“We shouldn’t be harassing people who are trying to do the right thing and paying their taxes.”
At IgniteIt’s Market Spotlight: California, Treasurer Fiona Ma told a packed room what many licensees have been saying for years — then laid out where the fixes need to happen.
Why the treasurer matters here
A treasurer is basically the state’s banker. All revenues flow through Ma’s office; roughly $3 trillion a year by her tally. She invests a portfolio in the $150 to $250 billion range, balances it daily to six decimals, and issues California’s bonds for infrastructure and the UC and CSU systems. When finance policy closes doors, she sees it first. When a legal industry cannot access programs or capital, she sees the gap. As she reminded the crowd, the governor is not her boss. Voters are.
During COVID, California pushed out about $28 billion in state grants. “Not one penny could go to cannabis because it’s still Schedule I [substance].” That single constraint still shapes how the industry banks, borrows, and plans.
What she told operators, straight up
Enforcement is upside down. Ma described agencies targeting licensees they can find (because they can find them) while obvious illicit activity lingers for months. She called for coordination and a focus on actors who refuse to play by the rules. She added that during COVID, many state workers were not on site, and even now average about two days a week, which weakened enforcement.
Also read: Every Two Minutes, Someone in America Is Arrested for Marijuana
Tracking is clunky and duplicative. Operators maintain internal systems, then layer METRC on top. The result is redundancy, cost, and confusion.
Leakage is real, tax capture is not. California still produces at scale. Newer markets are thriving without matching in-state production. The product is coming from somewhere, and too much of it bypasses legal channels and taxes. On how Prop 64 has played out, Ma was blunt: “Ten years later, it is a failure.”
Reliable state programs are thin. Asked what cannabis can actually count on at the state level, her first answer was stark: “Nothing. … Not much.” She noted that only one state loan program is currently accessible to cannabis businesses. An audience member flagged OCAL under CDFA as a bright spot, and Ma welcomed highlighting anything that works.
Banking remains a choke point. Ma backed financial institutions that chose to serve cannabis and said many charge high due diligence fees. Support helps, but cost and coverage remain uneven.
Budget context is real. California faces a structural deficit of about $20 billion a year. Ma’s argument is fiscal as much as philosophical: fix the legal market, grow the taxable pie, stop pretending the illicit delta is invisible.
The federal piece
On the path forward, Ma did not mince words: “It should be descheduled completely.” Her concern is practical. Push cannabis toward a pharmacy counter with ID checks and prescription-style rules and access gets clunky while the illicit market keeps its edge. True descheduling would unlock normal banking, modernize compliance, and let regulators focus on safety and bad actors rather than paperwork hunts.
A regulator who speaks like a human
Ma’s relationship to the plant is not theoretical. She mentioned using gummies to manage sleep through a tough stretch. It landed because it was simple, relatable, and said without posture.
Politics in the room
On stage, Ma was introduced with an enthusiastic nod toward a run for lieutenant governor. She urged the industry to talk to every candidate in the next governor’s race and find out who actually understands the issues. The response from operators and investors was loud.
What to do now if you are plant-touching
- Make your books bulletproof. Treat audits, KYC, and traceability as daily hygiene. If you run parallel tracking, make sure the data matches every time.
- Push for rational enforcement. Support efforts that prioritize illicit-market reduction over low-hanging paperwork targets.
- Engage early. These races will shape enforcement priorities, banking access, and tax design. Know who gets it.
About the event, and what’s next
These remarks were delivered at IgniteIt Presents: Market Spotlight, California. The series moves to the Midwest next.
If California is the stress test, Ohio is the next checkpoint. The questions Ma raised in California are the same ones Ohio will have to answer. Operators who prepare now will be the ones left standing when the noise settles.
Photo: Shutterstock
