#californiacannabis – “Sonoma County officials are weighing proposals from two firms vying to carry out a highly anticipated environmental study of the local commercial cannabis industry — with the final product meant to help underwrite changes to the county’s troubled cannabis ordinance.
The proposals on the table come from Sacramento-based Ascent Environmental, which bid $623,238 for the project, and Oakland-based Rincon Consultants Inc., which bid $456,158.
The Board of Supervisors committed to an environmental impact report last year following years of sharp debate and criticism from those in the cannabis industry and residents concerned about the impacts of commercial cultivation….
A team of five county staff members from Permit Sonoma and the administrator’s office reviewed the two proposals and scored each bid, Acker said.
When evaluating the proposals, Acker said, staff generally looks for familiarity with Sonoma County, experience dealing with California’s complex environmental laws, cost and previous experience with similar projects.
Previous work history with the county may be a factor in deciding which proposal to accept, but the product isn’t, Acker said.
“They have to be impartial based on the proposal itself,” she said.”
We just wrote about this in our August 2022 Newsletter. Don’t wait….Get on top of compliance now! Let me know if you need help….
#californiacannabis – “California’s Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) is the state’s primary cannabis regulatory authority. DCC’s predecessor agencies often gave several days’ advance notice before an inspection. Since its formation, DCC has taken a vastly different – and more aggressive – approach to cannabis inspections. Our California cannabis team is now seeing drop-in, no notice DCC inspections as a matter of course. The “lucky” licensees will get 24-48 hours heads’ up.
Given all of this, licensees need to prepare for a DCC inspection at any time. And as you can guess, this is an issue for a lot of folks in the industry. While DCC inspectors can look for any kind of defect in a licensee’s operations, there are some big-picture issues that inspectors are looking for…
Track and Trace Compliance
Recordkeeping
Modifications to premises
Cultivator issues
Access to premises…
Even though DCC will often give licensees a chance to correct rule violations (unless they are massive), it’s not a good business model (or bet) to wait to comply until a DCC inspector is walking through a facility.”
https://harrisbricken.com/cannalawblog/california-cannabis-get-ready-for-dcc-inspections/
#californiacannabis – Politics – “Assembly Bill 2188 would amend the California Fair Employment and Housing Act to make it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against a person for their use of cannabis off the job and away from the workplace. In particular, the bill would prohibit employers from discriminating against applicants or employees on the basis of drug tests showing only the presence of nonpsychoactive cannabis metabolites in the person’s system. Such metabolites may remain in a person’s body for weeks after the use of cannabis. The bill would not bar employers from basing actions on either tests that identify the presence of THC (as opposed to metabolites) in a person’s saliva or other bodily fluids or tests of impairment as compared to the employee’s baseline performance. The bill does not go so far as to protect cannabis use or impairment on the job.”
https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/sign-or-veto-bills-impacting-employers-7443177/
#cannabispolitics – “Assembly Bill 1954, introduced by California Assemblymember Bill Quirk (D-Hayward), passed the legislature with bipartisan support…..
The new law clarifies that physicians cannot be punished for treating patients who use or test positive for cannabis, despite its illicit status under federal law.
The bill also outlaws the automatic elimination of cannabis-using patients from pain management programs by specifying that a positive drug test for cannabis should not be the sole basis for denying medical treatment.”
https://www.sfgate.com/news/bayarea/article/Gov-Newsom-Signs-Bill-Banning-Medical-17418663.php
Law Office of Dale Schafer 