AB 273
| Author: |
Jacqui Irwin (D-044) |
| Title: |
Cannabis: Advertisements: Highways |
| Fiscal Committee: |
yes |
|
| Urgency Clause: |
no |
|
| Introduced: |
01/19/2021 |
| Disposition: |
Pending |
| Location: |
Assembly Business and Professions Committee |
| Summary: |
Relates to highway advertisements for cannabis. Prohibits a licensee from advertising or marketing on a billboard or similar advertising device visible from an interstate highway or on a State highway within California. |
| Status: |
| 01/28/2021 |
To ASSEMBLY Committee on BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONS. |
|
Existing law, 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. Existing law, 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 generally divides responsibility for the state licensure and regulation of commercial cannabis activity among the Department of Food and Agriculture, the State Department of Public Health, and the Bureau of Cannabis Control, which MAUCRSA establishes within the Department of Consumer Affairs.
MAUCRSA prohibits a licensee from advertising or marketing on a billboard or similar advertising device located on an interstate highway or on a state highway that crosses the California border.
This bill instead would prohibit a licensee from advertising or marketing on a billboard or similar advertising device visible froman interstate highway or on a state highway within California.
The Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act, an initiative measure, authorizes the Legislature to amend the act to further the purposes and intent of the act with a 2/3 vote of the membership of both houses of the Legislature, except as provided. This bill would declare that its provisions further the purposes and intent of the Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act.
The current County ordinance code, related to cannabis, is silent on the issue of cannabis advertising adjacent to or visible from interstate or state highways. As such, this bill affords added protections for youth and minors from exposure to cannabis advertising and marketing intended for an adult use audience.
Similar to tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs, significant research indicates that overt advertising of adult use products influences the acceptance and use of these products by youth and minors. In addition, the increased use of cannabis by youth has been associated with a related increase in early onset psychosis in the younger population. States that have legalized adult recreational use cannabis have also seen an increase in motor vehicle accidents associated with the use of cannabis, including in minors.
For these reasons Contra Costa Health Services, Behavioral Health – AOD and Public Health – Tobacco Prevention Programs recommend the Contra Costa Legislation Committee find AB 273 consistent with the Board's adopted State Legislative Platform principles:
"SUPPORT actions that further align a statewide regulatory framework for the commercial cannabis industry and that continue to authorize local jurisdictions to adopt more restrictive measures to protect the health, safety and welfare of their residents. OPPOSE legislation and state regulation that seeks to weaken or eliminate local control over the commercial cannabis industry."
"SUPPORT restricting the sale and use of powdered alcohol and other similar products marketed to youth; restrictions on advertising of marijuana products targeting youth and near places frequented by youth or alcohol and other drug treatment facilities."
"SUPPORT legislation that extends the restrictions and prohibitions against the smoking of, and exposure to, marijuana products in various places, including, but not limited to, places of employment, school campuses, public buildings, day care facilities, multi-family housing, health facilities, alcohol and other drug treatment facilities, and homeless shelters."
|