Cannabis: trade samples.

The Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) , an initiative measure approved as Proposition 64 at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election, authorizes a person who obtains a state license under AUMA to engage in commercial adult-use cannabis activity pursuant to that license and applicable local ordinances. 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. MAUCRSA gives the Bureau of Cannabis Control in the Department of Consumer Affairs the power, duty, purpose, responsibility, and jurisdiction to regulate commercial cannabis activity in the state as provided by the act. AUMA also prohibits a licensee from giving away any amount of cannabis or cannabis product as part of a business promotion or other commercial activity. This bill, on January 1, 2022, or upon the effective date of specified regulations by the bureau, whichever occurs first, would allow a licensee authorized to engage in distribution or retail sales of cannabis to designate cannabis or a cannabis product as a trade sample at any time while the cannabis or cannabis product is in the possession of the licensee and would impose specific requirements on the licensee making the designation. The bill would prohibit the sale or donation of cannabis or a cannabis product that is designated a trade sample, but would allow those trade samples to be given for no consideration to an employee of the licensee that designated the trade sample or to a licensee authorized to engage in distribution or retail sales of cannabis, subject to specified requirements, including that a trade sample be given only for specified purposes. The bill would also require trade samples given to another licensee to be recorded in the track and trace system and would require a licensee to maintain records of cannabis trade samples given to employees. The bill would require the bureau to establish by regulation a definition of trade sample, the quantity of cannabis and cannabis goods that a licensee is authorized to designate as a trade sample, and any other provisions necessary to implement the provisions of this bill. MAUCRSA provides that cannabis batches are subject to quality assurance and testing prior to sale at a retailer, microbusiness, or specified nonprofit, except as provided. This bill would require cannabis or cannabis products designated as a trade sample to be subject to quality assurance and testing. AUMA authorizes the Legislature to amend the act to further the purposes and intent of the act with a 23 vote of the membership of both houses of the Legislature, except as provided. This bill would declare that its provisions further specified purposes and intent of AUMA.