Three in four California cannabis companies aren’t licensed; $100 million might help

Nearly four years after California started regulating its cannabis industry, three in four businesses still operate on provisional licenses.

As temporary license holders, 75% of the state’s cannabis industry lacks protections and privileges that come with holding full licenses — a situation that worries some in the business. Those temporary operators also haven’t passed extensive environmental reviews required of full licensing — a fact that concerns environmental groups.

Cannabis licensing is slow for a number of reasons, ranging from the sometimes dizzying complexity of California’s environmental rules to conflicting language between state and local cannabis laws to the high costs for permits and a shortage of government workers needed to process the paperwork.