LEGISLATION: March 1 error repealed
Gov. Brown signed emergency legislation to repeal the erroneous March 1 deadline for local authorities to lose jurisdiction over medical marijuana cultivation. The cleanup law, Assembly Bill 21, is immediately effective.
The deadline, which accidentally remained in the October 2015 state legislation to regulate cannabis, prompted more than 100 cities and counties in California to rush ordinances banning cannabis cultivation, either completely or partially.
Faced with the erroneous deadline, local authorities feared the state Department of Food and Agriculture would take over jurisdiction in communities that failed to pass cultivation ordinances. Outright bans became the fallback solution.
Assembly member Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg) authored the corrective legislation, which allows locals to keep their police authority but prohibits them from banning cannabis cultivation for personal use.
State officials say they will work with cities and counties to unwind their cultivation ban ordinances and formulate comprehensive cannabis regulations aligned with state law.
