Bill > S4779

Introduced Session

This bill transfers responsibility for regulating medical and personal use cannabis in this State from the Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC) to a new Division of State Cannabis Oversight, Regulation, and Enforcement (SCORE) in the Department of Law and Public Safety. As such, the Director of the new SCORE Division will be directly accountable to the Attorney General. Under current law, the CRC is an independent agency "in but not of" the Department of the Treasury. Agency Reorganization Under the bill, the CRC will be abolished, and the terms of its members will terminate. All of the CRC's functions, powers, and duties will be transferred to the SCORE Division. However, all CRC regulations, orders, resolutions, licenses, and permits in effect as of the date of the transfer will continue to remain valid until they expire or pending further action by the SCORE Division. Employees of the CRC, as well as the Office of Minority, Disabled Veterans, and Women Cannabis Business Development, will be transferred to the SCORE Division. The SCORE Division will be headed by a single Director appointed by the Governor with advice and consent of the Senate. In order to preserve institutional knowledge and leadership, the bill provides that the current Chair of the CRC will become the first Director of the SCORE Division until the Governor appoints a successor. The current Executive Director of the CRC will become a Deputy Director in the SCORE Division. Cannabis Regulatory Enforcement Under the bill, cannabis regulatory enforcement will be changed in three significant ways. First, as with the rest of the functions of the CRC, enforcement responsibility will be transferred to the SCORE Division. Second, the bill provides explicit authority for the SCORE Division to bring enforcement actions against unlicensed cannabis businesses. This explicit authority is intended to focus and expand State resources in aid of municipal law enforcement concerning unlicensed cannabis businesses. Third, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Enforcement Bureau (ABC) in the Division of State Police will be expanded to include cannabis regulatory enforcement, and will be renamed the Bureau of Alcohol and Cannabis Enforcement (BACE). Under current law, ABC investigators under the State Police have full police powers including the power to make arrests and carry firearms, but the CRC's investigators were not given this authority when the CRC was created. Consolidating alcohol and cannabis law enforcement will rectify the current limits in cannabis enforcement authority. Investigators currently employed by the CRC will be given the option to transfer to BACE or to be assigned to other duties in the SCORE Division. Statutory Updates In order to effectuate the reorganization of the CRC into the SCORE Division, the bill makes a number of statutory amendments that update references to the CRC to reflect the new SCORE Division. The bill also makes certain statutory amendments concerning BACE to reflect its expanded jurisdiction. Finally, the bill eliminates certain obsolete provisions in the statutes that were either a legacy of the transfer of the medical cannabis program from the Department of Health to the CRC in 2019 or were only intended to have interim effect before the current system of personal use cannabis licensing became operational.

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Shirley Turner (D)*, 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Law and Public Safety Committee (on 10/27/2025)

Official Document