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California Governor Appoints Three New Permit Appeals Panel Members

California Governor Appoints Three New Permit Appeals Panel Members
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California Governor Appoints Three New Permit Appeals Panel Members

Three new people could be in charge of licensing, permits and penalties for the California cannabis market.

California’s cannabis laws have undergone a lot of changes this year. And often times, when laws change, it requires new agencies and authorities to oversee the new rules and regulations. This is exactly what’s happening in the state right now. In fact, earlier this week, California Gov. Jerry Brown picked three new permit appeals panel members. If confirmed, these panel members could play important roles in the state’s legal marijuana industry.

Gov. Brown’s New Picks

This week, Gov. Brown announced his picks for new members of the state’s appeals panel. The appeals panel is responsible for handling all appeals made in response to the state’s decisions about licenses, permits, and penalties.

For example, if authorities order a dispensary to close and the owners of the dispensary appeal the decision, the appeals panel takes over the case.

California’s appeals panel consists of five members. The governor appoints three of them. But the governor’s selections must be confirmed by the Senate.

Along with the governor’s appointments, the Speaker of the Assembly gets to appoint another panel member. Finally, the fifth member of the panel is appointed by the Senate Rules Committee.

Gov. Brown has now filled his three appointments. He chose 39 year old Sabrina D. Ashjian, 29 year old Diandra Bremond, and 35 year old Adrian Carpenter.

As reported by local news sources, Ashjian is from Fresno. With a law degree from Pepperdine University School of Law, she previously served as deputy district attorney at the Fresno County County District Attorney’s Office.

Bremond is from Los Angeles, where she leads a youth development program. She also worked as an adjunct lecturer at the University of Southern California.

Finally, Carpenter is from Plumas Lake. Like Bremond, she is an adjunct college teacher. She was also an attorney at the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office.

Now that Gov. Brown has officially announced his three selections, it will be up to the Senate to confirm them.

California’s Evolving Cannabis Program

This is the latest development in California’s evolving cannabis program. In 2016, voters approved Prop. 64, legalizing recreational marijuana.

Full retail sales began the beginning of 2018. Most recently, the state introduced a new set of regulations that went into effect this month. These changes introduced stricter oversight on things like lab testing, packaging, labeling, and other aspects of the recreational industry.

These latest updates to California’s laws proved controversial. In particular, many players in the industry feared that the new regulations were being introduced too quickly.

More specifically, their fear was that when the rules went into effect, dispensaries and producers would suddenly be stuck with tons of now-obsolete product.

So far, it seems those fears could be coming true. Over the weekend leading up to July 1, dispensaries throughout the state had “fire sales.”

These events featured dramatically slashed prices. The goal was to move as much product as possible off the shelves before the state’s new rules would require shops to dispose of goods that no longer meet the new requirements.

Now that the new rules are in effect, many dispensaries will reportedly be forced to dispose of old product. At this point, experts estimate that dispensaries will destroy $350 million worth of weed.

Clearly, things have been changing in California. Now, if the Senate approves Gov. Brown’s appointments, the state will also have three new members of the state permit appeals panel.

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