LAST UPDATED 5/8/2026 Cal NORML is tracking the following and has reached out to the authors’ offices: AB 1826 (Lackey) To improve due process around the recall, embargo, and destruction of cannabis products. Sponsored by CCIA. Passed Assembly Business & Professions and Judiciary committees. 5/6 Appropriations committee hearing postponed by committee. Cal NORML has joined a sign-on letter in support of this bill. AB 1965 (Sharp-Collins) Cannabis: testing: quality assurance. Passed unanimously in Com. on B. and P.  In Appropriations committee suspense file with a hearing set for 5/14. Cal NORML has sent a letter in support of this bill.

A “joint” hearing of the CA Joint Legislative Audit and Asm. Business and Professions Committee was held in Sacramento on February 17 addressing cannabis packaging and its attractiveness to children. Chair of the Joint Legislative Audit committee John Harabedian (D-Pasadena) opened the hearing and turned it over to Asm. Jacqui Irwin (D-Ventura) who requested an audit of cannabis packaging last year. The audit determined that laws and guidance are not always clear on what constitutes a package that is attractive to children, and that the DCC’s enforcement against companies with repeated violations was lacking. DCC’s regulations prohibit cartoonish characters on

California NORML and our supporters worked hard in 2022 to sponsor and pass AB 1954, to protect medical marijuana patients against discrimination by their doctors. This was in response to numerous complaints we received from patients, particularly those in the Kaiser Healthcare system, telling us that their doctors were drug testing them and denying them care—including opioid prescriptions and other medicines—if they tested positive for cannabis. Our bill became law on January 1, 2023 (BPC 2228.5), prohibiting physicians and health plans to have policies denying medical treatment to qualified patients with a recommendation to use medical marijuana. The only exception is if a clinical determination

UPDATE 2/26/26 – The cannabis language in the bill has been erased, following opposition from some in the cannabis industry, concerned that it would open the door to broader shipping.  UPDATE 2/20/26 – During a chat with Capitol Weekly, new DCC chief Clint Kellum said (@ 19:46 in), that direct-mail options for cannabis could be “quite beneficial” to consumers, noting that most people are getting goods via Amazon, etc. Kellum said that the cannabis consumer has “quite a confusing market to deal with, in that there’s not widespread access across the state, you have intoxicating hemp cannabinoids that aren’t allowed

Efforts to reform federal cannabis laws remain stuck on hold in Washington, D.C.  There is no indication as to whether the administration plans to move marijuana from Schedule I to III, as proposed by the Biden administration in April 2024. The DEA’s leadership has expressed skepticism about the proposal and has been sitting on it ever since. President Trump is reported to have privately indicated his interest in rescheduling to cannabusiness interests. However, his advisors are thought to have mixed views. In August, Trump declared that he was actively reviewing the question and would reach a decision in “the next