Thanks to all Cal NORML’s supporters who helped lobby for the bill (including at our Lobby Day in March), and all who wrote letters via Cal NORML’s Action Network.
Cal NORML put out word through our email alert list this week asking cannabis consumers and businesses to tell us about the initial impacts of the 26% excise tax increase that hit cannabis in California on July 1. Several consumers and businesses reported damaging repercussions; some of the responses are below.
“To be honest even the old tax had me wanting to go back to the black market but with the new tax it’s even more likely that I will start looking to get my cannabis from some place cheaper,” wrote one consumer.…
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. …
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.…