Cannabis law in California

Enacted

November 8, 2016

Sales open

January 1, 2018

Home grow

Yes, 6 plants

Delivery

Yes

Consumption lounges

Yes

Vertical integration required

No

HSC 11362.1 allows six living plants; BPC 26090 allows delivery only by licensed retailers, microbusinesses, or nonprofits; BPC 26200 lets local jurisdictions authorize on-premises consumption; BPC 26053 lets a person hold more than one license type except testing labs.

Enacted

November 5, 1996

Sales open

January 1, 2018

Home grow

Yes, 6 plants

Delivery

Yes

Consumption lounges

Yes

Vertical integration required

No

Prop 215 added HSC 11362.5 on November 5, 1996; HSC 11362.77 allows six mature or twelve immature plants per qualified patient; state-licensed medicinal retail began with the first state licenses effective January 1, 2018 under MAUCRSA.

Statute

Bus. and Prof. Code sec. 26000 et seq. (MAUCRSA)

Administrative code

Cal. Code Regs. tit. 4, secs. 15000 through 17905

Agency

Home

Rules

Published rules

Licensing

Portal

Statute

Bus. and Prof. Code sec. 26067

Administrative code

Cal. Code Regs. tit. 4, secs. 15047 through 15049.3

Agency

Home

Rules

Published rules

Agency

Home

Statute

Bus. and Prof. Code Div. 10; Health and Safety Code sec. 11362.1 et seq.

Agency

Home

Amount

15%

Applied to

Retail Price

Programs

Adult Use, Medical

Stacks with sales tax

Yes

Collected by

The Cannabis Retailer Collects The Tax From The Purchaser At The Time Of The Retail Sale And Remits It To The California Department Of Tax And Fee Administration Under A Cannabis Retailer Excise Tax Permit; Before 2023-01-01 The Distributor Collected It

Filing

Quarterly. The Cannabis Retailer Excise Tax Return Is Due, And The Tax Payable, On Or Before The Last Day Of The Month Following Each Three Month Quarterly Period (Rev. And Tax. Code Sec. 34015(A)); The Return Is Filed Electronically

Flower G

28.5

Concentrate G

8

Immature Plants

6

Counted as

Independent Categories

Enforced across

Per Store

Flower G

28.5

Concentrate G

8

Immature Plants

6

Counted as

Independent Categories

Enforced across

Per Store

Flower G

226.8

Immature Plants

12

Counted as

Independent Categories

Enforced across

Per Store

A licensed retailer may sell and deliver cannabis goods only between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. Pacific Time, and may accept inbound shipments of inventory only in the same window.

Trigger

sale

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

An A-licensee may not sell adult-use cannabis goods to anyone under 21, may not allow anyone under 21 on the premises unless it also holds an M-license for the same premises, and may not employ anyone under 21.

Trigger

age_verify

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

Customer classes

Adult, Non Resident

An M-licensee may admit and sell to a person 18 or older who presents a government-issued photo ID plus either a county-issued Medical Marijuana Identification Card or a valid physician's recommendation, for themselves or as a primary caregiver; anyone under 18 may not be served.

Trigger

age_verify

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

Customer classes

Patient, Caregiver, Minor Patient

Before granting access to the retail area or completing a sale the retailer must inspect one of three acceptable ID forms, a government-issued photo document showing name, date of birth, height, gender and photo, a US Armed Forces ID showing name, date of birth and photo, or a valid US or foreign passport.

Trigger

age_verify

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

California cannabis law contains no counterpart to the alcohol rule against serving a visibly intoxicated person, so Bloom warns rather than blocks and leaves refusal to the operator's own policy and any local permit condition.

Trigger

sale

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

Do not zero the sales tax on a medicinal sale unless the customer furnished both a CDPH Medical Marijuana Identification Card and a government-issued photo ID and the POS recorded the nine digit card number and expiration date; the cannabis excise tax is still owed on that sale.

Trigger

sale

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

Customer classes

Patient, Caregiver

Every customer receipt or invoice must separately state the cannabis excise tax, and no cannabis goods may be sold unless the purchaser has paid that tax at the time of sale.

Trigger

sale

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

Block an adult-use sale that would exceed, in a single day to a single customer, 28.5 grams of non-concentrated cannabis, 8 grams of cannabis concentrate including concentrate contained in manufactured products, or 6 immature cannabis plants.

Trigger

sale

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

Customer classes

Adult, Non Resident

A medicinal patient or their primary caregiver may buy up to 8 ounces of dried mature flower and 12 immature plants per patient per day, and more than that only where the patient's own physician's recommendation documents a larger amount, so the engine requires an approval carrying that documented amount rather than a flat block.

Trigger

sale

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

Customer classes

Patient, Caregiver

A retailer may not make cannabis goods available for sale or delivery unless the goods came from a licensed distributor or distributing microbusiness, have undergone regulatory compliance testing, are inside their best-by or expiration date, and carry a batch number matching the certificate of analysis on the package.

Trigger

sale

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

All cannabis goods on the premises must carry a Department-issued package tag and every sale or donation must be recorded in the CCTT track and trace system within 24 hours with the type, weight or count, date, UID and brand name.

Trigger

sale

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

While track and trace access is lost the licensee must keep comprehensive manual records and may not initiate transport for, receive, or deliver any cannabis goods; once restored, all activity must be entered within three calendar days and the outage cause and window documented.

Trigger

transfer_in

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

Every package adjustment in track and trace must carry a description explaining the reason for the adjustment, and any data entry error must be corrected within three calendar days of discovering it.

Trigger

inventory_adjust

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

The licensee must reconcile physical inventory against the track and trace records at least once every 30 calendar days, retain the result, and notify the Department and local law enforcement within 24 hours of discovering a discrepancy of five percent or more, or any theft, diversion, loss, record alteration or other breach of security.

Trigger

shift_close

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

A retailer may receive cannabis goods only from a licensed distributor or distributing microbusiness, only against a track and trace shipping manifest, only between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., and must accept or reject the shipment in the system, rejecting it whole where the type or quantity differs from the manifest.

Trigger

transfer_in

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

A retailer may move cannabis goods to another retail premises only when both retail licenses are held by the same sole proprietor or business entity, the goods still meet every sale requirement, the transport complies with the Act, and the movement is entered into track and trace.

Trigger

transfer_out

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

A retailer may accept a customer return of goods it sold, must treat goods abandoned on the premises as a return, may never resell returned goods, and may destroy or send back to the originating distributor only defective manufactured products.

Trigger

return

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

Goods must arrive already packaged for final sale, tamper-evident, child-resistant, resealable if multi-serving, opaque for edibles, and labelled with the universal symbol, net weight, cannabinoid content and the bold GOVERNMENT WARNING statement; the retailer may not package, label or repackage anything beyond an inventory barcode sticker, and nothing may leave the premises except inside an opaque exit package.

Trigger

labeling

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

A retailer, microbusiness or person delivering must prominently display the Department's safer-use brochure at the point of sale or final delivery and online at the time of online purchase, and must offer each new consumer a printed copy at their first purchase or delivery.

Trigger

sale

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

Every advertisement must carry the licensee's license number, be truthful and substantiated, run only where at least 71.6 percent of the audience is reasonably expected to be 21 or older, avoid minors, cartoons, candy wording and any offer of free goods, raffles or sweepstakes, avoid false origin and health claims and any alcoholic-beverage impression, stay off interstate and border-crossing highway billboards and away from schools, daycares, playgrounds and youth centers, and use age affirmation before any direct individualised communication.

Trigger

advertising

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness, Ca-Distributor

California cannabis law contains no tied-house prohibition, so nothing found expressly bars a cultivator, manufacturer or distributor from paying a retailer for in-store placement, shelf position or screen time; Bloom does not sell such placements in California until counsel confirms in writing.

Trigger

advertising

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

Commercial cannabis records must be kept at least seven years, legible, accurate, secured and producible on request; video surveillance recordings must be kept at least 90 calendar days; delivery vehicle GPS location history must be kept at least 90 days; and a written certification that a physician's recommendation was verified for a donation must be kept at least seven years.

Trigger

record_retention

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness, Ca-Distributor, Ca-Distributor-Transport-Only, Ca-Testing-Laboratory

A storefront retailer or retail-authorised microbusiness must hire or contract security personnel who are at least 21 and licensed by the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services to provide onsite security for the whole of its hours of operation; a non-storefront retailer or a microbusiness not doing storefront retail is exempt.

Trigger

sale

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Microbusiness

The licensed retailer or at least one employee must be physically present in the retail area at all times when any non-employee is in it, must stay with a customer for the whole time a display container is being inspected, and must escort any non-employee anywhere else on the licensed premises.

Trigger

sale

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Microbusiness

Destruction or disposal must be recorded in track and trace within 24 hours with the name of the employee performing it, the reason and the method, the waste must sit in a secured receptacle or area with access limited to the licensee, its employees and the permitted hauler until disposal, and a batch failing testing must be rendered unusable under video surveillance first.

Trigger

destruction

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

Deliveries may be made only by a licensed retailer, a licensed microbusiness authorised for retail, or a nonprofit licensed under section 26070.5; no separate delivery endorsement or permission is required from the Department for a retailer already licensed to sell.

Trigger

delivery

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness, Ca-Nonprofit-Local-Temporary

Every delivery must be performed in person by a delivery employee at least 21 years old who is directly employed by the licensed retailer, never by an unstaffed vehicle, and that employee must carry the current licence copy, the Department QR Code certificate, their own government ID and an employer-issued photo badge and show them to a customer on request.

Trigger

delivery

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

A customer may receive a delivery only during the 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. hours of operation, and the delivery employee must return to the licensed premises after the last delivery of the day if any unsold cannabis goods remain in the vehicle.

Trigger

delivery

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

Only the licensee or an employee of the retailer licensee for whom the delivery is being performed may be in the delivery vehicle; California requires no second person in the vehicle, so a single operator may lawfully deliver alone, and passengers who are not employees are barred.

Trigger

delivery

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

The delivery vehicle must be an enclosed motor vehicle with no cannabis markings, the goods invisible to the public and locked in a fully enclosed trunk or a hard secured compartment, never left in an unattended vehicle unless it is locked with an active alarm, and fitted with a dedicated GPS device owned by the licensee that stays active in the vehicle throughout delivery with 90 days of location history retained.

Trigger

delivery

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

A delivery employee may never carry cannabis goods with a current retail value above 10,000 dollars in the vehicle at any one time, may carry only cannabis goods, accessories, branded merchandise and promotional material, and may perform deliveries for only one licensed retailer per trip.

Trigger

delivery

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

Delivery may go only to a physical address in California and never to publicly owned land, land or a building leased by a public agency, tribal trust land unless tribal law authorises it, a kindergarten through grade 12 school, a day care center or a youth center; the employee may not leave California while carrying cannabis goods.

Trigger

delivery

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

A delivery employee may deliver into any jurisdiction in California, a local jurisdiction may not prevent delivery on public roads by a compliant licensee, and since January 1, 2024 no local jurisdiction may prohibit or effectively prohibit medicinal delivery to patients within its borders, but local authority over adult-use commercial cannabis is expressly preserved, so a claimed local adult-use delivery ban goes to compliance review rather than being ignored.

Trigger

delivery

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

A delivery request receipt must exist before the employee reaches the address, naming the retailer and licence number, the delivering and order-preparing employees by first name and employee number, the customer's first name and assigned customer number, the request date and time, the delivery address, a detailed description of every item with weight or volume, and the total paid including taxes and fees, and at the door the employee must verify identity and age, hand the customer a copy, and capture the delivery date and time plus the customer's handwritten or electronic signature.

Trigger

delivery

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

Before the employee leaves the premises the retailer must create a delivery inventory ledger in track and trace carrying the ledger number, retailer name and licence, the employee's name, employee ID and driver's licence number, the vehicle make, model and plate, every item name, category, UID and unit count aboard, the UIDs of orders already processed, and the trip start time; the ledger must be updated after each completed delivery, and each completed delivery plus the trip end must be recorded by the end of that calendar day.

Trigger

delivery

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

A delivery employee may travel only from the premises to a delivery address, between delivery addresses, or back to the premises, deviating only for necessary rest, fuel, vehicle repair or unsafe road conditions, must log every stop with its reason and hand the log in on return, and must stop making deliveries and return to the premises after any 30 minute period with no delivery request pending.

Trigger

delivery

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

A retailer may not sell or transfer cannabis goods to a customer through an unlicensed third party, intermediary, broker or other entity, and may use a technology platform only if the platform never performs the delivery, never takes a share or percentage of cannabis sales, and every listing, invoice and receipt shows the retailer's legal business name and licence number.

Trigger

delivery

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

Medicinal cannabis goods may be sold only to a person 18 or older after confirming age, identity and a current physician's recommendation or CDPH identification card; an expired recommendation or card bars the medicinal sale and the sales tax exemption.

Trigger

patient_verify

Licence types

Ca-Retailer, Ca-Retailer-Nonstorefront, Ca-Microbusiness

Customer classes

Patient, Caregiver