New Top California Cannabis Regulator Appointed By Newsom Must Fix The Program’s Failures (Op-Ed)
California cannabis regulator shake-up, and the long night that led to it
California cannabis regulator shake-up: Clint Kellum slid into the big chair at the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) the way a chef swaps shifts after a fire—quietly, late, and with the smell of smoke still hanging in the rafters. The timing of his appointment—holiday-drop stealth—says plenty about the mess he inherits. Nearly a decade after voters greenlit legalization, the California cannabis market isn’t the bright, bustling bazaar we were sold. It’s a patchwork of boarded-up storefronts and backdoor deals, where legal shops wrestle with illicit sellers who never had to learn the word “compliance,” and consumers pay more for the privilege of less trust. This is the hangover from years of regulatory misfires: a market warped by high taxes, anemic enforcement, and a communication style that treated the public like it couldn’t handle bad news. If Kellum wants to change the menu, he has to start by admitting the kitchen’s been dirty.
Trust, torched: pesticides, burner distributors, and equity dollars off-course
Let’s name the ghosts. The pesticide testing scandal put a hole in the hull: contaminated products slipped through, mocking the promise that “legal and tested” meant safe. Meanwhile, the track-and-trace system—built to be the watchtower—sprouted blind spots. “Burner distributors” exploited loopholes to launder illicit cannabis into the legal supply chain, and everyone in the room knew it. Add to that equity grant dollars spent with sloppy oversight, a state auditor’s rebuke of “inadequate” controls, and whistleblower claims that regulators punished internal dissent. Wrap it in upbeat press lines about a “healthy” market while legal sales shrank by more than 30 percent since 2021, and you’ve got an Orwellian tasting menu: say one thing, serve another. Consumers felt it. Prices up. Confidence down. Many cities kept legal businesses out, pointing to chaos elsewhere as Exhibit A. High cannabis taxation pushed shoppers back to the illicit market; even statewide leaders now concede the obvious. This isn’t about one bad quarter—it’s a systemic fracture, the kind that doesn’t heal until someone resets the bone and owns the pain.
California’s drag on national momentum—and the map of what could be
California is the biggest stage in American cannabis, and when the headline act flubs the set, the whole tour takes a hit. The state’s legal cannabis revenue lags so badly that if it simply matched per-capita performance seen in places like Michigan or Montana, annual sales would be north of $13 billion instead of hovering near $4 billion. Nationally, that gap translates to an industry stuck around $32 billion when it could be topping $40 billion—and tens of thousands of jobs that never materialize. This underperformance doesn’t just dent balance sheets; it hands ammunition to prohibitionists in purple and red states who point west and say, “See? Legalization means disorder.” It doesn’t have to. Smarter baselines—clearer standards, transparent data, and credible oversight—create the conditions for markets to grow up instead of burn out. Even ideologically distant voices are converging around basics, as captured in Leading Conservative Think Tank Calls For Federal Marijuana Labeling Standards Despite Prohibition. Labels, trust, and enforcement: no romance there, but that’s how you stock a functional pantry.
What Kellum can actually fix—and how he signals it
Kellum can’t rewrite Proposition 64 or unilaterally cut taxes. But he can start with candor. He can say the quiet part out loud: the pesticide lapses, the burner distributors, the equity-accountability failures—and what the agency will do, by date and dashboard, to close each wound. He can tighten track-and-trace, mandate corrective testing protocols with teeth, and publish a quarterly transparency slate: enforcement metrics, lab audit results, grant audits, and consumer safety flags. He can steer enforcement toward the illicit operations siphoning market oxygen while protecting licensed operators who follow the rules. He can convene local leaders who still ban legal businesses and offer enforcement partnerships and real-time data to give them cover to say yes. And he can anchor California in the broader policy turn that’s already underway. Federal voices are tentatively embracing medical pragmatism and harm reduction—see GOP Congressional Leader Is ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ Trump Will Reschedule Marijuana—Which He Says Is ‘An Alternative To Highly Addictive Opioids’. Regulators are recalibrating around science and patient need, from cannabinoids to other controlled substances; just look at DEA Moves To Boost Production Of Psychedelics To Explore Therapeutic Potential For PTSD And Depression. And as hemp skirmishes heat up, clarity beats crackdowns; for a reality check, read Hemp Isn’t A Loophole—It’s A Legal Industry, And It’s Under Attack (Op-Ed). The throughline is simple: honest rules, consistent enforcement, measurable outcomes.
The test of this era: candor, competence, and skin in the game
This next chapter isn’t just Kellum’s. Operators, attorneys, consultants, and trade groups need to stop whispering in back rooms and start telling hard truths in public. Deference got us drifting; accountability gets us moving. California can still build the market voters wanted: sane taxes that don’t reward the illicit market, reliable testing that means what it says, local pathways that bring legal shops out of the shadows, and enforcement that targets predators, not paperwork typos. Consumers deserve a system where “legal” equals safer, better, and fairly priced—a market that grows because it earns trust, not because it spins a better story. If the DCC owns its failures, publishes its fixes, and sticks to data over theater, California can go from cautionary tale to working model. And if you want to see where the future of compliant, high-quality cannabis is already heading, end your scroll with a visit to our shop: https://thcaorder.com/shop/.
