(a) The department shall establish a Cannabis Cultivation Program to be administered by the secretary. The secretary shall administer this section as it pertains to the cultivation of cannabis. For purposes of this division, cannabis is an agricultural product.
(b) A person or entity shall not cultivate cannabis without first obtaining a state license issued by the department pursuant to this division.
(c) (1) The department, in consultation with, but not limited to, the bureau, shall implement a unique identification program for cannabis. In implementing the program, the department shall consider issues including, but not limited to, water use and environmental impacts. If the State Water Resources Control Board or the Department of Fish and Wildlife finds, based on substantial evidence, that cannabis cultivation is causing significant adverse impacts on the environment in a watershed or other geographic area, the department shall not issue new licenses or increase the total number of plant identifiers within that watershed or area.
(2) (A) The department shall establish a program for the identification of permitted cannabis plants at a cultivation site during the cultivation period. A unique identifier shall be issued for each cannabis plant. The department shall ensure that unique identifiers are issued as quickly as possible to ensure the implementation of this division. The unique identifier shall be attached at the base of each plant or as otherwise required by law or regulation.
(B) Unique identifiers shall only be issued to those persons appropriately licensed by this section.
(C) Information associated with the assigned unique identifier and licensee shall be included in the trace and track program specified in Section 26067.
(D) The department may charge a fee to cover the reasonable costs of issuing the unique identifier and monitoring, tracking, and inspecting each cannabis plant.
(E) The department may promulgate regulations to implement this section.
(3) The department shall take adequate steps to establish protections against fraudulent unique identifiers and limit illegal diversion of unique identifiers to unlicensed persons.
(d) A city, county, or city and county may administer unique identifiers and associated identifying information but a city, county, or city and county’s identifiers shall not supplant the department’s track and trace program.
(e) (1) This section does not apply to the cultivation of cannabis in accordance with Section 11362.1 of the Health and Safety Code or the Compassionate Use Act.
(2) Subdivision (b) does not apply to persons or entities licensed under subdivision (b) of Section 26070.5.
(Amended by Stats. 2017, Ch. 253, Sec. 6. (AB 133) Effective September 16, 2017.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018