Cannabis businesses in California can’t be within 600 feet of schools. Shops have to close by 10 p.m., and they need 24-hour video surveillance.

Those regulations are in the new rule book for California’s cannabis industry, which state regulators released Thursday.

“I feel a big sigh of relief. It’s a big milestone for us to release these regulations,” said Lori Ajax, chief of the state’s Bureau of Cannabis Control. “But there’s still a lot of work to be done. No rest for the weary.”

The rulebook gives aspiring and established marijuana businesses their first look at 276 pages of regulations they must abide by come Jan. 1, when the state will start issuing licenses for the multibillion-dollar industry and allowing recreational pot sales to start for the first time.

Conflicting laws

The rushed timeline is the result of a series of conflicting laws passed over the last two years.

In fall 2015, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a trio of bills that mandated the first set of comprehensive regulations on medical marijuana in California by the start of 2018.

Then in fall 2016, voters passed Proposition 64, legalizing recreational marijuana. That measure also called for recreational cannabis businesses to get state licenses starting Jan. 1, 2018.

Since they were already at work on rules to rein in California’s massive medical marijuana industry, state regulators — the Department of Food and Agriculture for cultivators, the Department of Public Health for manufacturers and the Department of Consumer Affair’s Bureau of Cannabis Control for retailers, distributors and testers — published 211 pages of draft rules for that sector in April. The agencies then held a series of public hearings throughout the state, collecting thousands of comments from stakeholders. [Read more at The OC Register]