Governor Gavin Newsom signed 14 cannabis bills this year. Here is a list of the bills that were signed and the bills that were vetoed. 

Also included are links to the signing or veto messages. 

To read the full bill text, click the bill numbers below or visit leginfo.legislature.ca.gov. 

AB 623 (Chen): THC testing variances – would require DCC to establish regulations to adjust testing variances for edible cannabis products that include less than five milligrams of THC in total.  

AB 993 (Rubio): Cannabis Task Force – would expand the Cannabis Regulations Task Force to include representatives from the Civil Rights Department and Department of Industrial Relations. 

AB 1126 (Lackey): Cannabis: citation and fine – would make it a violation for any person to use or possess any package, label, advertisement, or other items bearing the universal cannabis symbol in connection with commercial activity, other than licensed commercial cannabis activity. Prohibited items could be seized as contraband.  

AB 1171 (Rubio): Cannabis: private right of action – allows cannabis licensees to bring an action in superior court against illegal cannabis operators and seek compensation if they can show harm resulting from unlicensed activity. This bill also authorizes the court in that action to enter an order to enjoin a person from engaging in unlicensed cannabis activity.  

AB 1448 (Wallis): Cannabis: enforcement by local jurisdictions – would redirect one-half of remaining civil penalties recovered in an enforcement action brought by a city or county from the General Fund to the treasurer of that city or county, as specified. 

AB 1684 (Maienschein): Local Ordinances: Cannabis fines and penalties – would allow local agencies to create ordinances that can impose fines for unlicensed cannabis cultivation, manufacturing, processing, distribution, or sale. The fines would be imposed on the owners and operators of the business which engages in unlawful activity, making them jointly and severally liable, and can also be referred to the Attorney General. 

SB 51 (Bradford): Cannabis provisional licenses: local equity applicants – would allow qualifying local equity applicants that conduct retail activities to apply for provisional licenses until January 1, 2031, and would require DCC to submit a report to the Legislature by January 1, 2030. 

Signing Message  

SB 302 (Stern): Compassionate Access to Medical Cannabis Act – would update the Compassionate Access to Medical Cannabis Act, or Ryan’s Law, which provides for specified types of health care facilities to allow a terminally ill patient’s use of medicinal cannabis within the health care facility, as defined, subject to certain restrictions. The bill would expand the definition of health care facility to also include a home health agency, as defined.

Signing Message  

SB 540 (Laird): Cannabis and cannabis products: health warnings – would require DCC, in consultation with the Department of Public Health, to create a brochure on steps for safer use of cannabis and would require, on or after March 1, 2025, a retailer or microbusiness selling, or a person delivering, cannabis or cannabis products to a consumer to prominently display the brochure. This bill would also require DCC, by July 1, 2025, to evaluate its regulations on label warnings to determine if additional warnings are necessary. The brochure and label warning regulations must also be reevaluated every five years and updated, if necessary, based on evolving science.  

SB 622 (Allen): Cannabis regulation: plant identification program: unique identifier – would update existing law to require unique identifiers on cannabis plants be recorded in a manner determined by DCC. 

SB 700 (Bradford): Employment discrimination: cannabis abuse – would make it unlawful for an employer to request information from an applicant for employment relating to the applicant’s prior use of cannabis. 

SB 753 (Caballero): Cannabis: water resources – would make it a crime for a person 18 years of age or older to plant, cultivate, harvest, dry, or process more than 50 living cannabis plants, or any part thereof, except as specified, punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for up to 6 months or by a fine of not more than $500, or both, or be charged with a felony, if specified conditions exist, including a violation of pesticide provisions, taking or using water from a conveyance or storage facility without permission, and extraction or use of groundwater from an unpermitted well or from a permitted well in excess of a restriction, as specified. 

SB 756 (Laird): Water: inspection): administrative procedure: notice: service – would authorize the State Water Resources Control Board (Board) to conduct investigations and proceedings concerning the use of water. The Board will be given the authority to inspect the property of any person or entity to make sure certain requirements are being met, and to also inspect unlicensed cannabis cultivation sites. The Board is also authorized to issue complaints and cease and desist orders to any person or entity in violation of the law using a variety of delivery methods.  

SB 833 (McGuire): Cannabis licensing: cultivation licenses: changing license type: inactive – would give DCC until March 1, 2024, to begin offering licensed cultivators, at the time of their license renewal, the ability to (1) temporarily or permanently reduce the canopy size of their license type and (2) place the license on inactive status. Cultivation licensees would also have a one-time opportunity to change their license renewal date to help align the cultivator’s license year with seasonal growing practices.  
Vetoed Legislation 
AB 374 (Haney): Cannabis: retail preparation, sale and consumption of noncannabis food and beverage products – would have authorized, contingent upon approval of a local jurisdiction, a cannabis consumption lounge operator to prepare and sell onsite nonalcoholic, noncannabis-infused food and beverages as well as host live events and sell tickets to those events. Additionally, the bill would have extended local authority to allow for the sale of prepackaged, noncannabis-infused, nonalcoholic food and beverage products by any cannabis retailer (storefront and delivery). A licensed retailer or microbusiness would have been prohibited from preparing or selling hemp or any products containing hemp to consumers and would have been required to store and display any noncannabis food and beverages separately and distinctly on the licensed premises. 

Veto Message 

AB 1207 (Irwin): Cannabis: labeling and advertising – would have defined the term “attractive to children” to include certain images and words, as specified, as well as anything else that is attractive to children under DCC’s regulations or in light of all relevant facts and circumstances. The bill would have also expressly prohibited the manufacture, distribution, and sale of cannabis or cannabis products that are attractive to children.  

Veto Message