California DCC-aware dispensary platform

Statutes that bite

Tax stack

Compliance topics surfaced in-platform

• Age 21+ rec / 18+ medical lanes — at the counter an M-licensee may admit AND sell to an 18+ customer only on TWO documents: a valid government-issued ID plus either a county-issued card under HSC 11362.712 or a valid physician's recommendation, for themselves or for a patient they are primary caregiver for (BPC 26140(c)); an A-only licensee may not admit a person under 21 at all (BPC 26140(a)(2)). Separately, the sales/use-tax exemption needs BOTH a CDPH-issued MMIC and a valid government-issued ID at the register (CDTFA Pub. 557); the 15% excise still applies, and a paper physician rec qualifies for neither
• Metrc tag mirror + manifest reconciliation
• Inventory reconciliation export shaped to §15424 — we run it daily; the section itself sets no cadence
• Excise tax remit summary (CDTFA-shaped) on month-close
• Advertising disclosure language enforced on receipts + signage prompts

What CannAgent is built toward for CA

• ✓Daily inventory reconciliation report (auto-runs at close)
• ✓Local cannabis business tax confirmed with you at onboarding — we don’t guess a municipal rate
• ✓Metrc-shaped sale + adjustment mirror
• ✓Manager write-up assistant configurable to CA labor + DCC rule taxonomy

Operator playbooks

California cannabis retail — common questions

Who regulates cannabis retail in California?

California Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) is the state cannabis regulator for California. Official site: https://cannabis.ca.gov.

What seed-to-sale track-and-trace system does California use?

California uses METRC (Franwell) for seed-to-sale traceability — the de-facto standard across most regulated states. CannAgent maps its inventory and transfer events to METRC's required fields.

What cannabis taxes apply to retail in California?

15% cannabis excise — frozen at 15% from Oct 1, 2025 through Jun 30, 2028 under AB-564 (rolled back from the 19% that took effect Jul 1, 2025). Auto-adjusts biennially after, capped at 19%. Applies to BOTH adult-use and medical sales. CA state base 7.25% + district add-on — typical 9-10.5% combined. The medicinal exemption from sales/use tax is a TWO-DOCUMENT test, not a card check: CDTFA Publication 557 states the sale is exempt only when the patient or primary caregiver shows “their valid Medical Marijuana Identification Card issued by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), AND their valid government-issued identification card.” Zero-rating on the MMIC alone leaves the exemption unsupported and the tax assessable back to the retailer. A paper physician recommendation does not qualify at all, and the exemption never reaches the 15% excise. ✅ THE STATUTE SAYS IT DIRECTLY, not just the publication — RTC §34011(f): the sales and use taxes “shall not apply to retail sales of medicinal cannabis … when a qualified patient or primary caregiver for a qualified patient provides their card issued under SECTION 11362.71 of the Health and Safety Code AND a valid government-issued identification card.” ⚠️ NOTE THE SECTION NUMBER. The tax exemption turns on HSC 11362.71 — the state MMIC. The under-21 counter rule turns on HSC 11362.712, a DIFFERENT section one digit away. A customer holding the 11362.712 document may lawfully be served under BPC 26140(c) and still owe sales tax, because that is not the card §34011(f) names. Local cannabis business tax varies by city, and it is a tax on the business’s gross receipts rather than a percentage added at the register. San Francisco’s does NOT apply yet: Article 30 of the Business & Tax Regulations Code defers it to January 1, 2036, and when it starts the first $1M of gross receipts is exempt. We confirm your city’s rate with you at onboarding — never a silent default.

Is CannAgent available for California dispensaries?

California is a priority build market: the DCC regulatory depth on this page is current and the CA code build is in flight. We can only set up stores in Washington and Arizona today — request a scoped demo and we’ll tell you exactly what is built for CA before you sign.

Other states