California releases cannabis regulations, with no limit on farm size

California officials unveiled a comprehensive set of new rules on Thursday for the legal cannabis marketplace that begins Jan. 1.

The long-waited guidelines, released by the Department of Health, Department of Food and Agriculture and the Bureau of Cannabis Control, cover everything from dosage amounts of THC in cannabis products to facility inspections and authorized businesses and more.

The regulations will allow the state to issue temporary licenses to growers and retailers for cannabis businesses in January, and there will not be a limit on the size of cannabis farms.

On Monday, the state Department of Food and Agriculture issued an environmental impact report that proposed a 1-acre limitation on cannabis farms, but on Thursday, the same agency is now opening the door for large-scale cultivation in California.

Hezekiah Allen, executive director of the California Growers Association, called the decision a “catastrophe.”

“Simply put, there will be too much supply,” he said.

Even though California’s rural areas will be exploding with cannabis, dispensaries in San Francisco and other Bay Areas will not enter the adult-use market right away, since the state will only issue licenses to businesses that have local permits.

However, regulators offered some flexibility for the first four months, an action that industry consultant Sean Donahoe called “very necessary.”

The added period will allow any licensed farm to sell cannabis products to any licensed dispensary, regardless of whether the licenses are classified as medicinal or social.

Under the regulations, cannabis-delivery businesses will also be allowed to apply for licenses after Jan. 1.

“With delivery, it’s been a huge fight,” Nina Parks, co-founder of the San Francisco-based cooperative Mirage Medicinal, said. “When you think of bedridden patients or elderly people, they don’t want to travel far to get their medicine.”

In addition, edible cannabis products can contain only 100 milligrams of euphoria-inducing THC in each 10-serving package, and other products like lotions and tinctures will be limited to 2,000 milligrams of THC in the medicinal market, or 1,000 milligrams for regular use.

The state also stressed on the aesthetics of cannabis products, which “cannot be [made] in the shape of a human being, animal, insect or fruit,” Miren Klein, of the Department of Public Health, said at a Cannabis Advisory Committee meeting on Thursday.