California Cannabis: So Close on Provisional Licen
Post# of 85497
September 14, 2018 by AggregatedNews
Provisional licensing would benefit state AND industry.
The California legislature is currently finalizing a bill (SB-1459) which would establish a provisional licensing regime for California cannabis businesses. The bill moved into “enrolled” status late last week, which means that SB-1459 has been approved by both houses of the state legislature and is being proofread to ensure all amendments were properly inserted. Once SB-1459 is “correctly engrossed”, only a signature from Governor Brown is needed for the bill to take immediate effect. In all, provisional licensing seems imminent.
These pending, provisional licenses would provide holders with a year-long, non-renewable, provisional license to operate after filing completed license applications. These provisional licenses would alleviate pressures on licensing agencies caused by the backlog of pending applications. Provisional licenses would also allow holders to continue operating, rather than potentially ceasing operations later this year. On that point, the SB-1459 legislative findings are compelling:
“The significant number of cultivation license applications pending with local authorities that do not have adequate resources to process these applications before the applicants’ temporary licenses expire on January 1, 2019, threatens to create a major disruption in the commercial cannabis marketplace.”
https://www.cannabisbusinessexecutive.com/201...-264326777
The reason this could be important is because California is the biggest consumer of cannabis products, and this legislation could become a template for other states to follow.