Free cannabis for ill Californians

“Compassion programs save lives by providing free medicine to people in need…We should not burden these programs with taxes meant for businesses, and we should not force people with serious health problems onto the unregulated cannabis market.” -Sen. Wiener (Democrat).Gov. Newsom signed the bill to allow marijuana retailers to donate cannabis products to medicinal users without running afoul of state law. Way to go Governor! It’s one of eight laws Newsom has signed in the closing weeks of the legislative year aimed at fine-tuning the 2016 ballot initiative voters passed to legalize cannabis and at helping state-registered marijuana companies compete with black market dealers.

Newsom signed several other cannabis-related bills, including A bill authorizing the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research, at UC San Diego, to cultivate cannabis for use in scientific study. The center has struggled with obtaining enough cannabis for research due to federal restrictions. A bill setting a deadline of 60 days for cannabis businesses with 20 or more employees to sign a labor peace agreement, allowing employees to unionize without their employer’s interference. The law also requires license applicants with fewer than 20 employees to provide a statement that they will enter into such an agreement once they have 20 or more employees. A bill allowing the mandatory “universal symbol” for cannabis vapor cartridges to be as small as a one-quarter inch high and one-quarter inch wide. The cannabis industry found the previous requirement, one-half inch by one-half inch, to be “a time-consuming and expensive process” to afix to the cartridges, according to an Assembly floor analysis of the bill.A bill expanding a restriction on cannabis companies advertising that a product is from a certain county or region in California if it was not actually produced in that county or region. The bill prevents the use of similar-sounding names in advertisements.