Cannabis Law Group's Medical Marijuana Legal Blog
California Growers Have Highest Rate of Noncompliance With Cannabis Regulations
California is posed to instantly become the country’s largest marijuana market when lawful sales of cannabis for recreational use begin on January 2, 2018. While this presents vast opportunity for investors and entrepreneurs, it also presents a wealth of regulatory challenges. Businesses often face greater regulation in California than other states, simply due to the size of California’s legal and regulatory codes. Cannabis businesses will have the added headache of new and changing regulations in a brand new industry. Yet, with preparation and planning, and skilled legal advice from an experienced marijuana business compliance attorney, business owners can keep their operations compliant and profitable throughout the coming changes in regulatory framework applicable to California’s cannabis industry.
California’s Compliance Rating
Forbes reports on recent compliance data issued by Adherence Compliance, a cannabis compliance company based in Denver, Colorado. Adherence Compliance has applied predictive analytics and machine learning to the cannabis industry in order to determine the compliance areas in which a business is likely to fail. Its data has found California cannabis business owners to be the least compliant across the country. Here, owners average sixteen compliance infractions per inspection, and score an average of 74.4 out of 100 on Adherence’s compliance metrics. By contrast: Illinois was found to be the most compliant state, and averaged 91.1 out of 100 on the same tests. It is worth noting that Illinois has a relatively new and small program of strict regulation. Colorado, in comparison, has an older and larger program of regulation, which has complex applications for both recreational and medicinal use. Its cannabis business owners scored an average of 82.9 out of 100 on the Adherence Compliance metric. Continue reading