Is weed legal in California?

Recreational status

Recreational cannabis is legal in California. (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 11362.1)

California marks the goods rather than the shops, so one licensed retailer can serve adults and patients from the same room. Turning 21 opens every shelf except what the state reserves for medical customers.

Medical status

A full medical cannabis program runs in California, serving patients the program registers. (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 11362.5 (Compassionate Use Act of 1996))

A person may be a 'qualified patient' protected by the Compassionate Use Act without holding a Medical Marijuana Program identification card under Health & Safety Code 11362.7; the card is optional.

A physician's recommendation is what does the work here, and it opens three things at once: the shelf reserved for medical use, a daily allowance counted in ounces, and a buying age of 18. California will register a patient who wants a state card, and a patient who skips that step keeps all of it anyway.

Hemp-derived products

California permits the sale of hemp-derived products and limits which ones. (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 11018.5)

Industrial hemp is exempt from cannabis and controlled-substances licensing except upon entry into the California licensed cannabis market, and is otherwise regulated by the Department of Food and Agriculture. The sale or delivery of hemp flower and hemp prerolls in the state is prohibited outright.

The part of the hemp plant that looks most like cannabis, the flower and the preroll, is the part California will not let a shop hand over. Hemp that crosses into the licensed cannabis market loses its exemption at that moment and answers to cannabis rules from there.

Home cultivation

California allows an adult to grow up to 6 plants at home. (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 11362.1)

Home growing and adult possession sit in one section of California law, so a garden of that size is part of the same permission that covers what you carry. A licensed retailer can also put up to 6 immature plants into an adult's hands in a day, which is the other lawful way to start.

Possession and purchase limits

The possession limit, as California states it: 28.5 grams of cannabis not in the form of concentrated cannabis, or eight grams of cannabis in the form of concentrated cannabis, including as contained in cannabis products. (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 11362.1)

On buying, California states: A licensed retailer may not sell more than 28.5 grams of non-concentrated cannabis, 8 grams of cannabis concentrate, or 6 immature cannabis plants to a single adult-use customer in a single day. (4 CCR § 15409 Daily Limits)

For a medicinal customer or their caregiver the daily limit is 8 ounces of medicinal cannabis in dried flower or the plant equivalent, or 12 immature plants, unless the patient's physician's recommendation specifies a different amount. The same regulation allows sale of up to 8 ounces of medicinal cannabis in dried-flower form and 12 immature plants per day to a medicinal cannabis patient or their primary caregiver, and lets a patient purchase a different amount consistent with their physician's recommendation.

The 8-gram concentrate figure counts what is inside a product as well as what is sold loose, so a box of gummies draws on it. On the medical side a physician's recommendation can set a different amount altogether, which makes the printed daily figures a default rather than a fixed ceiling.

Minimum age

You must be 21 or over to buy without a medical card. (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 11362.1)

You must be 18 or over to hold a card and buy for yourself. (4 CCR § 15404 Retail Customers)

A licensed retailer may sell medicinal cannabis goods only to a person at least 18 with a valid physician's recommendation. Cal. Health & Safety Code § 11362.7(e) separately sets 18 for a primary caregiver, except where the caregiver is the parent of a minor child who is a qualified patient.

At 18 a buyer still needs a valid physician's recommendation in hand, and the retailer checks that document rather than the birthday alone. A primary caregiver has to be 18 too, with one exception California writes for the parent of a minor child who is a qualified patient.

Where you can buy

You can buy lawfully from a licensed recreational dispensary, a licensed medical dispensary and a licensed delivery service. (Cal. Business & Professions Code § 26001)

4 CCR 15000.2 requires a licensee authorized to engage in retail sales to sell cannabis goods designated 'For Medical Use Only' only to medicinal customers, keeping the medical-dispensary channel distinct from the adult-use channel.

Delivery is a licensed activity in California, so the car at your door belongs to the same regulated chain as the store it came from. Whichever route you take, a medical order still asks for the recommendation, because the designation travels with the goods and not with the address.

The California store list names every licensed location this site holds a record for.

Federal law applies here too, and it is not the same. Read what federal law says about weed.