In an effort to rescue the state’s struggling legal marijuana industry, California is offering $100 million to help it.
Marijuana-growing businesses would get help in meeting environmental review requirements for state licenses under a $100-million proposal by California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom.
This week the California Legislature approved a $100-million plan to boost California’s legal marijuana industry. Los Angeles will be the biggest beneficiary of the money with $22 million.
“California voters approved Proposition 64 five years ago and entrusted the Legislature with creating a legal, well-regulated cannabis market,” said Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), the chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee. “We have yet to reach that goal.”
Many marijuana growers, retailers and manufacturers in the state have struggled to move from a provisional, temporary license to a permanent one renewed on an annual basis.
82% of the state’s cannabis licensees still held provisional licenses as of April, according to the governor’s office.
The funds would help cities hire experts and staff to assist businesses in completing the environmental studies and transitioning the licenses to “help legitimate businesses succeed,” Ting explained.
The grant program is endorsed by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. The Mayor has said that the money is “essential in supporting a well-regulated, equitable, and sustainable cannabis market.”
Newsom also wants to give cannabis businesses a six-month extension beyond a Jan. 1 deadline to transition from provisional licenses by complying with mandates of the California Environmental Quality Act. That extension had not been included in the state budget bill approved Monday and is still being negotiated with lawmakers.
“It is a significant amount of money, but I don’t know that it actually answers the problem of provisional licenses making it through CEQA analysis in a timely manner to get an annual license,” said Jerred Kiloh, president of the United Cannabis Business Assn