California’s path to govern medical and recreational cannabis is shaping up to be a sophisticated one — from testing drugged drivers to tracking a packaged marijuana product back to the farm that cultivated the plant.
Lawmakers on Tuesday heard from officials across state government about how they plan to use technology to regulate the industry, protect public health and deter impaired drivers from getting behind the wheel.
“We’re in a brave new world,” said Assemblyman Jim Wood, D-Healdsburg. “This is an emerging industry that changes rapidly.”
As part of new license regulations, an IT system — known as “track and trace” — will be implemented so that regulators can follow a marijuana plant from a seed to the dispensary. Law enforcement, told lawmakers, that they hope the system will be provided to them in a useful format.
For example, CHP officers responding to a collision, would want to verify a truck’s marijuana load was coming from a licensed facility, Richard Desmond, Legislation Coordinator at the California Highway Patrol told lawmakers.
“We’ve been having regular conversations about what law enforcement would need to see on say a manifest, whether that’s a paper or an electronic manifest as a part of a database we could track into,” Desmond said. “How it would need to be packaged and appropriately labeled for law enforcement to be able to read and decipher.”
“These are some issues that are going to be crucial for us as we move forward and see more marijuana out on the roadways that we patrol,” he added.
State lawmakers in 2015 mandated a “track and trace” system for the medical cannabis industry, which also will be used as a licensing system for recreational cannabis, Lori Ajax, chief of the Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation, said. But it is still unclear exactly what that system will look like.
Californians last November legalized recreational marijuana with the passage of Proposition 64. The measure allows those 21 and over to carry up to one ounce of cannabis and grow up six marijuana plants. Beginning Jan. 1, 2018, the state will begin issuing licenses governing the actual sale, manufacturing and distribution of cannabis. Those rules are currently being drafted.
The Assembly committees on Business and Professions, Health, and Agriculture convened Tuesday’s joint hearing to receive an update about the regulations and address concerns raised by local governments, the industry and the public.
The law’s reach is broad across state government. For example, the newly created Bureau of Medical Cannabis will oversee licenses for the transport, distribution and sale of marijuana. The Department of Food and Agriculture will license the cultivation of cannabis while the Department of Health will license the manufacturing. The State Board of Equalization will collect taxes. That doesn’t include oversight by the State Water Resources Control Board or the Department of Pesticide.
With the legalization of recreational cannabis has come the growing concern, several lawmakers said, of more drugged drivers on the roads and the limitation of law enforcement to identify and arrest impaired drivers. That’s in large part because measuring a marijuana user’s impairment is far more difficult than a simple breathalyzer or blood test currently administered to drivers suspected to be under the influence of alcohol.
“There’s a lot of new technology out there, and we don’t necessarily know what this technology is capable of and how feasible or logistical it is to use on the side of the road,” Desmond said.
The CHP hopes to use the $3 million set aside in Proposition 64 to vet some of those technologies, Desmond said.
At the California Department of Justice, the passage of Proposition 64 touches “nearly every legal section within the department,” said Robert Sumner, department director of legislative affairs.
One area likely to see an increased workload is the Criminal Justice Information Services database, which provides information and technology services to law enforcement, regulatory agencies and the public. Names of individuals who apply for a license to grow cannabis will be run through a background check to ensure the applicant does not have a felony or has employed a minor in the drug business, Sumner said.
Proposed regulations for medical cannabis are scheduled to be published in the spring. Meanwhile, state officials are purposely waiting to draft final regulations for recreational marijuana until after the Legislature adjourns in September, with the anticipation that lawmakers will pass related legislation.
