Governor Gavin Newsom has issued a revised state budget with several cannabis provisions, according to the budget summary. The revised budget forecasts the state cannabis excise tax will generate $288 million in 2018-19 and $359 million in 2019-20, a reduction of $67 million and $156 million, respectively, from the original Governor’s Budget forecast. It states,
May 8, 2019 – California NORML has submitted testimony to the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) opposing the inclusion of cannabis on the state’s Prop 65 list of known reproductive hazards. Prop 65 requires businesses to post warning signs regarding the presence of substances known to pose a risk of reproductive
Around 100 citizen lobbyists from across California visited scores of legislative offices in Sacramento as part of the Third Annual Cal NORML / ASA Lobby Day on Monday, May 6, 2019. NORML chapter members from Orange County, the Central Valley, the Inland Empire, and Contra Costa county joined Americans for Safe Access chapter members
SACRAMENTO, Apr 23 – A bill to create a new state license type for cannabis consumption café/lounges was approved by the Assembly Business and Professions Committee. The bill, AB 1465 by Asm. Bloom (Santa Monica) would finally let California have public cannabis coffee shops as in Amsterdam. Under current law, the only public places where
UPDATE 5/7/19 – Thanks to all who participated in Lobby Day! We visited hundreds of legislative offices and had a productive day. A special thanks to all of our sponsors who made the day possible. California NORML is once again teaming up with Americans for Safe Access to co-sponsor a Citizens Lobby Day in
April 9, 2019 – AB 1530, a bill that would have allowed local jurisdictions to ban cannabis deliveries originating outside their jurisdictional borders, was defeated in its first committee hearing today after cannabis activists and industry representatives objected to the bill. Cal NORML wrote to the committee and testified against the bill, and promulgated an
With the passage of Prop. 64 by California voters in November 2016, it is now legal for all adults over 21 to purchase and use cannabis in California. Read more about your rights in California. It’s a new day, but there is still much work to be done! Here are some of the areas where Cal
UPDATE: The Mountain View planning commission voted to amend the ordinance to only allow one cannabis business in the city’s downtown area, prohibit the businesses in and around the San Antonio Center shopping area and mandate a 600-foot buffer zone between storefront cannabis businesses. The Mountain View City Council will take an initial vote on the changes
February 25 – As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle and the LA Times, San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón announced that his office will move to wipe out more than 9,000 marijuana-related convictions, following California’s vote for legalization in 2016. Teaming with the nonprofit technology company Code for America, the DA’s office said it
February 20 – Governor Gavin Newsom plans to reassign 360 of the state’s California National Guard from the US-Mexico border to tackle wildfire preparedness and illicit marijuana grows in Northern California. In a February 11 press release and his State of the State speech on February 12, the governor announced that at least 150 California
California Senator and Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris has admitted she smoked pot in her past, and says she is “absolutely in favor of legalizing marijuana,” harkening to her half-Jamaican heritage and citing the mass incarceration resulting from cannabis prohibition, particularly of young black men. Interviewed on The Breakfast Club radio show in NYC, Harris called
Take Action In Support of Cannabis Compassion Programs UPDATE 12/3 – The bill number is SB 34. November 29 – Joined by co-sponsor Sen. Nancy Skinner (Berkeley), Senator Scott Wiener (San Francisco) announced he will re-introduce his bill to protect cannabis compassion programs in California at a press conference at the SPARC dispensary in SF.
December 19, 2018 – A little-noticed looming deadline will make nonprofit collectives and cooperatives dispensing cannabis to medical patients illegal in California starting on January 9, 2019. Proposition 215, passed by the voters of California in 1996 and still in effect today, protects only the personal use and cultivation of medical marijuana for patients, or
On the courthouse steps December 8 – Cannabis advocates handed out free marijuana to grateful recipients on the Contra Costa County Courthouse steps today in protest of the county’s lack of legal, affordable dispensaries. Organizers, including Contra Costa County NORML and PotPride.com, took advantage of California’s legalization law, which makes it legal to possess and
PLEASE JOIN CAL NORML OR RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP TO HELP US CONTINUE OUR WORK IN 2019. As California enters new territory with the opening of adult-use sales this year, Cal NORML continues its fight to secure consumers’ rights to use cannabis freely, legally, and affordably. We are glad to have made some progress with the
This page will be updated as more results are reported. Updated 11/11 Gavin Newsom, a cannabis supporter who pushed for the passage of Prop. 64 to legalize adult recreational use in California, will be the new governor of the state. Incumbent Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who has vowed to protect the state’s legalization law against
November 2, 2018 – San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge David Cohn has issued a ruling striking down parts of a City of Fontana ordinance placing restrictions on residential marijuana growers in the first court case limiting a local jurisdiction’s ability to regulate personal cultivation rights in California under Proposition 64 (AUMA). The ruling is
BCC chief Lori Ajax kicked off Day 2 of the NCIA/CCIA conference and trade show in Anaheim by reminding the crowd that everything the Bureau does affects the cannabis consumer and the public, as well as licensees. Speaking of the 152-page regulatory document released with revisions following thousands of comments last Friday, Ajax noted, “A
Read Day 2 Report The NCIA/CCIA conference in Anaheim got off to a rousing start with NCIA founder Aaron Smith reminding the crowd that California was still the biggest potential market for the cannabis industry, even now that Canada has become the second country to legalize it. Smith announced that the latest Gallup poll shows
Updated 1:10 PM October 19, 2018 – Regulations for cannabis businesses in California have been issued by the Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC), the CA Dept of Food of Agriculture (CDFA), and the CA Dept. of Public Health (CDPH). A final 15-day comment period on the proposed regulations has opened. The controversial regulation allowing deliveries
