Cannabis Blog

A California cannabis cultivation license is issued by the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) under Business and Professions Code Division 10 and Title 4, Division 19 of the California Code of Regulations. As of 2026, only annual licenses are available — provisional cultivation licenses ended on January 1, 2026, and the statute that authorized them…

Short answer: An emergency cannabis license revocation in Los Angeles moves fast. The Department of Cannabis Regulation (DCR) can move to revoke a cannabis license on an “emergency” track that gives the licensee as little as five days to appeal and orders the business to stop operating immediately. But that speed cuts both ways. Because…

California’s Department of Cannabis Control has proposed one of the most consequential changes to cultivation compliance in years: group plant tagging, allowing licensees to tag groups of plants under a single unique identifier rather than affixing a tag to every plant. The proposal, DCC-2026-03-R, closed its public comment period on July 27, 2026, and now…

On July 1, 2026, California’s new cannabis cultivation and sanitation rules from the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) took effect, trimming several long-standing reporting obligations for cultivators while introducing the state’s first dedicated minimum sanitation standards for licensees who handle exposed cannabis. These rules are now in force, and licensees should confirm their practices comply.…

An Orange County judge has found that California’s cannabis track-and-trace system does not do something the law says it must: automatically flag irregular transactions for investigation. For every licensee that has spent years tagging inventory and reconciling manifests in METRC, the ruling is worth understanding. What the track-and-trace system ruling decided On August 4, 2026,…

The California Department of Cannabis Control is moving to tighten the state’s seed-to-sale tracking system and shut down lab shopping, and the changes would reach nearly every licensee in the supply chain. The proposed rulemaking, designated DCC-2026-02-R: Track and Trace Updates, completed its written comment period on July 20, 2026, and the Department held a…

California’s Department of Cannabis Control has opened an expedited path for dual-designated retailers to split a single A and M license, which carries both the Adult-Use and Medicinal designation, into two separate licenses. The move is the state’s first regulatory response to federal rescheduling, and it carries real structural consequences for operators. What the A…

DCC inspections are often unannounced. Here is what inspectors check – license posting, records, track-and-trace, surveillance, premises – and how to be ready before they walk in.

The best way to survive a DCC audit is to run your own first. Here is a practical annual self-audit covering licensing, records, track-and-trace, security, and ownership – with the rules behind each.

Adding, removing, or changing an owner or financial interest holder triggers a 14-day reporting duty to the DCC under 4 CCR section 15023. Miss it – or leave someone off – and you invite an enforcement problem.