The agency was charged with creating rules for the legal non-medical market to take effect January 1, 2018; and to regulate the state's multibillion dollar medical program[a] for the first time.

The first agency leader, Lori Ajax, referred to in multiple media outlets as the state's cannabis "czar", was appointed by the governor in February 2017.

State senator Mike McGuire has expressed doubt that the board would meet deadlines to allow regulated retail sales by 2018 as planned.

[6] When the agency published emergency rules on November 16, 2017 under California Code of Regulations, Title 16, Division 42, it effectively became the Bureau of Cannabis Control.

[13] The same lawsuit also alleges that the potency displayed on the labels of many legal cannabis products in California are deliberately inflated by fraudulent testing laboratories.