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California Cannabis Updates

California report shows ramped-up crackdown on illicit marijuana operators

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MJ Biz Report

California’s top cannabis regulator has boosted and improved enforcement of illicit marijuana operations the past two years, according to newly released data.

Warrants were issued, illegal cannabis plants eradicated, firearms seized and arrests exponentially increased since 2021 in the world’s largest regulated and illicit marijuana market.

According to Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) enforcement statistics released Thursday, the agency’s efforts resulted in:

  • Search warrant operations increasing from 62 in 2021 to 155 in 2022, up 150%.
  • Seizures of illegal cannabis skyrocketing to 144,254 pounds in 2022, a 246% jump from 41,726 pounds a year earlier.
  • Arrests in 2022 more than tripling to 56. That’s still an incredibly low number that underscores the challenges that enforcement officials face in a state with minor fines associated with marijuana violations and little appetite for prosecuting them.
  • Seizures of illegal cannabis in 2022 hitting $243 million, a 211% year-over-year increase from about $78 million, though monetary estimates are often inflated by government agencies.

Combined efforts of the DCC and other California agencies in 2022:

  • Seized 439,800 pounds of cannabis, up 30% from 2021, with a retail value of nearly $737 million, an increase of 29%.
  • Eradicated 960,212 plants, up 30% from 2021.
  • Seized 139 firearms, up 130% from a year earlier.

Interestingly, cash seized in 2022 fell to $1.8 million, down from $7.7 million, or about 77%.

State-led operations tell only part of the enforcement story in California, where a mix of local, county and federal agencies also face a seemingly insurmountable task of trying to rein in an illicit market that some experts contend is double the size of the regulated one.

In San Bernardino County, for instance, law enforcement in the nation’s largest county by land mass served 2,100-plus search warrants and seized more than $1 billion in cannabis plants and processed marijuana since 2020, including a 5,000-plant illegal grow this week, Fox News reported.

“My best estimate is probably 97% to 98% of all of our indoor marijuana cultivations are run by Chinese nationals,” Sgt. Rich Debevec of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Marijuana Enforcement Team told Fox.

“Back in 2019, we got involved in a yearlong investigation where we were able to prove that Chinese nationals were bringing in money from China, purchasing houses in the (Chino-Ontario area) and turning them into marijuana cultivations.”

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https://mjbizdaily.com/california-report-shows-ramped-up-crackdown-on-illicit-marijuana-operators/



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California Cannabis Updates

Not Very Beat! Don’t Expect A Espresso or Piece Of Cake At A Cannabis Cafe In San Francisco

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The simplest way to turn cannabis cafes into mini ghettos that give cashed up gentrifiers an opportunity to complain is this…

SF Gate has the story

Don’t expect to buy a latte and smoke a joint inside a San Francisco cannabis cafe anytime soon.

Despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s legalizing cannabis cafes and a statewide law going into effect last week that allows cannabis lounges to sell food and drinks, San Francisco’s pot lounges are still unable to prepare food. The city told SFGATE this week that there’s no estimate for when they will be able to do so.

The disconnect is due to the fact that while cannabis cafes are legal at the state level, city law still prohibits pot lounges in San Francisco from selling prepared food like a sandwich or an espresso.

The consumption lounge at the Vapor Room, a cannabis dispensary on Ninth Street just south of Market Street, in San Francisco, on Dec. 4, 2024.
The consumption lounge at the Vapor Room, a cannabis dispensary on Ninth Street just south of Market Street, in San Francisco, on Dec. 4, 2024.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Assemblymember Matt Haney, the San Francisco Democrat who introduced the cannabis cafe bill in the California Legislature, told SFGATE he thought the city government would have been prepared to allow pot cafes to open up in SF after the state cleared the way.

“I honestly thought that was their plan, so I’m a little surprised that they’re not immediately ready to roll this out. It’s a bigger opportunity for San Francisco than maybe anywhere else in the state,” Haney said.

San Francisco has at least eight approved cannabis lounges, where customers can purchase and smoke cannabis. State law has historically prohibited these lounges from selling any food or drinks, but Haney’s bill lifts that statewide prohibition and allows the lounges to prepare food as long as they have local approval.

Rose Harless lights a marijuana joint at the Vapor Room, a cannabis dispensary on Ninth Street just south of Market Street, in San Francisco on Dec. 4, 2024.
Rose Harless lights a marijuana joint at the Vapor Room, a cannabis dispensary on Ninth Street just south of Market Street, in San Francisco on Dec. 4, 2024.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Angela Yip, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Office of Cannabis, said city departments are “continuing to work together internally to streamline local implementation of the state law” and directed further questions to the city Department of Public Health. A health department spokesperson who declined to be named told SFGATE by email that the department is working on developing requirements but declined to estimate when those rules would be released.

Haney’s bill is modeled on the cannabis cafes that are popular in Amsterdam, where people can purchase and enjoy coffee, food and cannabis within the same restaurant. Cannabis lounges are rarely legal in America, and the new law makes California one of the only places in the country where businesses can legally serve food to customers who are also smoking marijuana. While San Francisco delays allowing lounges to sell food, cannabis cafes are up and running in other California cities like West Hollywood and Coachella.

Haney was inspired to legalize cannabis cafes after visiting such establishments in Thailand and the Netherlands, where he said the cafes were enjoyable social experiences. The lawmaker said it would be a “huge missed opportunity” if San Francisco didn’t take advantage of the new cannabis cafe law.

Read more at

https://www.sfgate.com/cannabis/article/despite-newsom-approval-sf-prohibits-pot-cafes-20022813.php



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California Cannabis Updates

August 23 2024: Department of Cannabis Control Files Emergency Rulemaking Action to Readopt Cultivation License Changes pursuant to Business and Professions Code section 26061.5

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Department of Cannabis Control Files Emergency Rulemaking Action to Readopt Cultivation License Changes pursuant to Business and Professions Code section 26061.5

August 23, 2024

The Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) has filed an action with the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) to readopt its emergency regulations implementing Senate Bill 833, codified in Business and Professions Code section 26061.5, which requires the DCC to allow cultivation licensees to make certain changes including: change the type of size of a cultivation license; place a cultivation license in inactive status; or make a one-time change to a cultivation license’s date of renewal.

View the proposed finding of emergency and notice of proposed adoption and the proposed text of emergency regulations below:

The five-calendar day public comment period for this emergency action starts once OAL posts notice of the filing on its website. Emergency regulations under review by OAL can be found on its Emergency Regulation’s Under Review webpage.



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California Cannabis Updates

Oakland police seize banned tobacco products, psilocybin candy bars from smoke shop

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Oakland police are investigating an unlicensed smoke shop in East Oakland where officers seized several illegal products earlier this week, including cartons of banned tobacco products from out of state and nearly 10 pounds of marijuana bud.

Police on Wednesday confiscated other items at the shop in the 2500 block of Seminary Avenue that included Psilocybin “magic” mushroom candy bars and close to 20 pounds of suspected THC products.

Officers with the police department’s Alcohol Beverage Action Team were following up on anonymous complaints about the shop. In addition to seizing illegal items, they detained a store clerk.

No arrests were made, but the case will be forwarded to the Alameda County District Attorney’s office for further action, including civil charges and potential eviction, police said in a news release on Thursday.

https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/east-oakland-smoke-shop-bust-illegal-tobacco-marijuana-mushrooms-thc-seminary-avenue/



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