Under current law, temporary California commercial cannabis licenses expire 120 days from the date they were issued, unless the applicant applied for an annual state license, in which case the temporary license may be extended for two additional 90 day periods. But with CalCannabis backlogged on issuing state annual licenses and provisional state licenses, many interim permits are set to expire leaving some commercial cannabis businesses in the state application process without a legal means of operating this year. State Senators Mike McGuire and Assembly Member Jim Wood think that is not a good idea.

That is why the legislators co-authored a bill, known as California SB 67 (2019-2020), that would extend temporary state licenses until December 31, 2019. The bill proposes adding section 26050.3 to the Business and Professions Code. The section would specify the validity of interim permits issued pursuant to Business and Professions Code section 26050.1 including the new expiration date for existing “renewed” temporary licenses.  

SB 67 also amends the provisional license scheme, allowing a prospective licensee to be eligible for a provisional license without submitting a completed annual cannabis application. The implication is that incomplete cannabis applications can receive provisional permitting. This is an important change to the law as Calcannabis begins determining whether applications received are complete or incomplete.

The bill is currently in committee with the Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development voting 8 ayes to none to re-refer it to the Senate Committee on appropriations on February 27. Hopefully, this bill gets moving so that those operators whose temporary state licenses are set to expire can legally operate in the State of California in 2019.

If you have questions regarding state licensing, the attorneys at Janssen Malloy LLP are here to answer your questions.