(Sacramento, CA) – AB 2679, which will establish key standards for medical cannabis manufacturers and help implement the landmark Medical Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MCRSA), today passed the Senate Business, Professions, and Economic Development Committee with a vote of 8-0.
Joint author, Assemblymember Rob Bonta (D-Oakland), stated, “Last year, California took a historic step by regulating medical cannabis to protect patients, businesses, our communities, and the environment. As we await full implementation, manufacturers are suffering under a murky system. AB 2679 creates clear, rigorous medical cannabis manufacturing standards to guide local governments, protect manufacturers, and prepare for state licenses in 2018.”
AB 2679 requires medical cannabis manufacturers to abide by strict standards designed to ensure the safety of the manufacturing process by requiring local approval and inspection, independent certification, and the utilization of a self-contained system.
“AB 2679 brings needed clarity to local governments about the type of manufacturing of medical cannabis that is allowed during this interim period before the MCRSA is fully implemented,” said joint author, Assemblymember Ken Cooley (D-Rancho Cordova). “I am proud to move this issue forward and continue the ongoing medical cannabis regulation conversation.”
Bonta concluded, “We must act now, before another manufacturer is wrongly shut down.”
Cooley and Bonta are jointly authoring AB 2679 with the same bipartisan coalition of Assemblymembers who authored MCRSA—Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer, Sr. (D-Los Angeles), Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale), and Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg). The medical cannabis manufacturing provisions previously were featured in AB 1575, from the same authors, which was held in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
AB 2679 will next be presented on the floor of the State Senate.
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