AB 687 California Cannabis Authority

This bill is part of the 2023 Cannabis Bills section of our ongoing update on California Cannabis Legislation – see the full California Cannabis Law Legislative Update which includes information on cannabis bills from other years.

AB 687 (Hart D) California Cannabis Authority

(1) Existing law, the Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA), an initiative measure, authorizes a person who obtains a state license under AUMA to engage in commercial adult-use cannabis activity pursuant to that license and applicable local ordinances. The Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA), among other things, consolidates the licensure and regulation of commercial medicinal and adult-use cannabis activities. MAUCRSA establishes the Department of Cannabis Control within the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency to administer the act.

Existing law requires the department to establish a track and trace program for reporting the movement of cannabis and cannabis products throughout the distribution chain and requires the program to capture certain information. Existing law requires the program to include an electronic seed to sale software tracking system with data points for the different stages of commercial activity. Existing law requires the department, upon the request of a state or local law enforcement agency, to allow access to or provide information contained within the database to assist law enforcement in their duties and responsibilities pursuant to MAUCRSA.

This bill would additionally require the track and trace program, if the sale of cannabis is conducted by delivery, to capture the ZIP Code of the delivery address. The bill would require the department to allow access to or to provide information contained within the electronic database to specified local agencies, including the California Cannabis Authority, created pursuant to a specified joint powers agreement, for the purpose of assisting those agencies in their duties and responsibilities as they relate to local taxation and regulation of cannabis and cannabis products. The bill would also require the department to provide full read access to the electronic database to the California Cannabis Authority or a local public agency composed of multiple public entities with certain demonstrated capabilities for the purpose of assisting that local agency in its duties regarding local taxation and regulation of cannabis and cannabis products as well as for locally relevant research on the local regulation, taxation, and operation of commercial cannabis. The bill would require any software, database, or other information technology system utilized by the department for the issuance, maintenance, or revocation of state licenses to support interoperability with the software of the local agencies allowed to or provided information contained within the electronic database pursuant to the bill’s provisions. The bill would require those local agencies to maintain specified data privacy policies.

This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the California Cannabis Authority.

Read more about California Cannabis Legislation – see the full California Cannabis Law Legislative Update.

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