California
Cannabis Packaging Requirements

This entry describes a mark, not printable copy: it is the symbol that pairs with the Proposition 65 half of the government warning block below. The previously published claim that this symbol is required on ALL California cannabis products was checked against the codified rule and is wider than the rule supports, so it has been narrowed. 27 CCR 25602(a) gives four ways to transmit a consumer-product warning — a posted sign, shelf tag or shelf sign at the point of display; an electronic device that delivers the warning before purchase; a label warning meeting 25603(a); or a short-form label warning meeting 25603(b). The symbol is an element of the two label methods, so a brand that warns by shelf tag or sign does not carry it on the package at all. Proposition 65 also does not reach a business with fewer than 10 employees. Neither point is a reason to pull the symbol off artwork that already has it: printing it is the conservative default and stays compliant. On size, Royal Supply's former 3 mm floor was a house figure and has been dropped — the rule sets no millimetre size, only that the symbol sit immediately to the left of the warning text and be no smaller in height than the word WARNING. On a label with large warning type, 3 mm is smaller than the rule allows. Topical and dermally applied products have their own route-specific Proposition 65 warning content section (27 CCR 25607.45); take that wording from the section itself.

Two separate prescribed strings printed together. The GOVERNMENT WARNING paragraph is the DCC statement for nonmanufactured cannabis goods under 4 CCR 17403(b)(4) and is always required. Flower and uninfused pre-rolls are nonmanufactured goods, so this is the version they take — it is shorter than the manufactured-product statement at 4 CCR 17406(a)(3) and does not carry the delayed-effects sentence. Note the Roman numeral in SCHEDULE I: the codified string uses I, not the numeral 1. The first paragraph is the Proposition 65 safe-harbor content for smoked products, and is only required where Proposition 65 applies to the brand and the label is the chosen transmission method — print the whole block unless the brand has confirmed otherwise in writing. The short-form Proposition 65 warning under 27 CCR 25603(b) is not available for cannabis, so the full warning content must be used. 27 CCR 25607.39(a)(3) sets the Proposition 65 sentence in sentence case with no comma after PREGNANCY and none after FOR MORE INFORMATION; it is reproduced here in capitals to match the adjacent GOVERNMENT WARNING, which the regulation permits because it prescribes the words rather than their case.

Safe-harbor content for dermally applied products. WARNING: is set in all capitals and bold, preceded by the Prop 65 symbol. Where the product also exposes a user to a listed carcinogen, 27 CCR 25607.45 provides a longer alternative naming it - use that version instead. Applies where Prop 65 reaches the brand (10 or more employees) and the label is the chosen transmission method.

A topical is a manufactured cannabis product, so 4 CCR 17406(a)(3) applies to it exactly as it does to an edible or a vape. This is the same prescribed string, printed on its own: the Proposition 65 paragraph that sits above the GOVERNMENT WARNING on the other routes is, for a dermally applied product, the separate 27 CCR 25607.45 warning carried in its own Proposition 65 block with its own symbol, so the two do not combine here.

This is the trade-off 4 CCR 17412(a)(2) offers on inhalables and topicals: single-use child-resistance is acceptable instead of child-resistance for the life of the product, but only if the package carries this sentence. Print it word for word, in sentence case as codified. Edibles, orally consumed concentrates and suppositories cannot take the trade-off at all — 17412(a)(1) requires child-resistance for the life of the product, and the alternative there is to make each individual serving child-resistant. Choosing a life-of-product closure for an inhalable means the sentence is not required.