California Hemp Laws: Registration, Testing, and the 2024 Intoxicant Ban

California hemp laws treat the plant as an ordinary agricultural crop when its total THC concentration stays at or below 0.3 percent on a dry-weight basis, and as cannabis when it exceeds that line.¹ Growing hemp requires registration with the county agricultural commissioner through a program run by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), while selling hemp-derived consumer products falls under a separate framework overseen by the California Department of Public Health. Since September 2024, the state has also banned the retail sale of any hemp food, beverage, or dietary supplement containing detectable THC or other intoxicating cannabinoids and set a minimum purchase age of 21 for all hemp products.² None of this touches adult-use or medicinal cannabis, which operates under its own licensing system through the Department of Cannabis Control.

What Counts as Hemp

Health and Safety Code Section 11018.5 defines industrial hemp as the Cannabis sativa L. plant and every part of it, including seeds, stalks, extracts, and resin, provided total THC stays at or below 0.3 percent on a dry-weight basis.¹ Total THC is not just delta-9. It combines delta-9 THC with 87.7 percent of the THCA concentration, and labs apply a measurement of uncertainty that gives growers a small statistical cushion at the margin.³

Anything above the 0.3 percent threshold is cannabis under state law, no matter what it was grown as or called at planting. Hemp grown on land licensed by the Department of Cannabis Control is also automatically treated as cannabis regardless of its THC content.⁴

Who Can Grow Hemp and How to Register

Food and Agricultural Code Division 24 recognizes three categories of hemp cultivators: registered growers, hemp breeders, and established agricultural research institutions.⁴ All three register through the county agricultural commissioner in the county where cultivation will occur, and all three must register before planting.

A few baseline rules apply to every grower. Registered growers and breeders must cultivate at least one-tenth of an acre at a time. Every plot needs signage identifying the crop as industrial hemp. And no one may grow hemp on land licensed for cannabis cultivation. Anyone with a felony conviction related to a controlled substance under state or federal law is barred from registering for ten years from the date of conviction, and false information on an application is grounds for disqualification.⁴

What a Registration Package Includes

The application must include a map showing the boundaries of each growing area and GPS coordinates from the approximate center of each field or greenhouse.⁵ If you do not own the land, you also need written permission from the property owner. Inspectors use those coordinates throughout the season, so inaccurate data creates real problems.

Every key participant must submit a criminal history report. A key participant is the sole proprietor, any partner in a partnership, or anyone with executive managerial control over the entity, such as the CEO, COO, or CFO. Farm managers, field supervisors, and shift workers do not count.⁶ The required report is an FBI Identity History Summary, not a state-level background check. An application missing any required report is incomplete and will not move forward.⁷

You also need to identify the exact cultivar you plan to grow and show that it appears on the state’s approved list. Qualifying sources include seed or propagative materials certified by a member of the Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or an officially recognized seed-certifying agency under California regulations.⁸ Seeds from a crop grown under an approved state, tribal, or federal hemp program also qualify, as long as that crop tested at or below 0.3 percent THC. Any propagative material brought into the county must be reported to the commissioner and inspected before planting.

Fees and Renewal

The state registration fee is $900 per year for growers and hemp breeders. Many counties add their own administrative fees to cover local inspections and monitoring, and some require a surety bond to guarantee the cost of destroying a crop that fails testing. Registration lasts one year, and a renewal application must be submitted at least 30 calendar days before the current registration expires to keep growing authority uninterrupted.⁴

Pre-Harvest Testing

No hemp crop can be legally harvested or moved until a lab confirms it meets the 0.3 percent total THC threshold. Two deadlines control the process. A Sample Analysis Request Form must reach the county agricultural commissioner at least 30 calendar days before your anticipated harvest start date. The sample collection itself must happen no more than 11 calendar days before harvest. If the harvest date slips and lands more than 30 days after the sample was taken, the crop must be resampled before you can proceed.⁹

A state-approved sampler collects representative portions of the crop and sends them to an independent laboratory, which calculates total THC using the delta-9 plus 87.7 percent of THCA formula and applies the measurement of uncertainty.³

If a Crop Fails

A failed test does not automatically mean total loss. USDA guidelines allow two remediation routes. One is flower removal: the non-compliant flower material is separated and destroyed while stalks, leaves, and seeds are retained and labeled “hemp for remediation purposes” until the flower disposal is complete. Seeds removed during this process cannot be planted. The other is biomass creation, where the entire plant is shredded into a uniform blend and resampled. If the blended material tests at or below 0.3 percent, it can enter the market; if not, the biomass must be destroyed.¹⁰

Approved destruction methods include plowing under, composting, disking, bush mowing, deep burial, and burning. The grower pays all costs for resampling, remediation, and disposal, must notify the licensing authority of the chosen method, and must keep records available for inspection.¹⁰

Negligent Violations and the Five-Year Ban

California applies a progressive penalty system to growers who violate program rules without criminal intent. Negligent violations include failing to provide a legal description of growing land, failing to register before cultivation, and producing hemp above the acceptable THC level, as long as the crop stays below 1.0 percent THC on a dry-weight basis.³ When the commissioner finds a negligent violation, the grower receives a notice and must submit a corrective action plan within 15 calendar days. The plan must set a fix date no more than 45 days out and include at least two years of periodic compliance reporting.

Three negligent violations within a five-year period make a grower ineligible to participate in the hemp program for five years.³ The state limits itself to one negligent violation per grower per calendar year, so this five-year ban takes at least three growing seasons to trigger. Negligent violations do not carry criminal penalties from state or local government.

Rules for Selling Hemp Consumer Products

Assembly Bill 45, enacted in 2021, set the baseline framework for selling hemp-derived food, beverages, dietary supplements, cosmetics, and pet food in California.¹¹ Manufacturers must register with the California Department of Public Health and show that all plant material came from a state or country with an approved hemp program where the grower was in good standing. Products must be tested for contaminants, including heavy metals, pesticides, and residual solvents. Labels must carry a scannable barcode, QR code, or web link to the certificate of analysis for each batch so buyers can verify cannabinoid content and purity.

AB 45 also prohibits the manufacture and sale of inhalable hemp products inside California, except for products made solely for out-of-state sale. That restriction stays in place until the state enacts a hemp-specific tax. Manufacturers cannot make unproven health claims, and hemp-derived cannabinoids in food and supplements are treated as regulated additives rather than illegal adulterants.¹¹

The 2024 Ban on Intoxicating Hemp Products

Governor Newsom signed emergency regulations in September 2024 that reshaped the hemp product market. Since September 23, 2024, California permanently prohibits the retail sale of any industrial hemp food, beverage, or dietary supplement containing detectable THC or other intoxicating cannabinoids in a serving of the finished product.² That covers delta-8, delta-9, delta-10, and THCA. Products containing synthetically derived cannabinoids are also banned.

The same regulations set a minimum purchase age of 21 for all hemp-derived products, including those with no intoxicating compounds, and limit consumable hemp products to a maximum of five servings per package.² The practical effect for anyone making or selling hemp products in California: the cheap, loosely regulated delta-8 and delta-9 hemp edibles sold in gas stations and convenience stores in other states have no legal retail path here.

Where Federal FDA Rules Still Apply

State compliance is not the whole picture. The FDA has not approved CBD as a food additive or dietary supplement ingredient through its standard regulatory process. As of early 2026, the agency maintains what it calls limited enforcement discretion for orally administered, hemp-derived CBD products, but the window is narrow. It applies only to products provided to Medicare patients at the direction of a treating physician, manufactured and labeled consistently with the dietary supplement framework, and free from contamination or child-appealing packaging.

Outside that window, the FDA treats the enforcement risk for CBD-containing food and supplements as low so long as the products avoid therapeutic or disease claims. For California-based manufacturers, AB 45 and the 2024 emergency regulations impose the more demanding compliance target, so meeting state law is where most of the work sits.

1
California Legislative Information. California Health and Safety Code 11018.5
2
Office of Governor Gavin Newsom. Governor Newsom Issues Regulations to Protect Kids from Dangerous and Intoxicating Hemp Products
3
U.S. Department of Agriculture. California Code of Regulations Title 3 – Industrial Hemp Cultivation
4
California Department of Food and Agriculture. Industrial Hemp FAQ
5
California Department of Food and Agriculture. Industrial Hemp Registration Application for Growers
6
California Department of Food and Agriculture. Industrial Hemp Registration FAQ – Criminal History Report
7
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. 3 California Code of Regulations 4902 – Criminal History Report for Industrial Hemp Registration
8
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. 3 California Code of Regulations 4920 – List of Approved Cultivars
9
Legal Information Institute. 3 CCR 4940 – Sampling Timeframe and Pre-Harvest Notification for Industrial Hemp
10
U.S. Department of Agriculture. Remediation and Disposal Guidelines for Hemp Growing Facilities
11
California Legislative Information. Assembly Bill 45 – Industrial Hemp Products