This is the 2022 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. Also see our article on the California cannabis bills from 2022 that became law – 2022 California Cannabis Bills Become Law.
California Cannabis Bills Introduced in the California Legislature in 2022
These are the significant cannabis bills proposed in the California Legislature in 2022. This page provides highlights of select cannabis bills as well as an index of all cannabis bills. Each bill contains a link to a page that provides an explanation of existing law and what that bill would do. Each of those pages contains a link to the official California Legislative Information website page for that bill where readers can get more info on the bill including the actual text, votes, history, bill analysis, status, and more.
August 31 is the last day for any bill to be passed in 2022. September 30, 2022, is the last day for the Governor to sign or veto bills.
Highlights of the 2022 California Cannabis Law Legislative Update
In 2022, lawmakers introduced bills addressing packaging, cannabis retailers selling hemp products, a prohibition on single-use integrated cannabis vaporizers, criminal convictions, rolling back state law to make cannabis a felony, veterinarians, physicians, civil penalties, cannabis research, employment discrimination, selling cannabis at events with alcohol, cannabis cultivation taxes & excise taxes, insurance, juvenile court, a new temporary cultivator event retail license, retail sales by curbside pickup, a new cannabis caterer license, Cannabis Control Appeals Panel, health care facilities, warnings in labels & advertising, CEQA and state licensing, local jurisdictions and medicinal cannabis, equity cannabis licensees, interstate agreements for commercial cannabis activity, tax credits, and the theft of water.
As is usual, some placeholder cannabis bills were introduced that will be amended later with substantive provisions.
California Governor Newsom announced in his May 2022-23 budget proposal that he intended to seek elimination of the state cannabis cultivation tax paid by growers beginning July 1, 2022, and shift the point of collection for the excise tax from distribution to retail on January 1, 2023, maintaining a 15 percent excise tax rate. Here are the pertinent pages discussing cannabis from the May Revised Budget Summary for the Governor’s Proposed 2022-23 California Budget.
On June 30, 2022, California Governor signed AB 195, a budget trailer bill eliminating the cannabis cultivation tax, shifting the point of collection & remittance for the cannabis excise tax from distributors to retailers, adjusting the labor peace agreement requirement from 20 employees to 10, and more. Pursuant to AB 195, beginning July 1, 2022, the California cultivation tax no longer applies to cannabis or cannabis products entering the commercial market. Cannabis enters the commercial market when the cannabis or cannabis products pass the required testing and quality assurance review.
AB 1646 would authorize cannabis beverages to be packaged in containers of any material that are clear or any color. (AB 1646 passed and was signed by the Governor.)
AB 1656 would allow cannabis licensees to manufacture, distribute, or sell hemp products. (AB 1656 was ordered to the inactive file.)
AB 1690 would prohibit a person or entity from selling, giving, or furnishing to another person of any age in this state a single-use electronic cigarette or a single-use integrated cannabis vaporizer. [Note: This bill was amended on 4.20.22 to delete reference to cannabis vaporizers.] (AB 1690 was ordered to the inactive file.)
AB 1706 would help get criminal convictions involving cannabis reduced or dismissed. (AB 1706 passed and was signed by the Governor.)
AB 1725 would amend the Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA), an initiative measure approved as Proposition 64, to make it a felony, punishable by 16 months or 2 or 3 years in county jail, for a person over 18 years of age to plant, cultivate, harvest, dry, or process more than 6 living cannabis plants. (Note: This bill has no chance of passing. Even if it did, the bill does not further the purposes and intent of AUMA and would be challenged in court.)
AB 1885 would prohibit the California Veterinary Medical Board from disciplining a veterinarian who recommends the use of cannabis on an animal for potential therapeutic effect or health supplementation purposes, unless the veterinarian is employed by or has an agreement with a cannabis licensee. (AB 1885 passed and was signed by the Governor.)
AB 1894 would place restrictions on the packaging, labeling, advertisement, and marketing of integrated cannabis vaporizers. (AB 1894 passed and was signed by the Governor.)
AB 1954 would prohibit a physician and surgeon from automatically denying treatment or medication to a qualified patient based solely on a positive drug screen for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) or report of medical cannabis use without first completing a case-by-case evaluation of the patient that includes a determination that the qualified patient’s use of medical cannabis is medically significant to the treatment or medication. (AB 1954 passed and was signed by the Governor.)
AB 2102 would impose a civil penalty of up to $30,000 per day on landlords who provide property for the purpose of unlawfully manufacturing, distributing, or selling cannabis.
AB 2150 would require the California Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research to establish a study examining the effects of cannabis products that are currently in the commercial cannabis stream of commerce and, in consultation with the Department of the California Highway Patrol, evaluating the public safety consequences of cannabis use and improving understanding of the best methods for determining related driving impairments.
AB 2155 would define the term “cannabis beverages” as a form of edible cannabis product that is intended to be consumed in its final state as a beverage. (AB 2155 passed and was signed by the Governor.)
AB 2188 would amend the California Fair Employment and Housing Act to make it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against a person in hiring, termination, or any term or condition of employment, or otherwise penalize a person, if the discrimination is based upon the person’s use of cannabis off the job and away from the workplace or, with prescribed exceptions, upon an employer-required drug screening test that has found the person to have nonpsychoactive cannabis metabolites in their urine, hair, or bodily fluids. (AB 2188 passed and was signed by the Governor.)
AB 2210 would prohibit the DCC from denying an application for a state cannabis temporary event license solely on the basis that there is a license issued pursuant to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act. The bill would require all on-and-off sale privileges of alcoholic beverages at the venue to be suspended for the duration of the event. (AB 2210 passed and was signed by the Governor.)
AB 2506 would suspend the imposition of the California cultivation tax from July 1, 2023, to July 1, 2028, and would discontinue the requirement that the department adjust the cultivation tax rate for inflation for the 2023 calendar year and during the suspension. The bill would increase, from July 1, 2023, until July 1, 2028, the excise tax by an additional percentage that the Department of Finance estimates will generate the amount of revenue that would have been collected pursuant to the cultivation tax. (See also SB 1074.)
AB 2568 would provide it is not a crime for individuals and firms to provide insurance and related services to persons licensed to engage in commercial cannabis activity. (AB 2568 passed and was signed by the Governor.)
AB 2595 would require the California State Department of Social Services to update all regulations relating to the investigation of a minor to ensure that, when a social worker is investigating an alleged case of child abuse or neglect, a parent’s use or possession of cannabis is treated in the same manner as a parent’s use or possession of alcohol and legally prescribed medication. (AB 2595 passed and was signed by the Governor.)
AB 2691 would require the California Department of Cannabis Control to issue temporary event cultivator retail licenses that authorize the license holder to sell cannabis or cannabis products, containing cannabis cultivated by that licensee, at specified state temporary events (limited to 8 per year and to licensees who cultivate no more than one acre of cannabis). (AB 2691 was ordered to the inactive file.)
AB 2728 would increase the civil penalty on a person engaging in commercial cannabis activity without a license.
AB 2792 would make adjustments to the California cannabis excise tax and cultivation tax.
AB 2824 would authorize a cannabis retailer to conduct sales by curbside pickup and require the area designated for curbside pickup to be monitored and recorded by the retailer’s video surveillance system.
AB 2844 would add acting as a cannabis caterer for a private event to the definition of commercial cannabis activity, and would authorize the California Department of Cannabis Control to issue a state cannabis caterer license authorizing the licensee to serve cannabis or cannabis products at a private event.
AB 2925 would require a spending report from the California Department of Health Care Services concerning the Youth Education, Prevention, Early Intervention and Treatment Account (the bill was amended to delete the provisions that would have changed the composition of the California Cannabis Control Appeals Panel). (AB 2925 passed and was signed by the Governor.)
SB 988 would repeal the requirement that health care facilities permitting patient use of medical cannabis comply with other drug and medication requirements and the requirement that those facilities be subject to enforcement actions by the State Department of Public Health. (SB 988 passed and was signed by the Governor.)
SB 1074 would discontinue the imposition of the California cannabis cultivation tax and would increase the cannabis excise tax. (See also AB 2506.) (SB 1074 was ordered to the inactive file.)
SB 1097 would require a new warning label with California cannabis products, a warning brochure, and warnings in cannabis advertisements. (SB 1097 was ordered to the inactive file.)
SB 1148 would provide that CEQA does not apply to the issuance of a California state license to engage in commercial cannabis activity if the local jurisdiction has approved the project and taken other specified action concerning environmental review.
SB 1186 would enact the Medicinal Cannabis Patients’ Right of Access Act, which would prohibit a local jurisdiction from adopting or enforcing any regulation that prohibits, or unreasonably restricts, the sale of medicinal cannabis. (SB 1186 passed and was signed by the Governor.)
SB 1281 would discontinue the California cannabis cultivation tax and reduce the cannabis excise tax to 5%.
SB 1293 would allow a tax credit to a cannabis equity applicant or licensee.
SB 1326 would authorize the California Governor to enter into an interstate agreement authorizing medicinal or adult-use commercial cannabis activity between entities licensed under the laws of the other state. (SB 1326 passed and was signed by the Governor.)
SB 1426 would amend AUMA by making it a misdemeanor or felony to plant, cultivate, harvest, dry, or process more than 50 living cannabis plants, or any part thereof, and where that activity involves unauthorized tapping into a water conveyance or storage infrastructure or digging or extracting groundwater from an unpermitted well.
SB 1496 would make various changes to existing law regarding the seizure of cannabis or cannabis products that are without evidence of tax payment, the payment of cannabis taxes by electronic funds, and the sharing of information by the CDTFA. (SB 1496 passed and was signed by the Governor.)
Index of All California Cannabis Bills
AB 195 Cannabis (introduced 2021); AB 1599 Proposition 47: repeal; AB 1624 Budget Act of 2022; AB 1646 Cannabis packaging: beverages; AB 1656 Cannabis: industrial hemp; AB 1690 Tobacco and cannabis products: single-use electronic cigarettes and integrated cannabis vaporizers; AB 1706 Cannabis crimes: resentencing; AB 1725 Illegal cultivation of cannabis; AB 1885 Cannabis and cannabis products: animals: veterinary medicine; AB 1894 Integrated cannabis vaporizer: packaging, labeling, advertisement, and marketing; AB 1954 Physicians and surgeons: treatment and medication of patients using cannabis; AB 2102 Cannabis: facilities used for unlawful purposes; AB 2150 Cannabis research; AB 2155 Cannabis beverages; AB 2188 Discrimination in employment: use of cannabis; AB 2210 Cannabis: state temporary event licenses: venues licensed by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control: unsold inventory; AB 2224 Cannabis: delivery; AB 2421 Water: unpermitted cannabis cultivation; AB 2506 Cannabis: excise tax: cultivation tax; AB 2568 Cannabis: insurance providers; AB 2595 Juveniles: dependency: jurisdiction of the juvenile court; AB 2691 Cannabis: temporary cultivator event retail license; AB 2728 Unlawful cannabis activity: penalties; AB 2792 Cannabis: excise tax: cultivation tax; AB 2824 Cannabis: curbside pickup; AB 2844 Cannabis catering; AB 2925 California Cannabis Tax Fund: spending reports; SB 154 Budget Act of 2022 (introduced 2021); SB 840 Budget Act of 2022; SB 988 Compassionate Access to Medical Cannabis Act or Ryan’s Law; SB 1074 Cannabis: excise tax: cultivation tax; SB 1097 Cannabis and cannabis products: labeling and advertisement; SB 1148 Cannabis: licenses: California Environmental Quality Act; SB 1186 Medicinal Cannabis Patients’ Right of Access Act; SB 1281 Cannabis taxes; SB 1293 Income taxation: credits: cannabis: equity applicants and licensees; SB 1326 Cannabis: interstate agreements; SB 1336 Income taxes: credit: cannabis businesses: qualified expenses; SB 1426 Cannabis: water pollution crimes; SB 1496 Taxation: tax, fee, and surcharge administration: insurance tax rates.
Read more about California Cannabis Legislation – see the full California Cannabis Law Legislative Update.
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