This bill is part of the 2021 Cannabis Bills section of our ongoing update on California Cannabis Legislation – see the full California Cannabis Law Legislative Update which includes information on cannabis bills from other years.
AB 1014 (McCarty D) Cannabis: retailers: delivery: vehicles.
The Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA), an initiative statute approved as Proposition 64 at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election, authorizes a person who obtains a state license under AUMA to engage in commercial adult-use cannabis activity pursuant to that license and applicable local ordinances. The Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA), among other things, consolidates the licensure and regulation of commercial medicinal and adult-use cannabis activities. MAUCRSA establishes the Department of Cannabis Control for the administration and enforcement of its provisions. MAUCRSA generally defines delivery to mean the commercial transfer of cannabis or cannabis products to a customer, requires the delivery of cannabis or cannabis products to be made only by a licensed retailer, microbusiness, or nonprofit, and establishes requirements for the delivery of cannabis and cannabis products, including that an employee of the licensee carry a copy of the licensee’s current license and a government-issued identification with a photo of the employee, such as a driver’s license.
MAUCRSA requires the department to establish minimum security and transportation safety requirements for the delivery of cannabis and cannabis products. Under existing administrative law, among other requirements, a licensed retailer’s delivery employee that is carrying cannabis goods for delivery is only allowed to travel in an enclosed motor vehicle. Under existing administrative law, among other requirements, a licensed retailer’s delivery employee is prohibited from carrying cannabis goods in the delivery vehicle with a value in excess of $5,000 at any time and the value of cannabis goods carried in the delivery vehicle for which a delivery order was not received and processed by the licensed retailer prior to the delivery employee departing from the licensed premises may not exceed $3,000.
This bill would require, on or before January 1, 2023, the regulations established by the bureau regarding the minimum security and transportation safety requirements to include regulations that would allow for an increase in the value of cannabis goods to be carried during delivery of those cannabis goods to customers by employees of a licensed retailer to $10,000, as specified. The bill would require a licensed retailer to provide their delivery employee certain hardware, tools, and supplies, access to healthcare benefits, and either a vehicle that meets certain requirements or reimbursement for certain costs for the use of the employee’s vehicle, as specified. The bill would also require a licensed retailer that delivers cannabis goods to maintain an automobile insurance policy to cover third-party liability of deliveries of cannabis goods by an employee who uses their own vehicle for the deliveries, as specified.
The Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act authorizes the Legislature to amend the act to further the purposes and intent of the act with a 2/3 vote of the membership of both houses of the Legislature.
This bill would declare that its provisions further specified purposes and intent of the act.
Read more about California Cannabis Legislation – see the full California Cannabis Law Legislative Update.
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