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Legislative Update: Status of California's Cannabis Bills Post-House of Origin Deadline
- Jun 1
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 1
Last Friday marked California's House of Origin deadline, the first real sorting point of the 2026 legislative year. Every Assembly and Senate bill has to clear its respective floor; otherwise, it stalls, becomes a two-year bill, or dies. Here's what matters most for licensed operators right now.
CaCOA’s Priority California Cannabis Bills
Assembly Bill 2537 (Chen), our sponsored enforcement bill, passed the Assembly 76-0. It would require the Department of Cannabis Control to publish a risk-based enforcement policy and categorize violations as minor, moderate, or serious, with serious violations (unlicensed activity, illicit-market diversion, sales to kids) receiving top priority. The goal is simple: direct limited enforcement resources to conduct that actually threatens consumers and the legal market, not to paperwork errors.
AB 2250 (Aguiar-Curry), our cleanup bill to last year's hemp law (AB 8), also cleared the Assembly floor without opposition. It tightens seizure authority over unlicensed operators and closes technical gaps so AB 8 works as intended.
AB 2697 (Pellerin), which we co-sponsored, passed the Assembly 55-9 and moved to the Senate. It would allow locally approved retailers and microbusinesses to operate drive-through windows via a secure transfer setup.
One loss: AB 2420 (Caloza), our senior cannabis donation bill, did not advance out of the policy committee and is dead for the session. Committee staff wants to keep working with the author and CaCOA over the interim on a narrower version.
The Fight Over Cannabis Packaging, Branding, and Youth Protection
AB 2249 (Irwin) on youth advertising, labeling, and marketing passed the Assembly Floor with 69 votes. The bill looks very different from when it was first amended in March. CaCOA met with Irwin's office multiple times and negotiated substantial amendments that replaced vague standards with objective ones, narrowed the "cartoon" and human-imagery rules, protected stylized fonts and branding, and secured a one-year sell-through period for compliant products.
While concerns with the bill remain, AB 2249, as amended, represents a far more workable proposal than the one that came before. CaCOA will continue to seek refinements, but it is otherwise supportive of the current bill, as amended.
Quick status on the rest
AB 1826 (Lackey), recall and embargo procedural protections, Support, passed..
AB 1965 (Sharp-Collins), testing quality assurance, Support, passed.
AB 2532 (Irwin), multi-serving beverage labeling, Neutral, passed.
AB 762 (Irwin/Wilson), disposable nicotine vape ban, Neutral. CaCOA successfully got cannabis carved out in January.
AB 2667 (Hadwick), vape waste and youth marketing, Support, passed.
AB 2506 (Hart), tribal cannabis commerce, Oppose, passed. Our concern is regulatory and tax parity.
We're also backing reforms to how smoke shops are regulated and the types of products they can lawfully sell: Senate Bill 758 (Umberg), SB 936 (Blakespear), SB 1314 (Menjivar), AB 2076 (Lowenthal), and AB 634 (Gonzalez). These address intoxication products that are sold outside the licensed market, with none of the rules and regulations that currently apply to cannabis.
Get in the room with us. Join CaCOA today!
