credit that would be equal, or in some proportion, to the normal business expenses that they would otherwise have been able to write off on their federal taxes, but for federal law.

ENFORCEMENT BILLS

• “AB 1725 (Smith) would amend AUMA to make it a felony, punishable by 16 months or 2 or 3 years in county jail, for a person over 18 years of age to plant, cultivate, harvest, dry, or process more than 6 living cannabis plants. Take Action to Oppose AB 1725. 
• AB 2728 (Smith) would impose an additional civil penalty on an unlicensed person engaging in commercial activity involving various cannabis products, including cannabis plants in excess of 6 plants, cannabis product, cannabis concentrate, cannabis biomass, and cannabis flower.
• AB 2421 (Blanco Rubio) would authorize, for a violation resulting from unpermitted cannabis cultivation, the civil action to be brought by a county counsel or city attorney.
• AB 1426 (Caballero) would make it a felony to plant, cultivate, harvest, dry, or process more than 6 living cannabis plants, where that activity involves theft of groundwater.

BUSINESS-RELATED BILLS

• AB 2210 (Quirk) would authorize the Department of Cannabis Control to issue a state temporary event license to a retail licensee authorizing onsite cannabis retail sales of cannabis or cannabis products to, and consumption by, persons 21 years of age or older at an event held at a venue that is licensed by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
• AB 2691 (Wood) would require the DCC to issue temporary cultivator event retail licenses that authorize the license holder to sell cannabis or cannabis products, containing cannabis cultivated by that licensee, at cannabis events in the state.
• AB 2844 (Kalra) would add acting as a cannabis caterer for a private event to the definition of commercial cannabis activity.
• SB 1326 (Caballero) would authorize the Governor to enter into interstate commerce agreements with other states authorizing medicinal or adult-use commercial cannabis activity.
• SB 1097 (Pan) would require cannabis or a cannabis product, other than those for topical use, to include a warning label that covers at least 1/3 of the front or principal face of a product, and require cannabis businesses to provide to consumers a brochure that includes steps for safer use of cannabis.
• AB 1690 (Rivas) would prohibit selling, giving, or furnishing a single-use electronic cigarette or vaporizer device.

“Clean Up” or “Spot” bills without full language (yet) include:

• • SB 988 (Hueso) is a clean-up bill to Ryan’s Law, passed last year to require health care facilities to allow terminally ill patients to use cannabis. It would repeal the requirement that health care facilities permitting patient use of medical cannabis comply with other drug and medication requirements, as specified, and the requirement that those facilities be subject to enforcement actions by the State Department of Public Health.

• AB 2155 (Villapuda) would enact legislation to regulate cannabis beverages as a unique cannabis product.
• AB 2658 (Cooley) would provide it is not a crime solely for individuals and firms to provide insurance and related services to persons licensed to engage in commercial cannabis activity.
• AB 2101 (Jones-Sawyer) Cannabis: lawful actions
• AB 2224 (McCarty) Cannabis: delivery
• AB 2824 (Bonta) Cannabis: curbside pickup
• AB 2925 (Cooper) Cannabis Control Appeals Panel: membership
• SB 1148 (Laird) Cannabis industry
• SB 1186 (Wiener) Medicinal cannabis: local jurisdictions