Governor Newsom Vetoes Small Farmer Direct Sales Bill After Three Successive Years of Legislative Efforts

Press release from Origins Council:Closeup of cannabis

 Origins Council, a nonprofit advocacy organization representing over 800 small, independent cannabis businesses in California’s historic cannabis farming regions, expressed profound disappointment today in response to Governor Newsom’s veto of AB 1111, a two-year bill introduced in 2023 by Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, representing Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties.

AB 1111 would have directed the California Department of Cannabis Control to establish a small producer events sales license, authorizing small-scale cannabis farmers to sell their own cannabis at temporary, state-licensed, cannabis events. AB 1111 built upon the efforts of a similar bill, AB 2691, which was introduced by North Coast Assemblymember Jim Wood. In his veto message, the Governor expressed concerns regarding broad eligibility and stated that AB 1111 would place “significant strain on the Department of Cannabis Control’s ability to regulate and enforce compliance.”

“For over a year, we sought to work with the Department of Cannabis Control to address concerns raised regarding implementation and the scope of qualifying cultivators proposed in AB 1111,” said Genine Coleman, Executive Director of Origins Council, a sponsor of the measure. “We accepted a number of amendments requested by the department to address these concerns. Confusingly, the Governor’s veto message contains factual errors about the bill, appearing to refer to the version of the bill in print prior to accepting the Department’s requested amendments nearly two months ago.”

AB 1111 was the only policy on the Governor’s desk this year that addressed the increasing crises facing California’s small cannabis cultivators and their communities. Wholesale prices for cannabis are currently below the cost of production for most cultivators. Increasing numbers of small, independent cultivators are surrendering licenses and shuttering their businesses. Historic rural cannabis farming regions are experiencing grave economic decline. As corporate consolidation accelerates, genetic biodiversity within the regulated cannabis supply chain is diminishing. As a result, consumer access to high-quality craft cannabis products in the regulated market is quickly narrowing, contributing to an increasing number of patients and consumers turning to the illicit cannabis market to meet their needs.

“Craft cannabis farming and the medical cannabis movement is a part of the historic cultural fabric of my district,” said Assemblymember Gail Pellerin. “I appreciate the administration’s openness to considering a version of this policy next year. Our small cannabis cultivators are in urgent need of expanded market access. We look forward to working with the Legislature and the Governor to address this urgent need this coming year, before we lose this California legacy forever.”

About Origins Council
Origins Council was founded in 2019 as a California 501(c)(4) nonprofit education, research and policy advocacy organization, dedicated to sustainable rural economic development within cannabis producing regions. Origins Council currently represents nearly 800 members through its partnership with Trinity County Agriculture Alliance, Humboldt County Growers Alliance, Mendocino Cannabis Alliance, Nevada County Cannabis Alliance and Big Sur Farmers Association. Learn more at originscouncil.org.

Facebooktwitterpinterestmail

Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules

Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

41 Please improve the conversation by disagreeing thoughtfully and backing your claims with facts
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
melanopsin
Member
1 year ago

“Give me an ‘F'”

Guess
Guest
Guess
1 year ago
Reply to  melanopsin

Uck newscum

Truth Be Told
Member
Truth Be Told
1 year ago

No real surprise here – Newsom has always been in bed with the cannabis corporados – don’t forget it was Newsom who ordered DCC to ditch the 5 acre cap.

This bill was a tiny step anyway as it only allowed farmer direct sales at events – there needs to be a small farmer exemption to allow all forms of farmer direct sales – and even that is too little too late for most small farmers.

pcwindham
Member
1 year ago
Reply to  Truth Be Told

The cabal that runs the People’s Republic of California will never allow small businesses to operate independently without government oversight. They have to have total control.

Tangled Massocells
Guest
Tangled Massocells
1 year ago
Reply to  Truth Be Told

What’s even more amazin is folks voted for someone that put them out of business while simultaneously promoting “in bed with corporados”! Next up, someone running for President (with ties to Gavin, the Party, and CA telling everyone in TV commercial she is for the “middle class”, big billionaire corporados need to pay their “fair share” (whatever that is?). Wait!!!- political commercials cost how much to put on the airwaves? Who donates huge $$$$ to the campaign? Ya might be being lied to? Yet, just like voting for someone that put you out of business, you will vote for someone that is in the “pockets” of the “corporados”. Go figure.

huh
Guest
huh
1 year ago

Right on ! Let’s just get the hell rid of this stupid democracy crap !!

Unimpressed
Guest
Unimpressed
1 year ago

Newsoms reelection campaign slogan could be no small farms. Sorry guys looks like the few small farms legalized get thrown under the bus. Don’t worry there’s alot of people under there.you will have lots of company

Bud
Member
Bud
1 year ago

Wow, who would have thought that the legalisation of weed would result in a massive commercialised industry that would ultimately doom small growers.

Oh yeah, everybody that wasn’t stoned…

Legallettuce
Guest
1 year ago
Reply to  Bud

//doom small growers//
Just the legal ones. The rest of us just went on doin what we have always done. Apparently, theirs an opportunity to gain more customers iffin I is read’in correctly, lol

Bud
Member
Bud
1 year ago
Reply to  Legallettuce

So in your case all it did was drastically lower prices?

Legallettuce
Guest
1 year ago
Reply to  Bud

No, prices remained steady….remember small farmer or as yA’ll callout..CRAFT CANNABIS, LOL!!

moviedad
Member
moviedad
1 year ago
Reply to  Bud

Prices only lowered for growers.
They went up for end-users.

fred krissman
Guest
fred krissman
1 year ago
Reply to  Bud

I WAS stoned, and I knew it, AND shouted it out…

fred krissman
Guest
fred krissman
1 year ago
Reply to  fred krissman

For ex: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://hiimr.humboldt.edu/sites/default/files/hiimr/docs/MjLaborMarket.pdf

Legallettuce
Guest
1 year ago

This is what he said.

“while I appreciate the author’s intent to support small and equity cannabis cultivators, I am concerned that the bill’s broad eligibility, which extends to the vast majority of licensed cultivators, would undermine the existing retail licensing framework and place significant strain on the Department of Cannabis Control’s ability to regulate and enforce compliance.”

Slimey, but hey, business is business.

Last edited 1 year ago
pcwindham
Member
1 year ago
Reply to  Legallettuce

That’s why it’s called the Department of Cannabis Control. It’s always about control.

Legallettuce
Guest
1 year ago
Reply to  pcwindham

Yep, they control the cannabis and WE control the weed.

Misguided
Guest
Misguided
1 year ago
Reply to  Legallettuce

I seriously doubt you still get a stack a unit..

Longtime Mendo Local
Guest
Longtime Mendo Local
1 year ago

Newsom is a chucklehead. He doesn’t care about his constituents. He protects big business and the billionaires; screws the working class, the backbone of this country.

Farce
Guest
Farce
1 year ago

It is very sad to see his generation of DEMogogues destroy the old DEM party in this way. Fought those REPs my whole life but now I’m without a party to attend! As are almost all working class lower middle class folks- they just haven’t realized the changes yet….

Tangled Massocells
Guest
Tangled Massocells
1 year ago
Reply to  Farce

Hate to break it to you but… Dems have always been “this way”! They not the “Party of Slavery” for no reason! “Fool you twice”! They not bringing in millions across open borders for no reason!

Pharmstheproblem
Guest
Pharmstheproblem
1 year ago

Wow, and what is his excuse not wanting to help the little guy?

Country Joe
Member
1 year ago

Newscum is no friend of the little guy.

Emerald Stud
Guest
Emerald Stud
1 year ago

Short and sweet, the middle men destroyed the industry buy buying in bulk starting around 2007/08. They came up to the hills with fat cash exploiting the women working their asses off to feed their babies. These parents have no way to feed their children now. Families are destitute. On top of it the economy is failing everywhere else. 
The dispensary owners were sending buyers up to buy in bulk at low dollar prices which affected the small farmers who didn’t have hundreds of pounds at their disposal. The dispensaries made all the profits the last decade. The farmers could no longer pay for necessary expenses and the workers went without pay. Slowly starving the farmers while having them cornered. The farmers were desperate and allowed the dispensaries to buy into their businesses. The dispensaries took 51% and left all the licensing and permits to the farmers which left the farmers with a deficit. They will not last another year. It’s over!

I’m actually really upset that they have not established a way for people with disabilities to obtain their cannabis medicine at a fair and affordable cost. 
Everyone should have access to the herb as it’s a dietary essential!

now what? Guns and Fentanyl?

Two Dogs
Guest
Two Dogs
1 year ago
Reply to  Emerald Stud

All it takes to make weight is to come together at the trailer.
Exploitation can sometimes be confused with someone taking a golden opportunity and screwing it up to a fair-thee-well, too.
I’ll take the days of running through the jungle to pay my taxes over having every agency known to man up in there.
The six plant permission is sorely underutilized and poorly defended.

Bud
Member
Bud
1 year ago
Reply to  Emerald Stud

You could get a job.

just say’n…

willow creeker
Member
1 year ago
Reply to  Emerald Stud

Sorry emerald stud, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Your estimation of what rolled out is way off, but cool story. Like Bud said, get a job.

I like stars
Guest
I like stars
1 year ago

You get what you vote for. Did you vote for Greasy Gavin?

Say Goodbye to Hollywood
Guest
Say Goodbye to Hollywood
1 year ago

Newsom vetoed this bill for personal gain. He makes money off the current system.

Down with the middle man!

Farce
Guest
Farce
1 year ago

Ted was tight w Woods as they wrote this particular part of the cannabis legislation. Woods wants to pretend otherwise. Gavin encouraged his wealthy friends to invest in the legal weed business and ensured them that his control of the Cannabis Control would make them profitable. It’s not really that difficult to see what happened. And it was never that difficult to predict what would happen if we voted in the corporate “legalization”proposition. Democracy fails when the electorate is too stupid to understand what they are voting for…Idiocracy is what we have now. Idiocracy supporting an oligarchy….

Casual Observer
Guest
Casual Observer
1 year ago

Gonna have to buy your joints from Marlboro now.

Farce
Guest
Farce
1 year ago

Yes but that’s how we be all Safe and Free!!
Now everybody congratulate yourselves!

CsMisadventures
Guest
CsMisadventures
1 year ago

If Marlboro (aka Altria) had their way you would have been since ~2016. It’s no secret that they had operatives out in the hills asking old land owners for space to lease and start operations of one sort or another.

CsMisadventures
Guest
CsMisadventures
1 year ago

The weed is getting in the way of his wine.

Bozo
Guest
Bozo
1 year ago

The O’Jays – For The Love of Money
Money money money money, money [Repeat: x 6]
Some people got to have it
Some people really need it
Listen to me why’all, do things, do things, do bad things with it
You want to do things, do things, do things, good things with it
Talk about cash money, money
Talk about cash money- dollar bills, why’all
For the love of money
People will steal from their mother
For the love of money
People will rob their own brother
For the love of money
People can’t even walk the street
Because they never know who in the world they’re gonna beat
For that lean, mean, mean green
Almighty dollar, money
For the love of money
People will lie, Lord, they will cheat
For the love of money
People don’t care who they hurt or beat
For the love of money
A woman will sell her precious body
For a small piece of paper it carries a lot of weight
Call it lean, mean, mean green
Almighty dollar
I know money is the root of all evil
Do funny things to some people
Give me a nickel, brother can you spare a dime
Money can drive some people out of their minds
Got to have it, I really need it
How many things have I heard you say
Some people really need it
How many things have I heard you say
Got to have it, I really need it
How many things have I heard you say
Lay down, lay down, a woman will lay down
For the love of money
All for the love of money
Don’t let, don’t let, don’t let money rule you
For the love of money
Money can change people sometimes
Don’t let, don’t let, don’t let money fool you
Money can fool people sometimes
People! Don’t let money, don’t let money change you,
It will keep on changing, changing up your mind.

Gosh
Guest
Gosh
1 year ago
Reply to  Bozo

?

Joe blow
Guest
Joe blow
1 year ago

Let’s make it so farmers have to keep using distribution companies that turn around and legally rip off small farmer of all there hard work. Middle men have ruined prop 64

Gosh
Guest
Gosh
1 year ago
Reply to  Joe blow

Vertical integration is a joke.
There is NO REASON that someone cannot grow a plant in their backyard and sell it out their front door.

Big Daddy Government just wants to grift off every stage they opted to put in between those two stages.

#followthemoney

huh
Guest
huh
1 year ago

Well, sorry to just sound like another troll but Newsom inspires that kind of thing. The more money that industrial titans have to throw at his future political ambitions the browner his nose gets. His current round of vetos have thrown schools, small farms, farm workers and citizens threatened by AI cyberattacks under the bus in the name of sucking up to the PG&E, Open AI, and industrial farming organized crime syndicates.

jacqueline
Guest
jacqueline
1 year ago

From the comments I can see that we are preaching to the choir the real question is why do we keep electing him?