The California Dept. of Public Health held a hearing today on proposed regulations extending a ban on hemp-derived products with any amount of THC, along with establishing an age limitation of 21, limiting the number of doses per container to five, etc. The full transcript of the hearing will be available later today or tomorrow, and comments are accepted until the end of business day. Write here. If approved, the proposed regulations would make permanent Gov. Newsom’s September 2024 emergency regulation banning hemp products. Initial enforcement efforts by the ABC took intoxicating hemp drinks out of liquor and grocery stores, but

Were you arrested for possessing an ounce or less of marijuana in California before 1976?  If so, Cal NORML would like to hear your story. This year marks the 50th anniversary of California’s landmark decriminalization law, the Moscone Act, which was sponsored by Cal NORML and decriminalized possession of one ounce of marijuana from a felony to a minor misdemeanor. The Moscone Act cut the number of marijuana felonies in California from over 100,000 to 20,000 in a year, saving the state $100 million in arrest costs, not to mention the human costs for arrestees. If you were arrested for

CLICK HERE TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR AB 564 TO STOP A CANNABIS TAX INCREASE! EVERY SIGNATURE HELPS. The Cal NORML/ASA Lobby Day yesterday in Sacramento brought in a score of citizen lobbyists from across the state to meet with legislators or their staffers in support of AB 564 (Haney), to halt a pending cannabis tax increase from 15% to 19% on July 1. Christina Dempsey, Deputy Director of Government Affairs at the CA Dept. of Cannabis Control, spoke to the group about the report the DCC just issued on the state of the cannabis market in California. In particular,

A “Joint” informational hearing on March 11 before the Assembly and Senate Business and Professions committees on the CA Department of Cannabis Control’s new Condition and Health of the Cannabis Industry Report presented a grim picture of the state of the industry and its future. Asm. Mike Gipson (D-LA), chair of the Assembly Revenue & Tax committee, and Asm. Sharon Quirk-Silva (D-Buena Park) who chairs the Budget subcommittee that oversees the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC), also participated. Quirk-Silva said the findings in the DCC report are “very concerning.” Active licenses and total retail sales value are both down. “Is

UPDATE: Read Cal NORML Director Dale Gieringer’s testimony to the DWC, and an appendix of studies on cannabis and pain. See Deputy Director Ellen Komp’s letter on ties between the ACOEM and the worker’s compensation insurance providers.  California is considering adopting enormously wrong-headed chronic pain treatment recommendations by the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine that would ban medical cannabis use for injured workers. The recommendation flies in the face of scores of scientific studies, including reports by the National Academy of Sciences* and California’s Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research,** plus the experience of countless California patients and doctors

Interested vape companies are invited to sponsor their devices for a study of cannabis vape pen emissions by California NORML. The study will test a variety of vape devices and cartridges to determine how much cannabinoids and harmful smoke toxins they deliver. The study is intended to help provide better consumer information on the safety and efficacy of cannabis vapes. There is good reason to believe that electronic vape devices can deliver safe, clean doses of THC and CBD without harmful smoke toxins. Unfortunately, evidence to support this is thin due to federal restrictions on research, which forbid labs from

November 19, 2024 – Following a two-year process during which the Sacramento Office of Cannabis Management met with public officials and lounge owners across the state, surveyed interested parties, and took scientific testimony to develop a pilot ordinance allowing for cannabis consumption lounges in the city, the Sacramento city council today voted 5-4 to allow the five-year pilot program to go forward. Both Type 1 licenses, allowing for noninhaled cannabis lounges (drinks and edibles) and Type 2 licenses, allowing for smoking and vaping at lounges, were approved. About 40 members of the Sacramento community spoke at today’s meeting, many from