A bill awaiting a vote in the California Senate aims to close a loophole in consumer privacy for people buying cannabis in the state’s dispensaries that few are aware of. Assemblymember Evan Low introduced AB-2402 to the California Assembly in February and it will soon be voted on by the Senate, reports Motherboard. California, unlike some other states with recreational or medical cannabis, has no law preventing the collection or sale of consumer information by cannabis businesses.
The bill aims to fix that before the nation’s largest cannabis economy comes fully online. It would prevent dispensaries from selling customer information to data brokers without consent, and would prohibit them from refusing service to customers who decline to give their info. It would also upgrade the status of medical cannabis patients’ authorization cards to “medical information,” giving them protection under HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).
“At best, this information can be used to target consumers with unwanted marketing materials,” wrote the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a major backer of the bill, in a letter of support. “At worst this information could be used to discriminate against lawful cannabis consumers in housing, hiring, credit, and benefits. This information would also more easily make its way into the hands of federal drug enforcement investigators.”
See the Full Story on Herb: Dispensaries in California Can Sell Your Personal Information