“We shouldn’t be harassing people who are trying to do the right thing and paying their taxes.”
At IgniteIt’s Market Spotlight: California, Treasurer Fiona Ma told a packed room what many licensees have been saying for years — then laid out where the fixes need to happen.
Why the treasurer matters here
A treasurer is basically the state’s banker. All revenues flow through Ma’s office; roughly $3 trillion a year by her tally. She invests a portfolio in the $150 to $250 billion range, balances it daily to six decimals, and issues California’s bonds for infrastructure and the UC and CSU systems. When finance policy closes doors, she sees it first. When a legal industry cannot access programs or capital, she sees the gap. As she reminded the crowd, the governor is not her boss. Voters are.
During COVID, California pushed out about $28 billion in state grants. “Not one penny could go to cannabis because it’s still Schedule I [substance].” That single constraint still shapes how the industry banks, borrows, and plans.
What she told operators, straight up
Enforcement is upside down. Ma described agencies targeting licensees they can find (because they can find them) while obvious illicit activity lingers for months. She called for coordination and a focus on actors who refuse to play by the rules. She added that during COVID, many state workers were not on site, and even now average about two days a week, which weakened enforcement.
Also read: Every Two Minutes, Someone in America Is Arrested for Marijuana
Tracking is clunky and duplicative. Operators maintain internal systems, then layer METRC on top. The result is redundancy, cost, and confusion.
Leakage is real, tax capture is not. California still produces at scale. Newer markets are thriving without matching in-state production. The product is …
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Author: Javier Hasse / High Times
