BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 2516 (Wood) - Medical cannabis: state cultivator license
types: specialty cottage type
-----------------------------------------------------------------
| |
| |
| |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|--------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| | |
|Version: June 22, 2016 |Policy Vote: AGRI. 5 - 0 |
| | |
|--------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| | |
|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
| | |
|--------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| | |
|Hearing Date: August 1, 2016 |Consultant: Robert Ingenito |
| | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: AB 2516 would create a Type 1C, or "specialty cottage,"
medical marijuana cultivator license.
Fiscal
Impact:
Unknown costs to the California Department of Food and
Agriculture (CDFA) to develop regulations, review and issue
licenses, and enforce regulations resulting from an
increase in cultivators participating in the regulated
market.
CDFA is authorized under current law to establish a
scale of license fees, based on business size, which would
cover the cost of licensing and enforcement activities.
However, the potentially broad appeal of the new license
AB 2516 (Wood) Page 1 of
?
category proposed by this bill could result in costs
associated with enforcement and licensing workload
exceeding fee revenue in the initial years of
implementation.
Background: The Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act (Act) was
enacted in 2015 to create a comprehensive licensing and
regulatory framework for the cultivation, manufacture,
transportation, storage, distribution, sale, and testing of
medical marijuana. The Act establishes the Bureau of Medical
Marijuana Regulation (Bureau) within the Department of Consumer
Affairs (DCA) to regulate and issue licenses for the
transportation, storage, distribution, and sale of medical
marijuana. CDFA is required to regulate and issue licenses for
the cultivation of medical marijuana through the Medical
Cannabis Cultivation Program, and the State Department of Public
Health (DPH) is required to regulate the manufacturing and
testing of medical marijuana and labeling of medical marijuana
edible products. CDFA is also responsible, in consultation with
the Bureau, for establishing a 'track and trace' program for
reporting the movement of medical marijuana throughout the
distribution chain.
Further medical marijuana regulation requires the Department of
Pesticide Regulation (DPR), in consultation with CDFA, to
develop standards for the use of pesticides in cultivation.
Additionally, coordination among CDFA, the Department of Fish
and Wildlife (DFW), and the State Water Resources Control Board
(SWRCB) is required to ensure that water diversion and discharge
associated with medical marijuana cultivation do not affect
instream flows necessary for fish habitat.
Cultivator licenses issued by CDFA are categorized by lighting
source (indoor, outdoor, or mixed lighting source) and by type:
Type 1: Specialty - 5,000 square feet or less; up to 50
mature plants.
Type 2: Small - between 5,001 and 10,000 square feet.
AB 2516 (Wood) Page 2 of
?
Type 3: Larger Growers - between 10,001 and 22,000
square feet for indoor or mixed lighting or up to an acre
for outdoor.
Type 4 - Nursery
Current law exempts persons growing marijuana for personal use
from licensing requirements if their growing operations are
under 100 square feet, or 500 square feet for primary caregivers
growing marijuana for the exclusive medical use of not more than
five patients.
Proposed Law:
This bill would do the following:
Create a Type 1C, or "specialty cottage" state
cultivator license issued by CDFA for medical marijuana
cultivation using a combination of natural and artificial
lighting on a single premises consisting of (1) 2,500
square feet or less of total canopy size for mixed-light
cultivation, (20 up to 25 plants for outdoor cultivation,
or (3) 500 square feet or less of total canopy size for
indoor cultivation.
Clarify the role of the of the CDFA is not to supersede
or limit the authority of SWRCB, regional water quality
control boards, or DFW when implementing and enforcing
their statutory obligations or to adopting regulations to
protect water quality, water supply, and natural resources.
AB 2516 (Wood) Page 3 of
?
Related
Legislation:
AB 243 (Wood), Chapter 688, Statutes of 2015. Requires
CDFA, DPR, the State Department of Public Health, the
Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the State Water
Resources Control Board to promulgate regulations or
standards relating to medical marijuana and its
cultivation, as specified. Establishes licensing fees,
fines, and penalties.
AB 266 (Bonta et al.), Chapter 689, Statutes of 2015.
Enacts the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act for
the licensure and regulation of medical marijuana and
establishes the Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation
within the Department of Consumer Affairs.
SB 643 (McGuire), Chapter 719, Statutes of 2015. Sets
standards for the licensed cultivation and physician
prescription of medical marijuana; establishes a track and
trace program for the transportation of medical marijuana;
and authorizes counties to impose a tax on medical
marijuana.
Staff
Comments: The scale of medical marijuana production in the State
is unknown. This hinders CDFA from developing a reliable
estimate on the number of individuals that would fall under the
proposed Type 1C/"specialty cottage" category. The bill does not
increase the number of eligible cultivators who may participate
in the regulatory structure established by the Act; however,
because the bill creates a license commensurate with the size of
cottage farmers, it would likely increase the number of small
cultivators into the regulatory framework established by the
Act.
AB 2516 (Wood) Page 4 of
?
However, due to the potential/anticipated popularity of the Type
1C license, CDFA's personnel costs for implementation of the
cultivation licensing would increase based on the development of
Type 1C specific regulations, expected increased workload for
application review, license issuance, and regulatory
enforcement.
CDFA's has general authority to establish a licensing fee that
allows for cost recovery, consequently, the Department
anticipates any cost related to this bill would ultimately be
offset by existing cost recovery mechanisms. Initially, however,
the potential workload associated with the proposed license type
(licensing and enforcement) may exceed the revenue generated by
this license type as workload may not scale proportionally to
license fees. If this expectation is realized, larger license
fees would need to augment activities related to this new
license type.
-- END --