BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2516|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2516
Author: Wood (D)
Amended: 8/1/16 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE AGRICULTURE COMMITTEE: 5-0, 6/21/16
AYES: Galgiani, Cannella, Berryhill, Pan, Wolk
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 5-2, 8/11/16
AYES: Lara, Beall, Hill, McGuire, Mendoza
NOES: Bates, Nielsen
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 63-9, 6/1/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Medical cannabis: state cultivator license types:
specialty cottage type
SOURCE: California Growers Association
DIGEST: This bill creates a Type 1C, or specialty cottage,
medical marijuana cultivator license.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Enacts 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.
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2)Establishes the Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation
(Bureau) within the Department of Consumer Affairs to regulate
and issue licenses for the transportation, storage,
distribution, and sale of medical marijuana.
3)Requires the California Department of Food and Agriculture
(CDFA) regulate and issue licenses for the cultivation of
medical marijuana through the Medical Cannabis Cultivation
Program, and the State Department of Public Health 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 (Business and Professions Code § 19300 et seq.).
4)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, and the State Water
Resources Control Board is required to ensure that water
diversion and discharge associated with medical marijuana
cultivation do not affect instream flows necessary for fish
habitat. On the local level, local authority regarding
medical marijuana is preserved by requiring persons engaged in
commercial medical marijuana activity to obtain both a state
license and a local permit, license or other local
authorization.
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
Type 3: Larger growers - between 10,001 to 22,000 square
feet for indoor or mixed lighting or up to an acre
for outdoor
Type 4: Nursery
5)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
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growing marijuana for the exclusive medical use of not more
than five patients (Health and Safety Code § 11362.777).
This bill:
1)Creates 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:
a) 2,500 square feet or less of total canopy size for
mixed-light cultivation;
b) Up to 25 plants for outdoor cultivation; or
c) 500 square feet or less of total canopy size for indoor
cultivation.
2)Clarifies that regulations adopted by CDFA, rather than "the
department," shall not be construed to supersede or limit the
authority of the State Water Resources Control Board, regional
water quality control boards, or the Department of Fish and
Wildlife to implement and enforce their responsibilities to
protect water quality, water supply, and natural resources.
Comments
Cultivator licenses. Currently, cultivator licenses are divided
into categories based on size of the growing site and type of
lighting (indoor/outdoor/mixed). Multiple license types provide
for greater regulatory specificity, since, for instance, small
indoor growers (5,000 square feet or less) would require
different regulatory and environmental considerations than large
outdoor growers (22,000 square feet or less). Medical marijuana
cultivation laws were developed in part to mitigate
environmental impact, improve the safety of neighborhoods, and
bring the cultivation of marijuana into compliance with current
agricultural farming regulations on water, soil, and air
quality, among others.
Cottage growers. Type 1 licenses encompass the smallest group,
or "specialty" operations. However, according to the author,
there are some growers who represent a smaller subsection that
grow very few plants on relatively small parcels of land in
order to provide supplementary income or are part of a larger
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diversified farm. These operations fit into the category of
"cottage," which is already currently used for other commodities
and products in state law. For example, "cottage food
operations" are businesses located within private homes that do
not gross more than $35,000 annually and do not have more than
one full-time employee, among other specifications. These
entities are afforded regulations that better match their
"cottage" operations. This bill seeks to provide similar
accommodations for the unique needs of small "specialty cottage"
medical marijuana growers.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, this bill
would incur unknown costs to 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 category proposed by
this bill could result in costs associated with enforcement and
licensing workload exceeding fee revenue in the initial years of
implementation.
SUPPORT: (Verified8/12/16)
California Growers Association (source)
Americans for Safe Access
Consortium Management Group
Humboldt County Board of Supervisors
Mendocino County Board of Supervisors
Sonoma County Board of Supervisors
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/12/16)
None received
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: According to the author, "Last year the
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legislature developed the Medical Marijuana Regulation and
Safety Act (MMRSA) in an effort to address the environmental,
public health, and public safety concerns that have developed
within the cannabis industry. The key to this new framework's
success is ensuring that new and existing businesses get
licensed and come into regulatory compliance.
Current law lumps all cannabis cultivation sites that are
5,000ft2 or less into one license. AB 2516 would create a
cottage sublicense and encourage the Department of Food and
Agriculture to develop regulations that are appropriate for the
thousands of small growers that currently grow much less than
5,000ft2. This addition rounds out the cultivator licensing
structure so that the MMRSA accurately reflects the business
activity going on throughout the state."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 63-9, 6/1/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Arambula, Atkins, Baker, Bloom,
Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang,
Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Dababneh, Daly, Dodd, Eggman,
Frazier, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gipson,
Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin,
Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, McCarty, Medina, Mullin, Nazarian, O'Donnell,
Olsen, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Weber, Wilk, Williams,
Wood, Rendon
NOES: Travis Allen, Bigelow, Beth Gaines, Gatto, Grove, Harper,
Mathis, Melendez, Patterson
NO VOTE RECORDED: Cooper, Dahle, Hadley, Jones, Mayes,
Obernolte, Wagner, Waldron
Prepared by:Anne Megaro / AGRI. / (916) 651-1508
8/15/16 19:39:53
**** END ****
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