We Have a Good Hemp CBD Bill in California; Help Us Battle Malign Efforts to Kill It

We are excited to report that after late night, intense negotiations with Governor Gavin Newsom’s team, we have a deal in California. Unfortunately, there are malign efforts emerging that are trying to kill it. We need YOUR help in ensuring that California law explicitly protects the retail sale of hemp-derived CBD.

The new legislation, negotiated by the hemp industry, and led by Assemblypersons Cecilia Aguiar-Curry and Buffy Wicks, is planned to be amended to AB 2028. Click here for the full language. This effort represents both a significant win for California taxpayers, as well as a critical life-line to all the farmers, business owners and employees in the state’s hemp industry. By explicitly defining the regulatory path for the retail sale of hemp-derived CBD as a dietary supplement, cosmetic, and food and beverage additive, the bill would create much-needed jobs and revenue during this trying economic time, while helping ensure California consumers can purchase products that they can trust
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We appreciate the openness of Governor Newsom’s team to the concerns raised by the industry in negotiations and are very pleased they dropped their initial demands for a ban on interstate commerce and strict age limits on the purchase of products. We are especially pleased with language that we proffered which will ensure that as soon as the bill is signed, it takes effect, and that there will be no enforcement actions taken against CBD sales while the new regulatory regime is developed.

While we remain concerned about the potential for burdensome regulations proposed in the future, we will be vigilant in ensuring that they do not undercut this progress, and ask for your continued help in demanding a fair, farmer-friendly, and consumer-protective regulatory process.

Unfortunately, the same interests that have stymied the hemp industry’s efforts for the past two years are fighting to kill this bill. They must be stopped. And we need your help.

If you live or do business in California, please TODAY use our online portal to contact your state legislators to urge them to pass AB 2028 with the hemp CBD language negotiated by the hemp industry and the Governor. The legislative session ends on Monday, so your emails are urgently needed to get this bill across the finish line.

If you don’t live in the Golden State, please share this message with your California friends and social media contacts to enlist them in our grassroots lobbying efforts.

Together, we can win a big victory for the hemp and CBD industries across the United States.