California officers have awarded greater than $1.7 million in grants assist promote sustainable marijuana cultivation practices and help growers with acquiring their annual licenses.
That is the primary spherical of Certified Cultivator Grant Program funding that’s being made accessible by way of the California Division of Fish and Wildlife’s (CDFW) Hashish Restoration Grant Program (CRGP). Grants are awarded to eligible non-profits, authorities entities and tribes, which may then distribute funds to particular person grower candidates.
A complete of $6 million might be allotted by way of this system, which was first introduced in August 2021 and can stay open for purposes by way of April 2023.
CDFW Awards First Funds From Certified Cultivator Grant Program
— California Division of Fish and Wildlife (@CaliforniaDFW) July 8, 2022
Beside aiding cultivators in processing and paying for annual licensing, the grants are supposed to help environmental sustainability within the hashish sector. For instance, they can be utilized to boost water conservation and fund restoration initiatives.
For this primary spherical, the cultivation certification group Solar+Earth obtained $395,643 for planning functions and to develop their operations, with a give attention to land restoration and conservation on marijuana farms throughout the state.
The Mendocino County Useful resource Conservation District was awarded $1,388,181 for water conservation initiatives within the South Fork Eel River Watershed. The cash is being particularly allotted to put in three rainwater assortment techniques, improve irrigation infrastructure, handle invasive species and herald native, “pollinator-friendly crops.”
“These are well-conceived and well timed planning initiatives that may lead to lasting advantages to fish and wildlife assets and the habitats they rely on for survival,” Performing Hashish Program Director Sarah Paulson said in a press launch. “Supporting these entities will assist protect California’s pure assets and pave the way in which for future hashish farmers within the regulated market.”
The certified cultivator program includes three steps: session to develop licensing and conservation proposals, pre-application to find out eligibility after which the total utility.
California has put important assets into supporting the state’s marijuana program, with sure initiatives being funded by tax income from hashish gross sales.
For instance, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a wide-ranging invoice this month to restructure the state’s marijuana market, together with by eliminating a hashish cultivation tax, in an effort to offer business reduction and additional curtail the illicit market. AB 195 builds upon an amended finances proposal that the governor unveiled in Could.
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The important thing provisions going into impact eradicate the marijuana cultivation tax and shift the purpose of assortment and remittance for the separate 15 p.c excise tax on hashish gross sales from the distribution to retail degree. Moreover, there might be no enhance within the excise tax for a minimum of three years underneath the proposal, which is anticipated to be signed by the governor after which take impact instantly.
Additionally, the brand new regulation features a $20 million one-time grant program to help the event and implementation of native retail licensing efforts. That’s an vital part that’s meant to assist cut back the hashish coverage hole all through California, the place greater than half of the state’s cities and counties don’t enable any sort of hashish licensees to function of their space.
Relatedly, state officers launched a brand new useful resource in Could, offering individuals with an interactive map displaying the place marijuana companies are permitted—and the place they’re blocked from opening—all through the state.
Final week, regulators additionally introduced final week that they’re soliciting enter on proposed guidelines to standardize hashish testing strategies within the state—an effort that they hope will cease marijuana companies from “laboratory procuring” to search out services which can be extra more likely to present larger THC concentrations that they’ll then boast for his or her merchandise.
In the meantime, California officers are distributing one other spherical of group reinvestment grants totaling $35.5 million with tax income generated from leisure marijuana gross sales.
The Governor’s Workplace of Enterprise and Financial Growth (GO-Biz) introduced final month that they’ve awarded 78 grants to organizations all through the state that may help financial and social growth in communities disproportionately impacted by the struggle on medication.
The quantity of funding and variety of recipients elevated from final yr’s ranges, when the state awarded about $29 million in grants to 58 nonprofit organizations by way of the CalCRG program.
California has taken in almost $4 billion in marijuana tax income because the state’s adult-use market launched in 2018, the Division of Tax and Payment Administration (CDTFA) reported late final month. And for the primary quarter of 2022, the state noticed about $294 million in hashish income generated from the excise, cultivation and gross sales tax on marijuana.
The state collected about $817 million in adult-use marijuana tax income over the past fiscal yr. That represented 55 p.c extra hashish earnings for state coffers than was generated within the 2020-2021 interval.
California officers additionally introduced in January that the state had awarded $100 million in funding to assist develop native marijuana markets, partially by getting hashish companies totally licensed.
Photograph courtesy of Chris Wallis // Aspect Pocket Photographs.