Across California, compost bins are fuller and dispensary shelves are a little emptier than usual. If you knew the signs, you’d sense that something dramatic had just happened. And you’d be right.
On Sunday, the stringent new “seed to sale” tracking standards for California’s cannabis market went into effect. Overnight, thousands of pounds of cannabis products worth hundreds of millions of dollars suddenly became noncompliant. Now, dispensaries are in the process of destroying them, in an event the industry has dubbed the “Marijuanapocalypse of 2018”
In The Aftermath of the “Marijuanapocalypse”
For the six months after the start of legal retail sales, which began on January 1, producers and retailers have scrambled to get their supply chains and products compliant with California’s new regulatory standards.
State regulators called this a “transition period,” a chance for businesses operating above board and seeking licenses to meet the Bureau of Cannabis Control’s requirements.
The six month lag on the new rules was a tacit acknowledgment of the illicit market that still undergirds much of California’s cannabis economy. But it also aimed to facilitate its transition into the legal, regulated market.
So through June 30, as licensing authorities reviewed applications, businesses were granted exceptions from specific regulatory provisions.
But with so much product produced under the previous standards still on dispensary shelves, the July 1 deadline loomed large for many companies.
That deadline came and passed over the weekend, with many dispensaries unable to process all of their inventory under the new rules.
And that’s why California dispensaries must destroy $350 million worth of weed, according to one estimate.
In Lead Up To Deadline, California Dispensaries Rush To Sell Thousands of Pounds
News