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As in other years, a spate of cannabis and drug policy related bills have been introduced in Sacramento. Cal NORML is evaluating and tracking these bills, along with state budget bills (AB 1624 and SB 840) and will be alerting our membership to upcoming hearings, and actions they can take on key bills at the proper time. SIGN UP FOR CAL NORML’S EMAIL ALERTS TO STAY INFORMED.
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. CAL NORML OPPOSES THIS BILL ANY OTHERS THAT TRY TO PENALIZE THE CULTIVATION OF AS FEW AS 7 PLANTS.
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.
“Clean Up” or “Spot” bills without full language (yet) include:
SB 988 (Hueso) seems to be 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
The post Tax Reform, Enforcement, Human Rights, and Business Bills Related to Cannabis Introduced in California appeared first on CaNORML.org.
“This is a real disappointment for Virginians who were loudly calling for access to retail sales to begin earlier than 2024. This is a real failure by the legislature to provide for public and consumer safety.”
The post Virginia: Republican-Led Committee Halts Marijuana Sales Legislation in Party-Line Vote appeared first on NORML.
“Lawmakers in South Dakota continue to put their own self-interests ahead of those of their constituents — the majority of whom wish to see the criminalization of cannabis replaced with a system of legalization and regulation. Lawmakers’ failure to advance this issue is a slap in the face to the majority of voters who made their voices heard in the last election.”
The post South Dakota: Republican-Led Committee Rejects Senate-Backed Adult-Use Legalization Measure appeared first on NORML.
Here is NORML’s weekly update on state legislative activity in Alaska, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, Delaware, and Georgia.
The post State Policy Weekly Update 2/25/2022 appeared first on NORML.
Legislative proposals that seek to legalize the adult-use cannabis market have advanced in several states in recent days.
The post Adult-Use Legislative Efforts Advance in Delaware, Maryland, and South Dakota appeared first on NORML.
The cannabis industry created an average of 280 new jobs per day in 2021. That represents a 33 percent year-over-year increase, and it marks the fifth year in a row of annual jobs growth greater than 27 percent.
The post Report: Legal Marijuana Industry Employs Over 428,00 Full-Time Workers appeared first on NORML.
It took a decade of legislative politics and nearly three million voters changing the New Jersey state constitution to end cannabis prohibition in the Garden State.
The post One Year Ago Today, New Jersey Ended Mass Arrests for Cannabis Possession appeared first on NORML.
Here is NORML’s weekly update on state legislative activity in Maryland, Vermont, Utah, South Dakota, Alabama, Ohio, Washington, Nebraska, Colorado, Maine, Hawaii, California, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming, New Hampshire, and Arizona.
The post State Policy Weekly Update 2/18/2022 appeared first on NORML.
The legislation authorizes already licensed hemp growers to obtain temporary conditional licenses to commercially cultivate and process cannabis for the state’s forthcoming adult-use market.
The post New York: Lawmakers Advance Legislation to Expedite Adult-Use Cannabis Production and Manufacturing appeared first on NORML.
AB 2188 would prevent employers from using bodily fluids testing to discriminate against employees who consume cannabis when they are not at work.
Write to your to Assembly Member in support of the AB 2188.
Assembly Member Bill Quirk (D-Hayward) has introduced legislation, AB 2188, that would end discrimination based on cannabis metabolites testing by California employers. The bill is sponsored by California NORML, which advocates for the rights of California cannabis consumers.
Testing or threatening to test bodily fluids for cannabis metabolites is the most common way that employers harass and discriminate against employees who lawfully use cannabis in the privacy of their own homes.
“California employers do not have the right to prohibit employees from engaging in legal behaviors when they are not at work. Adult-use cannabis has been legal in California for over five years, yet many employers in California still discriminate against employees and prospective employees who consume cannabis off the job,” said Assembly Member Quirk.
Cannabis metabolites are the non-psychoactive substances that can be detected in a person’s bodily fluids for up to several weeks after they have consumed cannabis. Testing positive for cannabis metabolites has no scientific value in establishing that a person is impaired or “high.” When employers use cannabis metabolites tests to discriminate against employees or prospective employees, they are most likely discriminating against people who are not impaired at work and who consumed cannabis when they were not at work.
Five other states (NV, NY, NJ, CT & MT) have passed laws in recent years protecting recreational cannabis users’ employment rights, and 21 states protect those rights for medical marijuana users. Philadelphia, Washington DC and Atlanta also protect the rights of workers in their cities who use cannabis. “It’s high time California protected its workers’ rights also,” said Dale Gieringer, director of California NORML.
As in other states, the proposed California bill has exemptions for employers who are required to follow federal drug-testing mandates.
Assembly Member Quirk’s bill does not bar employers from requiring that employees not be impaired on the job. It does not prohibit other forms of testing, such as performance-based impairment testing or testing for THC—the active ingredient in marijuana—which may establish that a person has consumed cannabis in the past several hours. Assembly Member Quirk’s bill does not prohibit employers from taking action against employees or prospective employees who test positive for THC or who fail a performance-based impairment test.
Studies have shown that off-the-job cannabis use is not positively associated with elevated rates of occupational accidents or injuries, and that liberalized marijuana laws are associated greater labor participation, lower rates of absenteeism, declines in workers’ compensation filings, and higher wages.
Asm. Quirk introduced AB1256 with similar language last year as a two-year bill, in order to begin the process of reaching out to stakeholders and supporters. The cities of Oakland and San Francisco have passed resolutions last year in favor of the measure.
Write to your to Assembly Member in support of the AB 2188.
The post Cal NORML-sponsored Legislation Would Protect Employees’ Right to Use Cannabis Off the Job appeared first on CaNORML.org.