Cannabis Policy

Funding for child care and substance use prevention

When voters approved the legalization of recreational cannabis in 2016 (Proposition 64), they were promised that legalization would generate millions in new revenues to fund youth programs, environmental clean-ups of land and water damaged by cannabis grows and law enforcement actions against the illegal market. Since 2021, the cannabis industry has led an ongoing campaign to reduce its taxes. In 2022, Governor Newsom and the Legislature approved the elimination of the voter-approved cannabis cultivation tax. With this tax cut, revenues for youth substance use prevention programs and the environment declined. This year, 2025, state leaders gave the industry another tax cut, which will cause an annual decline of $180 million for the Prop 64 funded programs.

Youth Forward leads a statewide coalition of child care and youth organizations that actively supports cannabis taxation and that works to reduce the harmful impacts of cannabis marketing to kids. Youth Forward also supports efforts to regulate the escalating potency of cannabis which has proven to increase risks for mental illness and addiction. To learn more about our concerns, please review this letter to Governor Newsom from 116 child and youth-serving organizations and tribal communities urging him to protect funding for child care and youth services

Youth Funding Matters Now More than Ever