Header Image: Judge Lee Gabriel: Orange County Supreme Court
SF Gate
California’s state government was handed an embarrassing court loss Tuesday after an Orange County judge ruled that the Department of Cannabis Control, or DCC, failed to comply with its own laws designed to stop illegal cannabis from leaving the state.
California’s legal cannabis regulator has been accused for years of looking the other way while legal cannabis farms illegally ship billions of dollars of cannabis out of the legal system and across the world. Tuesday’s ruling agreed that the DCC has not met its legal responsibility to run a tracking system that can stop the illicit cannabis trafficking.
Jordan Traverso, a spokesperson for the DCC, said in an emailed statement that the agency is reviewing the court’s decision but is also looking forward to strengthening its tracking system, “which has already driven a significant surge in compliance and enforcement actions.”
“DCC is proud of its work to strengthen the legal market in partnership with licensees and the cannabis community, including through the track-and-trace system,” Traverso said.
Hirsh Jain, an attorney and cannabis consultant based in Los Angeles, called Tuesday’s ruling “an extraordinary development.”
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https://www.sfgate.com/cannabis/article/newsom-pot-regulator-faces-court-loss-21234810.php
Weedweek
he Department of Cannabis Control’s (DCC) usage of compliance software “does not comply” with the legal requirement that it flag irregularities for the department to investigate, a California judge ruled today. The decision in the closely watched case brought by an affiliate of retailer Catalyst Cannabis is a defeat for the DCC, which argued that its use of the system fulfills its obligations.
Much of the roughly two hour November trial and Orange County-based Judge Lee Gabriel’s ruling focused on the minutia of how the DCC uses . . .
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