Just a few weeks in the past, California lawmakers quietly launched SB-1326, a invoice that might amend the Medicinal and Grownup-Use Hashish Regulation and Security Act (MAUCRSA) to legalize interstate hashish gross sales, however the standing of federal regulation.
Particularly, SB-1326 would authorize the Governor to enter into an settlement with different states authorizing medicinal or adult-use industrial hashish exercise, or each, between entities licensed below the legal guidelines of the opposite states and California entities working with a state license.
If enacted in its present model, the invoice would additionally:
- Restrict interstate industrial hashish actions to out-of-state operators that safe a state license, or a neighborhood license, allow, or different authorization issued by the native jurisdiction.
- Require that the opposite states impose necessities, together with product security, labeling, and testing necessities, on their hashish licensees that meet or exceed the necessities relevant to MAUCRSA licensees.
- Mandate that the settlement embrace provisions for assortment of relevant taxes.
Amongst these three further provisions, the second stands out as the most fascinating. Imposing burdensome necessities on out-of-state hashish licensees may run afoul of the Dormant Commerce Clause (DCC). That clause prohibits states from enacting laws that discriminates in opposition to or excessively burdens interstate commerce, and regulates conduct occurring past their borders with out some satisfactory localized justification. If this subject is of curiosity, you possibly can learn extra about it here.
SB-1326 would, partly, assist California take care of its oversupply downside by enabling the exportation of hashish product. It will additionally place the State as one of many first states to export hashish and hashish merchandise the second federal hashish prohibition is lifted. Certainly, as soon as marijuana turns into lawful below federal regulation, the DCC ought to assure unrestricted entry to each authorized grownup use and medical market within the nation. This, in flip, ought to improve state revenues, spur funding, growth, enterprise formation, and jobs.
The language of SB-1326 intently aligns with the provisions of an Oregon invoice enacted in June 2019 that grants the Governor of Oregon the authority to make agreements with neighboring states the place marijuana is lawful, offered such actions change into lawful below federal regulation or if the Division of Justice implements an administrative coverage permitting for such commerce. It’s value mentioning that in its present type SB-1326 doesn’t expressly tie the Governor’s authority to federal legality.
The success of these kind of interstate agreements will clearly rely on the specifics and whether or not the phrases of the agreements profit native hashish companies, notably small corporations which might be already struggling to compete with “Huge Marijuana.”
Hashish teams, such because the California Cannabis Industry Association and the Alliance for Sensible Markets, which have been selling the concept of interstate compacts for a couple of years now, will most actually affect the passage of this new California invoice and assist form the phrases of the settlement – See Dreaming of an Oregon-California Hashish Trade.
There isn’t any doubt that if enacted, SB-1326 would additional legitimize the concept of hashish interstate commerce and would doubtless affect different states to observe the footsteps of the Golden and Beaver States, which have been and proceed to be marijuana mavericks.
Evidently we’ll preserve intently monitoring this concern and report on any legislative improvement.