AB 228

Bill Subjects

Abstract

Existing state law, the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law, prohibits the manufacture, sale, delivery, holding, or offer for sale of adulterated foods, beverages, or cosmetics. Existing law prescribes when a food or beverage is adulterated, including if it bears or contains any poisonous or deleterious substance that may render it injurious to the health of a person or other animal that may consume it. Existing law prescribes when a cosmetic is adulterated, including when it bears or contains a poisonous or deleterious substance that may render it injurious to users under the conditions of use prescribed in the labeling or advertisement of the cosmetic, under customary or usual conditions. The Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law, among other things, regulates the labeling of food, beverages, and cosmetics and makes it a crime to distribute in commerce any food, drug, device, or cosmetic if its packaging or labeling does not conform to these provisions. Existing law also makes it unlawful for a person to disseminate any false advertisement of any food, drug, device, or cosmetic. Existing law makes a violation of the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law a misdemeanor. Existing law, the Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA) , provides for the licensing and regulation of commercial cannabis activity, including cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, and retail sale. Existing law requires a grower of industrial hemp that is to be used for commercial purposes to register with the commissioner of the county in which the grower intends to engage in industrial hemp cultivation. This bill would require a manufacturer of food that includes industrial hemp to be able to demonstrate that all parts of the plant used in their food come from a state or country that has an established and approved industrial hemp program, as defined, that inspects or regulates hemp under a food safety program or equivalent criteria to ensure safety for human consumption and the industrial hemp cultivator or grower to be in good standing and compliance with the governing laws of the state or country of origin. This bill would state that a food, beverage, or cosmetic is not adulterated by the inclusion of industrial hemp or cannabinoids, extracts, or derivatives from industrial hemp, and would prohibit restrictions on the sale of food, beverages, or cosmetics that include industrial hemp or cannabinoids, extracts, or derivatives from industrial hemp based solely on the inclusion of industrial hemp or cannabinoids, extracts, or derivatives from industrial hemp. This bill would require the label of any package of a food, beverage, or cosmetic product containing cannabidiol derived from industrial hemp to include a specified statement. The bill would also prohibit a manufacturer, distributor, or seller of an industrial hemp product from including on the label, or publishing or disseminating in advertising or marketing, a health-related statement, as defined, that is untrue in any particular manner or that tends to create a misleading impression as to the effects on health of consuming products containing industrial hemp or cannabinoids, extracts, or derivatives from industrial hemp. By creating a new crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would prohibit a raw hemp product, as defined, from being distributed or sold in this state without a certificate of analysis from an independent testing laboratory, as defined, that confirms specified information, including that the tested batch of industrial hemp does not contain contaminants that are unsafe for human consumption. By creating a new crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would state that an entity that is licensed to engage in commercial cannabis activity pursuant to MAUCRSA is not prohibited from manufacturing, distributing, or selling products that contain industrial hemp or cannabinoids, extracts, or derivatives from industrial hemp grown in compliance with the registration requirements for growers. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.