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To the extent anything in politics is a certainty, it is a certainty the California legislature will impose state-wide regulation on California’s medical cannabis industry prior to the end of 2015. The state-wide regulation of California’s medical cannabis industry will be based on Assembly Bill 266 and Senate Bill 643. Each house of the California legislature has passed its version of this regulatory legislation, but this legislation is subject to amendment for the reason described below.
Both AB 266 and SB 643 were withdrawn in their entirety on September 1, 2015. The language of each of these bills was replaced with a single sentence that states the California legislature will enact legislation which will establish state-wide regulation of California’s medical cannabis industry based on AB 266 and SB 643. These two bills will be re-introduced in the next few days with those changes Governor Brown’s staff deems necessary to make this regulatory legislation completely acceptable to the Governor.
I have followed the evolution of AB 266 and SB 643 for several months. Governor Brown’s staff has been making suggestions regarding these two bills throughout the legislative process. It is my belief this final step is being taken to allow Governor Brown the opportunity to take out (or modify) details in order to make the legislation wholly acceptable to his office as well as to the legislature.
Attached please find a slide show presentation I have created to illustrate the impact of state-wide regulation on California’s medical cannabis industry. I prepared this slide show presentation to graphically describe the changes state-wide regulation of California’s medical cannabis industry will make to the existing industry. I prepared this slide show primarily for those who are already involved in some aspect of California’s medical cannabis industry. Those who are already involved in this industry will suffer the greatest impact from this legislation. This group in large part is ill-prepared for the changes state-wide regulation will impose on the existing medical cannabis industry in California.
The details regarding licenses, combinations of licenses, and regulatory agencies reflected in the attached slide show are subject to change.
