Jerry Brown signs bill removing pot cultivation deadline

California cities and counties can exhale after Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill freeing them from a March 1 deadline to implement cannabis cultivation rules.

Last year, Brown signed sweeping medical marijuana regulations that touch every aspect of the industry. But the March 1 rule, which authors said was inadvertently included in the final product, left cities and counties scrambling to come up with cultivation rules on time. Many have moved to ban growing rather than be forced to abide by state-issued rules if they didn’t create their own.

Assembly Bill 21, which removes the March 1 requirement, rocketed through the Legislature before earning Brown’s signature.

“Now that we have given local officials the time to take a thoughtful approach to regulating medical marijuana, I hope they will maximize that time by engaging with the public and having thorough discussions,” Assemblyman Jim Wood, D-Healdsburg, said in a press release.

This story was originally published February 3, 2016 at 3:58 PM with the headline "Jerry Brown signs bill removing pot cultivation deadline."