Bars local bans on medicinal cannabis delivery

Existing law, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, an initiative measure enacted by Proposition 215 at the November 6, 1996, statewide general election, declares that its purpose is, among other things, to ensure that seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes, as specified, and exempts from state criminal liability certain patients and their primary caregivers who possess or cultivate marijuana for the personal medical purposes of the patient. Existing law, known as the Medical Marijuana Program, establishes a voluntary registration program for qualified medicinal cannabis patients and their primary caregivers through a statewide identification card system maintained by the State Department of Public Health and sets forth guidelines for the possession of medicinal cannabis.

The Control, Regulate and Tax Adult-Use of Marijuana Act of 2016 (AUMA), an initiative measure approved as Proposition 64 at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election, established a comprehensive system to legalize, control, and regulate the cultivation, processing, manufacture, distribution, testing, and sale of nonmedical marijuana. AUMA reserved to a local jurisdiction specified powers regarding commercial adult-use cannabis activity, including adopting and enforcing local ordinances regulating commercial adult-use cannabis activity. Existing law, the Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA), among other things, consolidates the licensure and regulation of commercial medicinal and adult-use cannabis activities, including the retail sale of medicinal cannabis.

This bill would enact the Medicinal Cannabis Patients’ Right of Access Act, which, on and after January 1, 2024, would prohibit a local jurisdiction from adopting or enforcing any regulation that prohibits the retail sale by delivery within the local jurisdiction of medicinal cannabis to medicinal cannabis patients or their primary caregivers by medicinal cannabis businesses, as defined, or that has the effect of prohibiting the retail sale by delivery within the local jurisdiction of medicinal cannabis to medicinal cannabis patients or their primary caregivers in a timely and readily accessible manner and in types and quantities that are sufficient to meet demand from medicinal cannabis patients within the local jurisdiction, as specified. The bill, on and after January 1, 2024, would provide that the act may be enforced by an action for writ of mandate brought by a medicinal cannabis patient or their primary caregiver, a medicinal cannabis business, the Attorney General, or any other party otherwise authorized by law.

This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 26200 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by AB 2210 to be operative only if this bill and AB 2210 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.

To the extent this bill would impose additional duties on local jurisdictions, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.