This week the newly merged California Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) released a 197-page draft of cannabis industry regulations.
The DCC is a brand-new state agency in California that was created back in July from the original framework of three separate bureaucracies that oversaw legal marijuana businesses in the state.
The draft includes allowing broader sales of branded merchandise and sharing product samples among those in the supply chain.
The new regulations launch off a new public comment period before the rules are expected to be formally adopted around the end of September.
The new rules are expected to be finalized and adopted roughly at the end of September.
Highlights in the changing rules include the following:
New parameters for how industry trade-sample sharing can work, allowing manufacturers, growers and distributors to share product samples free of charge with others in the legal supply chain.
New and more narrowly tailored definitions for marijuana company owners and those who own a financial stake in a business.
Allowances for non-vertically integrated cannabis companies to sell branded merchandise from other licensed businesses.
The release of the new proposed rules starts a clock on how and when stakeholders can give the DCC feedback on its proposals or offer thoughts on more ways the state can improve its marijuana industry regulations, said agency spokeswoman Christina Dempsey.
“Today is the first step of the emergency rulemaking process,” Dempsey remarked.
“Today (the emergency proposed rules are) out for public notice.
“They’ll be out for public notice for five business days, then they will be filed with (the Office of Administrative Law) and then they’ll have five calendar days of public comment.”
According to Dempsey, the rules include several potential “big wins for regulated businesses,” including the trade-sample allowance.
