50 Years of Progress in Cannabis Reform
September 19, 2025
A 50 year timeline of successful California NORML campaigns, showing our progress expanding and protecting the rights of California cannabis consumers since 1972.
CDPH Holds Hearing on CA Hemp Regulations
July 28, 2025
Read the hearing transcript: Public Hearing Serving Size and Age for Industrial Hemp Transcript Regulations webpage: DPH-24-005E Emergency Regulations for Serving Size, Age, and Intoxicating Cannabinoids for Industrial Hemp 7/28/25 – 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
Initial Impacts of The California Cannabis Excise Tax Increase
July 10, 2025
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. Another wrote, “I drive to Oregon to
AB 564 to Stop a Cannabis Tax Increase Heads to Senate Appropriations Committee
July 9, 2025
UPDATE September 10, 2025 – AB 564 has passed both houses of the California legislature and is heading to the Governor’s desk. UPDATE July 9, 2025 – On the 50th anniversary of cannabis decriminalization in California, AB 564 passed through the Senate Revenue and Tax committee, its first stop in the Senate after passing in the Assembly by a vote of 74-0. An amendment would roll the tax back from 19% (enacted on July 1) back to 15% on October 1. It will next head to the Appropriations committee, sometime after the legislature reconvenes after its summer break on August
Cal NORML Celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Marijuana Decriminalization in California in July
July 7, 2025
July 9, 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of California’s landmark marijuana decriminalization law, the Moscone Act, which reduced the penalty for possessing an ounce or less of marijuana from a felony to a citable misdemeanor punishable by a $100 fine and no jail. The law, sponsored by then-Senator George Moscone and California NORML, was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on July 9, 1975 and took effect on January 1, 1976. The Moscone Act resulted in an 80% reduction in felony marijuana arrests, saving the state an estimated $100 million per year in enforcement costs, and saving well over a million
Arrested for a Joint in California Before 1976? We Want to Hear From You
May 27, 2025
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
Cal NORML-Sponsored Bill to Halt A Cannabis Tax Increase Passes First Committee
April 22, 2025
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. Please take action on our new alert targeted at the full legislature and the Governor, asking them not to increase cannabis taxes in 2025. April 22, 2025, Sacramento – By a vote of 15-0-3, the California Assembly Business and Professions Committee
Lobby Day Attendees Advocate for Stopping a Cannabis Tax Increase in California
March 25, 2025
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,
“Joint” Hearing Held on Condition of California Cannabis Industry
March 17, 2025
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
Cal NORML Sponsors Bill to Block Cannabis Tax Increase
March 1, 2025
UPDATE 7/10/2025 – Please send a letter to your state Senator asking them to pass AB 564 to roll back cannabis taxes. 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. Cannabis is already heavily over-taxed relative to comparable products like beer, wine, and
CA DIVISION OF WORKERS’ COMPENSATION CONSIDERS BANNING MEDICAL CANNABIS FOR INJURED WORKERS – HEARINGS AND TESTIMONY DUE MARCH 14th
February 24, 2025
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
Applications Sought for Cannabis Vape Pen Study
November 29, 2024
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