California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a handful of marijuana bills into law on Tuesday. The new laws make a series of small adjustments to the nation’s largest legal cannabis system. More extensive proposals such as overhauling the state’s marijuana regulatory structure will have to wait until next year, the governor said. The biggest of the new changes are revisions to the state’s banking and advertising laws. Because many legal marijuana businesses are still unable to access financial services, Newsom signed a bill (AB 1525) to remove state penalties against banks that work with cannabis clients. “This bill has the potential to increase the provisions of financial services to the legal cannabis industry,” Newsom wrote in a signing statement, “and for that reason, I support it.” Democrats in Congress, meanwhile, have been working for months to remove obstacles to these businesses’ access to financial services at the federal level.
Ben Adlin, Marijuana Moment, 09/30/2020 18:51:34