The cannabis industry has positively taken off in California since legalization. Drive down a block or two of the typical Los Angeles street, and you’re likely to find a boutique marijuana store with a crowd of customers in and out. The legalization of marijuana in the state has also played out on social media, where weed businesses try to brand themselves and compete for the largest share of the market.

In the past week, the California cannabis industry has undergone another important shift that could further alter the landscape: the legalization of smoking hemp and consumable hemp products. Through Bill AB-45, the cannabis industry has expanded immensely with the legalization of a whole new category of products.

Let’s look into what the bill means and the major industries that the legalization of hemp in California could impact.

What Will Bill AB-45 Do?

On Wednesday, October 7^th, California’s Governor, Gavin Newsom, signed AB-45 into law after passing in the state Senate 29-2 and Assembly 64-3. The bill received bipartisan support in California following the success that the legalization of marijuana has been for the state. According to the Motley Fool, in 2020, California saw over $1 billion in tax revenue because of the marijuana industry, as the state taxes producers and distributors. The revenue goes to anti-drug, environmental, and public safety causes.

The legalization of marijuana has been popular across California, but they’d been lagging with legalized hemp. Hemp-derived products like cosmetics, pet food, food, and drinks will now be available on a wide scale in California. The bill still includes regulations on the industry, so it won’t exactly be a free-for-all.

There will be tightly enforced, mandatory health statements in hemp advertisements, and manufacturers will need to be licensed by the state, or they will be shut down. It will also be taxed uniquely, much like the marijuana industry.

The primary utilization of this bill will be in the CBD industry, where the state’s restriction of the product will be no more. CBD products are now expected to be even more popular, as they’d already seen significant use in the state before the bill’s signing.

Overall, what Bill AB-45 will do is open up a new segment of the cannabis industry. The bill has already become the law, opening the door to rapid expansion. It will make a product available at an industrial level, with new consumer goods available at a significant scale. There will likely be many more companies moving into the hemp sphere, and the bill’s impact will be felt across industries.

What Will Its Impact Be?

CBD and other hemp products have been in a legal gray area in California over the past several years. While their use is relatively widespread, and their sale wasn’t fully criminalized, there wasn’t regulation in the industry, and the rules of operation weren’t firmly drawn. This meant that while companies could sell some of these products, they couldn’t do it on a larger, industrial scale, and they couldn’t advertise their product legally. This has all changed, and it will have a major impact on several industries.

An industry that is certain to see a change is influencer marketing and social media marketing. CBD is a major player that typically runs its businesses through e-commerce. Most CBD companies have grown their brand by having a comprehensive influencer marketing strategy that converts leads into buyers by using the platform of social media celebrities, typically in the health and wellness space. However, there have been stigmas and restrictions around CBD influencer marketing due to the gray area of legality around it.

This bill will expand the number of CBD and hemp companies on the market by a significant amount, as more brands see the benefit of entering this burgeoning industry. This is likely to lead to a larger number of CBD influencers as CBD brands continue to concentrate on social media. More marketing channels will also be open to CBD companies as they are now a fully legal, regulated industry within the state.

The other major industry that could be heavily impacted is the health and wellness consumer goods industry. CBD and hemp-related products have become major trends in the health and wellness industry, and their growth and popularity over the past several years have been massive. Now that they’re fully legalized in California, the doors are open for hemp and CBD products to become staples of the industry.

Hemp and CBD have a lot of mental and physical medicinal benefits. If they’re fully legalized and regulated, there will be a sustained explosion of these products in the California health product industry. Hemp/CBD drinks, gummies, lotions, and other products are going to make up a significant market share of California wellness goods.

Conclusion

California is America’s most populated and economically significant state. It is the center of American industry, and with hemp-related products now fully legalized within the state, expect a significant boom. Bill AB-45 is set to launch these products into the stratosphere within the state and significantly impact the influencer marketing and health and wellness industry in the process.