Pot Smoke Potential Reproductive Toxin Under California Law

Recreational marijuana has led California officials to take a look at whether pot smoke and the active ingredient in cannabis should be classified as reproductive toxics under the state’s Proposition 65 law.

California has listed marijuana smoke as a carcinogen under Prop. 65 since 2009. But a separate listing now as a reproductive toxin would escalate requirements for product warnings and could fuel lawsuits against retailers and dispensaries in the state’s nascent recreational pot businesses.

“You just expanded the list of potential plaintiffs,” said Nicole Howell Neubert, managing partner with Clark Neubert LLP in San Francisco, whose clients include ...