In the June 2021 Issue

• Landmark MORE Act Reintroduced in House
• Amazon Stops Most Drug Testing, Announces Support for MORE Act
• Connecticut Legislature Passes Adult-Use Bill
• Texas Adds Conditions to Limited Medical Cannabis Program
• ASA Updates First 100-Days Biden-Harris Campaign
• Top 10 Things Everyone Should Know About Cannabis
• ASA Partnering with White Label Expo
• Veterans Alternative Healthcare Summit, June 27
• PFC to Launch New Training Platform
• Summer Hiatus for Cannigma Podcast
• Activist Profile: Michelle Herman, Needham, Massachusetts
• Action Alert: Urge your rep to support the MORE Act

Read more

In the April 2021 Issue

• Three States Approve Adult Use; New York Expands Medical Access
• ASA Unity 2021 Conference Agenda Released
• Speakers announced for Upcoming Unity Conference
• PFC Unveiling New Patient’s Guide at Unity Conference
• ASA Weighs in on Biden’s Cannabis-related Firings
• ASA Urges Department of Justice to Update Federal Cannabis Guidance
• ASA Founder Discusses Cannabis Policy on Podcast
• ASA to Present at Cannaworldexpo and University of Maryland
• Activist Profile: Nikki Lawley, Buffalo, New York
• Action Alert: Stop the Drug Testing of Federal Workers

Read more

Note: More than fifty bills related to medical and adult use cannabis were introduced this session. This list does not include all of the bills. ASA will update this list after the June 2nd deadline for bills to be approved in their house of origin. We anticipate there will be many fewer bills to track at that time. Please check back for a complete list. You can get the latest news on California legislation and more by attending the California Citizen Lobby Day on Monday, June 5th, in Sacramento. 

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You can sign up for email alerts about cannabis and medical cannabis bills on the state's LegInfo website.

Join the ASA California Camping for Safe Access email discussion list to talk about the bills and more with other stakeholders.

 

AB 6 (Lackey) - Driving under the influence: drug testing.

As amended February 22, this bill would require the Commissioner of the California Highway Patrol to appoint, and serve as the chair of, a drugged driving task force, with specified membership, to develop recommendations for best practices, protocols, proposed legislation, and other policies that will address the issue of driving under the influence of drugs, including prescription drugs. The bill would also require the task force to examine the use of technology, including field testing technologies, to identify drivers under the influence of drugs, and would authorize the task force to conduct pilot programs using those technologies. The bill would require the task force to report to the Legislature its policy recommendations and the steps that state agencies are taking regarding drugged driving.

AB 64 (Bonta) - Cannabis: medical and nonmedical: regulation and advertising.

In its current form, this bill will clarify that medical cannabis licensees can operate in a nonprofit or for-profit manner, requires for-profit cooperatives and collective to have a CA Seller’s Permit, specifically allows medical and adult use retail licensees to operate non-storefront (delivery) businesses, restricts advertising for medical and adult use licensees and loans the CHP $3 million to research cannabis and DUID.

AB 76 (Chau) - Adult-use marijuana: marketing.

This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to introduce legislation relating to the prohibition of the marketing of adult-use marijuana to children.

AB 171 (Lackey) – Medical Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act: licensure: reporting.

This bill requires each agency issuing a medical cannabis license to include all conditional licenses approved in its annual report.

AB 175 (Chau) – Adult-use marijuana: marketing: packaging and labeling.

This bill would require a manufacturer, prior to introducing an edible marijuana product into commerce in California, to submit the packaging and labeling to the bureau for approval and would require the bureau to determine whether the packaging and labeling are in compliance with the requirements of prescribed provisions of AUMA, including the requirements that the packaging be child resistant and not attractive to children, as specified. The bill would authorize the bureau to charge a manufacturer a fee for the determination, in an amount no greater than the amount required to cover the actual and reasonable costs of administering the approval program.

AB 208 (Eggman) - Deferred entry of judgment: pretrial diversion.

This bill changes the qualifications for pretrial diversion for defendants facing specified charges including cannabis-related offenses, including cannabis-related offense related to personal use and cultivation.

AB-238 (Steinorth) - Medical cannabis: distributors: employment.

This bill would prohibit a distributor Type 11 licensee from denying employment to any individual on the basis that he or she is or is not party to a collective bargaining agreement. The bill would also prohibit an applicant for a distributor Type 11 license from being denied a license on the basis that the applicant employs individuals who are or are not party to a collective bargaining agreement. The bill would make certain legislative findings and declarations.

AB 285 (Melendez) - Drug and alcohol free residences.

This bill defines a “drug and alcohol free residence” and authorizes a state-approved certification of residential recovery facilities as such. The bill requires that “[o]wners, managers, operators, and residents observe and promote a zero tolerance policy regarding the consumption or possession of alcohol or controlled substances or marijuana being used in any manner not consistent with a documented prescription [italics added]."

AB 313 (Gray) – Water.

This bill would make substantial changes in the way water use is regulated in the state, including some provisions related to medical cannabis cultivation license applications. Use the link to read the numerous provisions of the bill.

AB 350 (Salas) - Marijuana edibles: appealing to children.

This bill would specify that a marijuana product is deemed to be appealing to children or easily confused with commercially sold candy if it is in the shape of a person, animal, insect, fruit, or in another shape normally associated with candy, but would not prohibit a licensee from making an edible marijuana product in the shape of the licensee’s logo.

AB 362 (Wood) - Forestry assistance program: loans.

This bill would provide that assessments deposited into the existing Timber Regulation and Forest Restoration Fund, less amounts deducted for refunds and reimbursement be, upon appropriation by the Legislature, may be used for forest resources improvement grants, loans, and projects. Current law only allows from grants. Terms for the newly authorized loans would be negotiated by the Director of the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, subject to certain criteria. The bill limits the amount of money that can be loaned to the Department of Fish and Wildlife for activities to address environmental damage occurring on forest lands resulting from cannabis cultivation to $500,000, until July 1, 2017 (the end of the current fiscal year). 

AB 389 (Salas, Caballero, and Ridley-Thomas) - Marijuana: consumer guide.

This bill would require the bureau, by July 1, 2018, to establish and make available on its Internet Web site a consumer guide to educate the public on the regulation of medical and nonmedical marijuana. The guide shall include, without limitation: (1) The difference between medical cannabis and nonmedical cannabis; (2) Where nonmedical cannabis may be legally purchased; (3) Rules on the public consumption of medical cannabis and nonmedical cannabis; (4) How much cannabis may be purchased at one time; (5) Penalties for violating cannabis laws; and (6) The process for reporting consumer concerns or complaints.

AB 416 (Mathis) - Cannabis.

This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation relating to CBD-enriched cannabis. There are no details in the introduced version.

AB 420 (Wood) - Marijuana and medical cannabis: advertisements: license number disclosure.

This bill would require an advertisement for the sale of medical cannabis or medical cannabis products to identify the MCRSA licensee responsible for its content by including, at a minimum, the license number of the MCRSA licensee. This bill would require an advertisement for the sale of nonmedical marijuana or nonmedical marijuana products to include, at a minimum, the license number of the AUMA licensee responsible for its content. 

AB 702 (Lackey) - Driving under the influence: chemical tests.

This bill would repeal the presumption that a person consents to submit to chemical testing of his or her blood or breath and would instead require a motor vehicle driver who is lawfully arrested for a specified DUI offense to submit to chemical testing of his or her blood or breath for the purpose of determining the alcoholic or drug content of his or her blood. The bill make other changes that could negatively affect a medical cannabis patient accused of driving while impaired by cannabis. 

AB 729 (Gray) - Nonmedical marijuana: licensee regulation.

This bill makes changes related to the enforcement of laws against selling adult use cannabis to persons under the age of 21. The bill would: (1) require a licensing authority to suspend a license for a 3rd or subsequent violation of the prohibition on engaging in non-medical marijuana commercial activities with a person under 21 years of age if the violation occurs within 36 months of the initial violation; (2) require a licensee to post a sign, visible from each public entrance, and a similar sign inside the premises that reads “No Person Under 21 Allowed” and would authorize a licensee that is also a licensed dispensary to include language on the sign that reads “without identification authorizing the purchase of medical cannabis;” (3) authorize a licensee or its agents or employees to refuse to sell marijuana to a person who is unable to produce adequate personal identification showing that he or she is 21 years of age or older and to seize forged ID; (4) prohibit the sale, offer for sale, or distribution of marijuana or marijuana products in a vending machine or appliance, or any other coin- or token-operated mechanical device designed or used for vending purposes; (5) allow for police compliance inspections; (6) prohibit a licensee from being located within a 600-foot radius of a playground, hospital, or church, as specified, unless a licensing authority or local agency specifies otherwise; (7) require those security measures also to include maintaining windows and transparent doors in a specified manner to ensure that law enforcement personnel have a clear and unobstructed view of the interior of the premises; and (8) authorize undercover investigations for age-related restrictions using under age buyers. 

AB 844 (Burke) - California Marijuana Tax Fund: funding for support system navigation services: minimum performance standards.

This bill would amend AUMA by requiring applicants for grants to support system navigation services, as described in AUMA, to meet specific minimum performance standards as a condition of grant eligibility, including, among other standards, operate 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year.

AB 845 (Wood) - Cannabidiol.

This bill would authorize, if federal law authorizes the prescription of a controlled substance containing cannabidiol (CBD), a physician to prescribe that substance in accordance with federal law. The bill would also provide that upon the enactment of federal law authorizing the prescription or the furnishing, transferring, possession, or use of a prescription for a controlled substance containing cannabidiol, notwithstanding any other state law, the prescription, furnishing, transferring, possession, or use of that controlled substance in accordance with federal law is for a legitimate medical purpose and is authorized pursuant to state law.

AB 903 (Cunningham) - California Marijuana Tax Fund: California Highway Patrol.

This bill would amend AUMA by requiring the Department of the California Highway Patrol to use its annual appropriation from the fund to study the viability of standards for marijuana impairment.

AB 948 (Bonta) - Marijuana.

This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation relating to marijuana.

AB 963 (Gipson) - Taxation: marijuana.

This bill would make numerous changes related to revoking cannabis licenses and to how and when sales and use tax is collected on cannabis. The bill would: (1) require a distributor, which this bill would define as a person that makes a distribution of marijuana or marijuana products to a retailer, to collect prepayments of both marijuana excise tax and sales tax on the marijuana or marijuana products distributed, as specified; (2) revise and recast that provision to exempt from sales and use taxes retail sales of medical cannabis, medical cannabis concentrate, edible medical cannabis products, or topical cannabis to persons with identification cards, as defined, or primary caregivers that provide the above-described identification; (3) establish within the team the Cannabis Criminal Enforcement Team for the purpose of combating criminal tax evasion associated with marijuana, marijuana products, and marijuana accessories; and more.

AB 1002 (Cooley) - Center for Cannabis Research.

This bill would rename the California Marijuana Research Program the Center for Cannabis Research and would expand the purview of the program to include the study of naturally occurring constituents of cannabis and synthetic compounds that have effects similar to naturally occurring cannabinoids. The bill would authorize the program to cultivate cannabis to be used exclusively for research purposes and to contract with a private entity to provide expertise in cultivating medical cannabis. The bill would also authorize the controlled clinical trials to focus on examining testing methods for detecting harmful contaminants in marijuana, including mold and bacteria.

AB 1096 (Bonta) - Medical cannabis. (cultivation on tribal lands)

This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to address state regulation of medical cannabis grown on, but transported out of, tribal lands.

AB 1143 (Gray) - Outdoor advertising: prohibitions.

 The Outdoor Advertising Act regulates placement of advertising signs adjacent to and within specified distances of certain highways… This bill would also prohibit these advertising displays from advertising marijuana.

AB 1244 (Voepel) - Marijuana: production of concentrated cannabis.

This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation relating to the production of concentrated cannabis using butane.

AB 1254 (Wood) - Production or cultivation of a controlled substance: civil penalties.

Existing law, in certain circumstances, makes a person found to have violated specified provisions of law generally protecting fish and wildlife, water, or other natural resources in connection with the production or cultivation of a controlled substance liable for a civil penalty in addition to any penalties imposed by any other law. Existing law authorizes the Department of Fish and Wildlife to impose these civil penalties administratively in accordance with specified procedures. This bill would make non-substantive changes to this provision.

AB 1420 (Aguiar-Curry) - Water rights: small irrigation use: lake or streambed alteration agreements.

Among many other provisions in the bill, AB 1420 would exempt an entity cultivating medical cannabis from the requirement to enter into a lake or streambed alteration agreement with the department if the entity submits a board-approved registration or renewed or amended registration for water use to the department and the department determines certain requirements are met, including, the payment of a fee required for a lake or streambed alteration agreement and the submission of a copy of any department conditions imposed for the registration for water use. 

AB 1443 (Levine) - Court records. (Cannabis)

Among other provisions, this bill would delete a trial court’s authority to create, maintain, and preserve records according to standards and guidelines adopted by the American National Standards Institute or the Association for Information and Image Management, including certain cannabis cases. 

AB 1410 (Wood) - Taxation: marijuana cultivation tax.

This bill would, at the time of completion of all quality assurance, inspection, and testing or when that quality assurance, inspection, and testing should have been completed, instead require a person required to be licensed as a distributor under the act and the Medical Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act to collect the cultivation tax from the taxpayer and give to the taxpayer a receipt in the manner and form prescribed by the board, except as specified… This bill would provide that the tax required to be collected by the person required to be licensed as a distributor, and any amount unreturned to the taxpayer which is not a tax but was collected from the taxpayer under the representation by the person required to be licensed as a distributor that it was tax, constitute debts owed to the state by the person required to be licensed as a distributor. This bill would require the person required to be licensed as a distributor to file the tax return instead of the person required to be licensed for cultivation, except as specified. The bill would also require all persons required to be licensed as a distributor who are required to collect the tax to obtain a separate permit at no charge. The bill would provide that any person required to obtain this permit who engages in business as a distributor without a permit or after a permit has been canceled, suspended, or revoked, and each officer of any corporation that so engages in business, is guilty of a misdemeanor. 

AB 1527 (Cooley) - State and local marijuana regulatory agencies: employees.

This bill would prohibit a former employee of the bureau, a licensing authority, the panel, or a local jurisdiction who had specified regulatory or licensing responsibilities from being employed by a person or entity licensed under AUMA or MCRSA for a period of one year from the last date of employment by the bureau, licensing authority, panel, or local jurisdiction. The bill would prohibit a person or entity licensed under AUMA or MCRSA from employing a former employee of the bureau, a licensing authority, the panel, or a local jurisdiction who had specified regulatory or licensing responsibilities within one year of the last date of employment by the bureau, licensing authority, panel, or local jurisdiction. The bill would authorize the bureau or the licensing authority to suspend immediately the license of a licensee who violates this provision and to investigate and determine whether to revoke the license and whether to bar the licensee, or any person or entity acting as an agent of the licensee, from obtaining a license in the future. The bill would specify that a violation of these employment restrictions is not a crime.

AB 1578 (Jones-Sawyer) - Marijuana and cannabis programs: cooperation with federal authorities.

This bill would prohibit a state or local agency, as defined, from taking certain actions without a court order signed by a judge, including using agency money, facilities, property, equipment, or personnel to assist a federal agency to investigate, detain, detect, report, or arrest a person for commercial or noncommercial marijuana or medical cannabis activity that is authorized by law in the State of California and transferring an individual to federal law enforcement authorities for purposes of marijuana enforcement.

AB 1606 (Cooper) - Edible marijuana products.

This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation, consistent with AUMA, that would establish quality standards for edible marijuana products.

AB 1627 (Cooley) - AUMA: testing laboratories.

This bill would transfer the regulation of testing laboratories under AUMA from the State Department of Public Health to the Bureau of Marijuana Control in the Department of Consumer Affairs.

SB 65 (Hill) - Vehicles: alcohol and marijuana: penalties.

The bill would make driving or operating a vehicle, boat, vessel, or aircraft while drinking any alcoholic beverage or smoking or ingesting cannabis or cannabis products an offense punishable as an infraction or a misdemeanor. The bill would authorize a court to order a defendant to attend drug or alcohol education and counseling classes in addition to those penalties.

SB 67 (Bates) - Sentencing: driving under the influence. 

This bill would require the determination of whether an offense constitutes a separate violation or prior conviction under the driving-under-the-influence prohibition described above to be based on the date of the conviction of the separate or prior offense, and would specify that the determination is not affected by the sentence imposed or any subsequent action taken pursuant to the existing discretionary sentencing provisions.

SB 148 (Wiener) – State Board of Equalization: counties: state agencies: collection of cash payments: cannabis-related businesses.

This bill would enact the Cannabis State Payment Collection Law and would authorize the State Board of Equalization or a county to collect cash payments from cannabis-related businesses for a state agency that administers any fee, fine, penalty, or other charge payable by a cannabis-related business, if that state agency has entered into an agreement with the board or county. This bill would require a county to collect only if both the board of supervisors of the county and the county tax collector or county treasurer-tax collector approves of entering into an agreement with a state agency to make those collections. The bill would require the agreement to include specified provisions, including that the board or county transmit the collected moneys to the Treasurer to be deposited in the State Treasury to the credit of the funds or accounts in which the fees, fines, penalties, taxes, or other charges are otherwise required by law to be deposited, as specified... (Click the link above to see the full summary).

SB 175 (McGuire) - Marijuana: county of origin: marketing.

Both Medical Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act and Adult Use of Marijuana Act (Proposition 64) prohibit the use of the name of a California county in the labeling, marketing, or packaging of medical cannabis products or nonmedical cannabis products, unless the cannabis contained in the product was grown in that county. This bill would specify that those prohibitions include the use of any similar sounding name that is likely to mislead consumers as to the origin of the product.

SB 311 (Pan) - Medical cannabis and nonmedical marijuana: testing by a licensee.

This bill would authorize a licensee to perform testing on the licensee’s premises of cannabis or cannabis products obtained from another licensee for the purpose of quality assurance. The bill would specify that onsite testing does not exempt the licensee from the existing requirements of quality assurance testing by a distributor and testing laboratory.

SB 506 (Nielsen) - Department of Fish and Wildlife: lake or streambed alteration agreements.

This bill would limit the diversions and obstructions governed by these alteration agreement requirements to the diversions and obstructions that alter the bed, channel, or bank of a river, stream, or lake. The bill would exempt routine maintenance and repair of facilities for instream agricultural diversions from the alteration agreement requirements.

SB 663 (Nielsen) - Packages and labels of marijuana or marijuana products: children.

This bill would specify that a package or label of marijuana or marijuana products is deemed to be attractive to children if the package or label has specific characteristics, including, among others, resembling any candy, snack food, baked good, or beverage commercially sold without marijuana.

SB 698 (Hill) - Driving under the influence: alcohol and marijuana.

This bill would make it a crime for a person who has between 0.04% and 0.07%, by weight, of alcohol in his or her blood and whose blood contains any controlled substance or 5 ng/ml or more of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol to drive a vehicle. The bill would also specify certain penalties.

SJR 5 (Stone) - Federal rescheduling of marijuana from a Schedule I drug.

This measure would request that the Congress of the United States pass a law to reschedule marijuana or cannabis and its derivatives from a Schedule I drug to an alternative schedule and that the President of the United States sign such legislation.

Today, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) released its decision to keep cannabis in its current Schedule 1 status. This decision will have substantial implications for the two million patients that currently have access to medical cannabis and cannabis products under state laws. Schedule I status means that the DEA sees no accepted medical use of cannabis.  

The Controlled Substances Act requires an 8-Factor Analysis from the HHS upon which the DEA makes it determination for all scheduling, or rescheduling, decisions. Previous efforts to reschedule cannabis have also been blocked by the DEA, who remain the most steadfast in maintaining their opposition to cannabis reform under the Obama administration.

Pictured: Acting DEA Administrator Chuck Rosenberg 

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When the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) convenes in New York next Tuesday, delegates will be discussing global drug policy – including what to do about medical cannabis. This is a historic meeting, and the ramifications for national and international medical cannabis policy could be huge.

ASA would like to provide every delegate from the 180 nations represented with a groundbreaking report we prepared this year for the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs.  The 91-page report, which was peer-reviewed at our annual conference in March, answers important scientific questions about medical cannabis, and outlines a pathway towards international reform.

Pictured: ASA Executive Director Steph Sherer and an international delegation from France, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and Jamaica delivering the report to the UNCND in March.

Help out by donating this week to get this report to every delegate at the UNGASS meeting. Our goal is to raise $5,000 to make it happen before next Tuesday!

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ASA’s 4^th Annual National Medical Cannabis Unity Conference ended on Tuesday in Washington, DC, and we have already seen results in the national and international arena. We are going to make 2016 a historic year for medical cannabis, and we need your help to do it.

One of the most exciting parts of the conference was the preparation of a report for the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND). Conference participants peer-reviewed the report on Sunday, and ASA submitted the 91-page report to CND on Monday morning. The report answers important scientific questions about medical cannabis, and outlines a pathway towards international reform.

Pictured: ASA Executive Director Steph Sherer and an international delegation from France, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and Jamaica delivering the report in Washington, DC.

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You have an important job to do, if you are attending ASA’s National Medical Cannabis Unity Conference, March 18-22, at the Lowes Madison Hotel in Washington, DC. We will be finalizing a document at the conference that will be submitted to the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND).  

The CND meeting in Vienna coincides with the ASA Unity Conference this year. Unity Conference participants will have the opportunity to weigh in on this review document on Sunday March 20^th in special stakeholder meetings. Allies within the CND will be calling on the CND, WHO, and UNGASS to use this Critical Review Preparation Document as a stepping-stone to move international cannabis policy forward. 

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US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has just agreed to co-sponsor the CARERS Act. This is a big development and just days before Americans for Safe Access (ASA) brings hundreds of citizen advocates to the Capitol as part of our 4th Annual National Medical Cannabis Unity Conference. As a result, participants will have more momentum when asking their representatives in Congress to pass the CARERS Act, the first comprehensive medical cannabis reform bill in Congress.

The passage of the CARERS Act  would allow state medical marijuana programs to continue without federal interference, move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule II of the Controlled Substance Schedule, remove the marijuana compound Cannabidiol (CBD) entirely from the schedule, create access to banking services for marijuana businesses in legal states, eliminate the DEA-mandated “NIDA-monopoly” that prevents researchers from obtaining marijuana for clinical studies, and allow Veterans Health Administration physicians to write recommendations in states that have established a medical marijuana program. 

Senator Graham’s support is a huge victory for patients and advocates and would not have happened without the tireless work of patient advocates like you! We need to build on this momentum and pass CARERS this year! 

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(Washington, DC) - Yesterday, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) joined the bipartisan Compassionate Access, Research Expansion, and Respect States (CARERS) Act (S. 683) as a co-sponsor. The support of Senator Graham coincides with the one-year anniversary of the bill’s introduction by Senators Cory Booker (D-NY), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Rand Paul (R-KY).  The CARERS Act is the most comprehensive piece of medical cannabis legislation ever introduced in the U.S. Congress and would remedy the state-federal conflict over medical cannabis law.

“Graham’s support of CARERS Act is a significant step for patients” said Americans for Safe Access Executive Director, Steph Sherer. “This development should finally compel fellow Republican and Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley to allow the bill a vote. This is the only way to respect the 40 states that have laws recognizing medical use and the more than 80% of voters who support it.”

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