Cannabis Practitioners Group

Interested in receiving content and communications from the Cannabis Practitioners Group?

Cannabis Practitioners Group Officers

Shay Aaron Gilmore, Chair

Sarah A. K. Blitz, Vice Chair

William Tolin Gay, Secretary

Cannabis Practitioners Group Mission Statement

The Cannabis Practitioners Group (CPG) of the California Lawyers Association is a CLA-wide group of voluntary attorneys who currently – or would like to – practice law in service of the cannabis industry and movement in California. The mission of the CPG is to:

Provide legal education on cannabis law issues to California lawyers who are not already practicing in this area.
Develop networking opportunities among current cannabis law practitioners and other attorneys and professionals whose work may cross-over with cannabis law issues.
Support California law students and newer attorneys who are interested in practicing law within the cannabis industry and movement in California.
Articulate policy positions of California lawyers on legislative and regulatory issues impacting the cannabis industry and movement.

Upcoming Events

California Legislation 2026

The 2026 California Legislative Session convened on January 5, 2026, and the session is scheduled to adjourn on August 31, 2026.

	Bill No.	Summary	Status
1	AB 2532 (Irwin)	Placeholder bill for legislation regarding cannabis.	02/20/26 Read first time. To print.
2	AB 2420 (Caloza)	To state the Legislature’s plan to enact future legislation authorizing licensed cannabis retailers to donate cannabis or cannabis products to persons 65 years of age and older and to exempt those donations from the cannabis excise tax.	02/20/26 Read first time. To print.
3	AB 2617 (Schiavo)	Placeholder bill for legislation regarding cannabis.	02/20/26 Read first time. To print.
4	AB 2494 (Rogers)	To preserve an existing provision in the Timber Regulation and Forest Restoration Fund that authorizes up to $500,000 per fiscal year to be loaned to the Department of Fish and Wildlife specifically to address environmental damage on forest lands caused by marijuana cultivation, meaning the bill maintains a dedicated funding mechanism for remediating the ecological harm—such as water diversion, pesticide contamination, and habitat destruction—associated with illicit cannabis grows on state forest lands.	02/20/26 Read first time. To print.
5	AB 2667 (Hadwick)	To prohibit marketing or selling vape products that imitate non-vape items, use branding appealing to minors, or include videogame capabilities, and to require the Department of Cannabis Control to revoke or suspend the license of any cannabis licensee who violates these prohibitions—exposing licensed cannabis operators who sell cannabis vape products to potential license revocation, civil penalties up to $5,000 per violation (or $50,000 for distributors), criminal infraction fines, and product seizure.	02/20/26 Read first time. To print.
6	AB 2506 (Hart)	Placeholder bill for legislation regarding cannabis.	02/20/26 Read first time. To print.
7	AB 2537 (Chen)	Placeholder bill for legislation regarding cannabis.	02/20/26 Read first time. To print.
8	AB 2249 (Irwin)	Placeholder bill for legislation regarding the Department of Cannabis Control’s youth advertising and marketing enforcement.	02/20/26 From printer. May be heard in committee March 22.
9	AB 2489 (Lowenthal)	To streamline California’s controlled‑substance research approval process by allowing expedited state review of certain Schedule I and II studies, making it easier for clinical research involving cannabis to include California veterans as participants in trials for conditions such as PTSD and chronic pain.	02/20/26 Read first time. To print.
10	AB 2250 (Aguiar-Curry)	To make technical revisions to the definitions that AB 8 (2025) added to the Cannabis Tax Law concerning cannabis and cannabinoids.	02/20/26 From printer. May be heard in committee March 22.
11	AB 2246 (Wicks)	To make a nonsubstantive change the MAUCRSA requirement that a licensed manufacturer only use only cannabinoid concentrates and extracts that are manufactured or processed exclusively from cannabis obtained from a licensed cannabis cultivator.	02/19/26 Read first time. To print.
12	AB 1965 (Sharp-Collins)	To revise how licensed laboratories sample and test cannabis and cannabis products, including updating batch and sampling definitions, clarifying when and how retesting may occur, and adjusting related Department of Cannabis Control oversight provisions.	02/14/26 From printer. May be heard in committee March 16.
13	AB 1826 (Lackey)	To require the Department of Cannabis Control to provide supporting evidence and an opportunity to meet-and-confer before recalls, embargoes, or destructions proceed; to set deadlines for embargo and condemnation decisions (including expedited timelines for perishables); and to bar the DCC from conditioning corrective actions on waivers of licensees’ rights or on premature product destruction.	02/12/26 From printer. May be heard in committee March 14.
14	SB 936 (Blakespear)	To prohibit retailers, including licensed cannabis retailers, from selling most flavored nitrous oxide, nitrous oxide in containers larger than 8 grams, and devices used to inhale nitrous oxide, and to authorize courts to suspend a business’s cannabis license for repeated violations of these prohibitions.	02/11/26 Referred to Coms. on PUB. S. and B. P. & E.D.
15	AB 1564 (Ahrens)	To authorize a licensed microbusiness with an M-license whose licensed activities include retail sale, distribution, and outdoor cultivation to directly ship medicinal cannabis to a medicinal cannabis patient in the state, and to authorize free medicinal cannabis or medicinal cannabis products provided to medicinal cannabis patients in compliance with MAUCRSA to be shipped to those patients by a licensed microbusiness with an M-license.	02/02/26 Referred to Com. on B. & P.
16	AB 762 (Irwin and Wilson)	To prohibit, beginning January 1, 2027, a person from importing or manufacturing for sale in this state a new or refurbished disposable, battery-embedded vapor inhalation device, and, beginning January 1, 2028, a person from selling, distributing, or offering for sale a new or refurbished disposable, battery-embedded vapor inhalation device in this state.	01/29/26 In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 50. Noes 17.)

California Regulations

California Regulator	Regulations & Guidance
Department of Cannabis Control	Commercial Cannabis Regulations Disciplinary Guidelines (Jul. 2022)
CDFA OCal Cannabis Certification Program	OCal Regulations (Jul. 2021)
CDFA California Industrial Hemp Program	Industrial Hemp Law & Regulations (Dec. 2024)
CDFA Office of Agricultural Resilience and Sustainability	Cannabis Appellations Program
Department of Fish and Wildlife Cannabis Program	Laws & Regulations
Department of Pesticide Regulation	Cannabis Cultivation
State Water Resources Control Board	Cannabis Cultivation Program
Department of Tax and Fee Administration	Tax Guide for Cannabis Businesses
Cannabis Control Appeals Panel	Laws and Regulations

California Case Law

Court	Case
Supreme Court of California	Sellers v. Superior Court of Sacramento County (Jan. 29, 2026)
United States Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit	Peridot Tree WA, Inc. v. Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Control Board (Jan. 2, 2026)
United States Bankruptcy Appellate Panel, 9th Circuit	In re Griffithe (Oct. 30, 2025)
Supreme Court of the United States	Medical Marijuana, Inc. v. Horn (Apr. 2, 2025)
California Court of Appeal, 4th District	Murphy v. AAA Auto Insurance of Southern California (Jan. 24, 2025)
United States Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit	Thomas v. County of Humboldt (Dec. 30, 2024)

California Ethics Opinions

Bar Association	Ethics Opinion
State Bar of California	Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct Opinion Formal Opinion No. 2020-202 (May 2020)
Los Angeles County Bar Association	Professional Responsibility and Ethics Committee Opinion No. 527 (Aug. 2015)
Bar Association of San Francisco	Ethics Committee Opinion No. 2015-1 (Jun. 2015)