Cannabis is legal to purchase in California but there are almost no spaces where one can consume the product outside of a private home. Up until now, it has been legal to consume cannabis on tour buses and limousines throughout California. This state of affairs has not produced any real-world problems, as operators have logged millions of miles traveled without a single incident of a tour driver causing damage to person or property on account of exposure to second hand cannabis smoke.

For the last 2 years Senator Jerry Hill has been working with stakeholders across the political and ideological spectrum to craft a compromise bill that will codify important driver protections while allowing the cannabis tourism industry to continue to grow and thrive. That bill, SB-625, represents a fair, logical and reasonable compromise that would insure protection of drivers even though there have been no problematic incidents to date.

Unfortunately, on the last day of the legislative session that bill was shelved, and instead AB-1810 was hastily voted through. This bill would destroy the cannabis tourism industry in California, removing one of the few legal options for cannabis consumption and tourism, and forcing the abrupt closure of dozens of small businesses who have invested their livelihoods in the industry. This will negatively impact California's overall economy as those businesses close and their workers added to the unemployment rolls. Buses that would otherwise be built in California won't get built or serviced, insurance policies that would have been written won't be, and overall this bill will have a net-negative impact on the state's economy as economic indicators are starting to point towards recession.

We therefore respectfully request that Governor Gavin Newsom exercise his veto power to strike the language concerning cannabis tour vehicles from AB-1810. There is no need to shut down the industry while a compromise along the lines of SB-625 can be worked out in the next legislative session. Don't kill cannabis tourism in California- keep the Golden State as the world leader in cannabis and cannabis tourism!