WRITE TO YOUR LEGISLATORS AND GOV. NEWSOM AND ASK THEM NOT TO RAISE CANNABIS TAXES IN 2025
Update 5/8/2025 – AB 564, to halt a cannabis tax increase this year, passed through its second committee with another unanimous vote. It now goes to Assembly Appropriations. Meanwhile, the Governor and both legislative houses are finalizing their budgets for the year.
California raised its excise tax on cannabis from 15% to 19% on July 1, 2025, as part of a budget compromise made when the cannabis cultivation tax was removed via AB 195 (2022), in order to assure adequate funding for programs funded by cannabis taxes.
A bill sponsored by Cal NORML, AB 564 (Haney) would roll back this tax increase, as soon as October 1. …
Read more about Lobby Day 2025
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California NORML and ASA (Americans for Safe Access) are pleased to announce Citizen Lobby Day, taking place March 24, 2025 in Sacramento, CA. Our members and coalition partners will host a lobby day and training in support of state legislation to better regulate cannabis and protect consumers in California.
The California Citizen Lobby Day offers an exciting and unique opportunity to reach out to the medical and adult-use cannabis community.…
There’s been much enthusiasm about the new law, which will take effect on January 1, 2025. It’s a good time for supporters to join Cal NORML and get involved with local NORML chapters to ensure that local governments will allow cannabis lounges. Cal NORML has been tracking cannabis lounges and hopes to see more open. Also see our Local Activist Toolkit.
9/30/24 – In a strong showing of support for the California cannabis industry and legal consumers, Governor Newsom has signed into law the Cal NORML-sponsored cannabis café bill AB 1775 (Haney), to allow licensed cannabis lounges to sell non-alcoholic food and drinks, as well as tickets to onsite concerts, with local government approval.
DOWNLOAD A FLYER ABOUT CANNABIS TAX FAIRNESS IN CALIFORNIA
UPDATE 7/10/2023 – SB 512 (Bradford), to end double taxation on cannabis by including state and local excise taxes when calculating other taxes, was held in the Assembly Revenue and Taxation committee and will likely not advance this year in its present form.
Committee chair Jacqui Irwin, who authored a bill to make cannabis billboards illegal in 2012 and whose current bill AB 1207 to restrict cannabis packaging and flavorings was opposed by cannabis industry groups, commented at the hearing that it’s too soon to evaluate the results of AB 195 (2022), which eliminated the cannabis cultivation tax and shifted the responsibility for paying state excise tax from the distributor to the retailer, while making the changes SB 512 sought to correct.…
At Gov. Newsom’s press conference this morning announcing his May budget revision, he was asked about his proposal to end the cannabis cultivation tax while keeping the state excise tax at 15%, while granting authority to raise the tax to as much as 19% if tax revenues fall below $670 million as soon as January 2024.
Newsom announced a $150 million “backfill” from the General Fund to cover any temporary tax income reductions that may affect youth, environmental, or law enforcement programs that are currently funded with Prop.…
With California’s legal cannabis industry in dire straits due to high taxes and regulatory costs, California NORML called on legislators to pass a tax relief bill by Sen. Bradford (SB 1281) at a hearings before the State Senate Governance and Finance Committee on May 4. The Bradford bill would eliminate the state cultivation tax, which was designed to increase retail prices and reduce consumer demand. SB 1281 would also reduce the state’s excise taxes to make legal retailers more competitive with California’s underground market.…
November 22, 2021 – The California Dept. of Taxation and Fee Administration has ruled that the cultivation tax on legal cannabis be raised from $9.65 to $10.08 per dry-weight ounce of flower, from $2.87 to $3 for leaf, and from $1.35 to $1.41 for fresh material starting on January 1, 2022.
Cal NORML denounced the tax hike as wrong-headed and untimely. “The legal industry is already so burdened by excessive taxes and regulation that it cannot compete with unlicensed marketers,” says California NORML Director Dale Gieringer.…