This bill is part of the 2025 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 8 Cannabis: cannabinoids: industrial hemp.
(1) The Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law regulates the packaging, labeling, and advertising of food, beverages, and cosmetics and makes it a crime to distribute in commerce any food, drug, device, or cosmetic if its packaging or labeling does not conform to these provisions. Existing law establishes a process for the embargo, condemnation, and destruction of a food, drug, device, or cosmetic that is adulterated, misbranded, or falsely advertised, gives the authority to place items under embargo to authorized agents of the State Department of Public Health, and requires the department to take specified actions. That law requires a hemp manufacturer who produces an industrial hemp product that is a food or beverage to register with the State Department of Public Health, as specified. Violation of the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law is a misdemeanor.
This bill would require an out-of-state hemp manufacturer who produces an industrial hemp product that is a food or beverage for sale in this state to register with the department. By creating a new crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
(2) The Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act of 2016 (AUMA), an initiative measure 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 and requires the Department of Cannabis Control to administer its provisions. Existing law exempts industrial hemp, as defined, from the definition of cannabis and from MAUCRSA, but requires the Department of Cannabis Control to prepare a report, on or before July 1, 2022, to the Governor and the Legislature outlining the steps necessary to allow for the incorporation of hemp cannabinoids into the cannabis supply chain. Existing emergency regulations require that industrial hemp, food, food additives, beverages, and dietary supplements intended for human consumption have no detectable THC per serving.
This bill, beginning on January 1, 2028, would expand the definition of cannabis products under MAUCRSA to include cannabis or industrial hemp that has undergone a process to transform the plant material into a concentrate, including concentrated cannabinoids, as specified. The bill would subject industrial hemp used in a cannabis product to the regulatory requirements of cannabis or cannabis products under MAUCRSA, including identification in the track and trace program, security and transportation safety requirements, quality assurance standards, testing by a licensed testing laboratory, and advertising and marketing restrictions. The bill would prohibit an industrial hemp cultivator from transferring or selling industrial hemp to a licensee under MAUCRSA if a banned pesticide was used in its cultivation. The bill would make conforming changes to the California Uniform Controlled Substances Act.
This bill, beginning on January 1, 2028, would prohibit a licensee under MAUCRSA from selling, offering, or providing a cannabis product in the state that is an inhalable cannabis product derived in whole or in part from industrial hemp or a synthetic cannabis product, as defined.
This bill, beginning on January 1, 2028, would revise and recast the enforcement provisions for cannabis, industrial hemp, and cannabis products, and would authorize the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA), the State Department of Public Health, the Department of Cannabis Control, and other state and local law enforcement agencies to inspect, seize, and destroy, among other things, cannabis products or products not authorized under MAUCRSA, the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law, or specified federal or tribal laws, as provided.
(3) Existing law, Cigarette and Tobacco Products Licensing Act of 2003, regulates and licenses manufacturers, importers, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers of cigarettes and tobacco products in the state.
The bill would prohibit a person that is engaged in the business of selling cigarettes or tobacco products from possessing, storing, owning, or making a retail sale of cannabis, cannabis products, or a product that contains or purports to contain THC or a comparable cannabinoid that is not a product authorized to be distributed or sold under the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law, and would make a violation of that prohibition subject to a specified fine or license suspension or revocation, as applicable.
(4) Existing law, the Cannabis Tax Law, imposes an excise tax upon purchasers of cannabis or cannabis products sold in this state at the rate of 15% of the gross receipts of any retail sale by a cannabis retailer, and, as enacted by AUMA, imposed a cultivation tax on all harvested cannabis that entered the commercial market, as specified. Chapter 56 of the Statutes of 2022 (AB 195) amended AUMA to, among other things, discontinue the imposition of the cultivation tax on July 1, 2022. AB 195, beginning in the 2025–26 fiscal year and every 2 years thereafter, requires the CDTFA to adjust the cannabis excise tax rate by a percentage that will generate an amount of revenue that would have been collected pursuant to the cultivation tax imposed prior to its discontinuation, as specified, not to exceed 19% of the gross receipts of retail sale. The Cannabis Tax Law requires the CDTFA to administer the cannabis excise tax, directs all revenues, less refunds, derived from the cannabis excise tax to be deposited into the California Cannabis Tax Fund, a special fund, and continuously appropriates that tax fund for specified purposes.
This bill, beginning on January 1, 2028, would repeal the requirement that the department adjust the cannabis excise tax rate, as described above, thereby retaining the existing cannabis excise tax rate of 15% of the gross receipts of any retail sale by a cannabis retailer, as provided.
This bill, beginning on January 1, 2028, would subject cannabis products derived from industrial hemp and subject to licensing under MAUCRSA, as described above, to the cannabis excise tax, and would make conforming changes related to implementation of that tax. By increasing the amount of tax moneys into the California Cannabis Tax Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation.
(5) The Cannabis Tax Law authorizes the CDTFA or a law enforcement agency to seize cannabis or cannabis products in certain circumstances, including if the cannabis or cannabis products were not reported in the track and trace system or are in the possession of an unlicensed person, as specified. Existing law deems any cannabis or cannabis products seized by a law enforcement agency or the department to be forfeited, and makes a violation of these provisions a misdemeanor. Existing law excludes “industrial hemp” from the definition of “cannabis” under the Cannabis Tax Law, and generally defines “industrial hemp” as an agricultural product that is any part of the plant Cannabis sativa L., including cannabinoids, with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of no more than 0.3% on a dry-weight basis.
This bill would authorize the CDTFA or a law enforcement agency to presume that a product is cannabis or a cannabis product, for purposes of seizing that cannabis or cannabis product, if the product contains or purports to contain THC or a comparable cannabinoid, as specified, and if there is reasonable cause to believe that the product is not a product authorized to be distributed or sold as hemp under the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law, or after January 1, 2028, the product is not authorized to be distributed or sold under MAUCRSA, as provided. By expanding the items authorized for employees of the CDTFA or a law enforcement agency to inspect and seize, the bill expands the scope of a crime and imposes a state-mandated local program.
(6) Existing law requires edible cannabis products, cannabis cartridges, and integrated cannabis vaporizers that contain cannabis or a cannabis product to be marked with a universal symbol, as determined by the department and subject to specified requirements. Existing law makes the use or possession of the universal symbol in connection with a commercial activity, other than licensed commercial cannabis activity, a violation of MAUCRSA, as described. Existing law defines use or possession of the universal symbol in connection with a commercial activity to include, but is not limited to, possession of any package, label, or advertisement of any kind bearing the universal symbol, whether or not that package, label, or advertisement is affixed to, or otherwise associated with, cannabis or cannabis products.
This bill, beginning January 1, 2028, would make it a violation of MAUCRSA to use or possess any package, label, or advertisement of any kind bearing any likeness or simulation of the universal symbol in connection with a commercial activity, regardless of whether it is in connection with licensed commercial cannabis activity. The bill would also prohibit altering or cropping the universal symbol, except as specified.
(7) California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
(8) This bill would include a change in state statute that would result in a taxpayer paying a higher tax within the meaning of Section 3 of Article XIII A of the California Constitution, and thus would require for passage the approval of 2/3 of the membership of each house of the Legislature.
Read more about California Cannabis Legislation – see the full California Cannabis Law Legislative Update.
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