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Ban on cannabis possession and use in courthouse facilities under Penal Code section 4573 and Health and Safety Code section 11362.45: no possession or use of cannabis, cannabis products, accessories or plants in court facilities, with rare exceptions by court order for documented medical need. In effect for 2026.
California > Fourth Appellate District > San Diego County > Superior Court of California, County of San Diego
[File stamp: FILED, Clerk of the Superior Court, DEC 31 2025, By: G. Arce-Barraza, Deputy] THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO IN RE BAN ON CANNABIS POSSESSION AND USE IN COURTHOUSE FACILITIES GENERAL ORDER OF THE PRESIDING DEPARTMENT ORDER NO. 010126-22 THIS COURT FINDS AS FOLLOWS: The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department (“Sheriff”) is designated as the Court Security Officer in San Diego. Thus, the Sheriff is charged with assuring the security of facilities within which the courts of this county conduct official business. The Sheriff is also responsible for persons in custody who are brought to the courthouse for proceedings. Penal Code section 4573 prohibits all persons from bringing “any controlled substance” into any place where individuals “are located under custody of any sheriff, chief of police, peace officer, probation officer or employees, or within the grounds belonging to the institution.” Under Health and Safety Code section 11007, “‘a controlled substance,’ unless otherwise specified, means a drug, substance, or immediate precursor which is listed in any schedule in Section 11054, 11055, 11056, 1057, or 11058.” Health and Safety Code section 11054(d)(13) specifically identifies “[c]annabis” as a “controlled substance.” In addition, all “mari[j]uana” is considered an “illegal controlled substance” under federal law. (Controlled Substances Act, 21 U.S.C. § 812.)¹ ¹ For purposes of this order, the terms “cannabis” and “marijuana” are synonymous. (See Health & Saf. Code, § 11032 [“If reference is made to the term ‘marijuana’ in any law not in this division, unless otherwise expressly provided, it means cannabis as is defined in this division.”]) The court recognizes that previously enacted medical marijuana laws and the Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act approved on November 8, 2016, by voters under Proposition 64 (the “Adult Use of Marijuana Act”) allow possession and use of cannabis under state law under certain conditions. (Health & Saf. Code, §§ 11362.1 et seq.) However, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act did not repeal Penal Code section 4573. (See Health & Saf. Code, § 11362.45(d).) In addition, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act expressly “allows a state or local government agency to prohibit or restrict any of the actions or conduct otherwise permitted under section 11362.1 within a building owned, leased, or occupied by the state or local government agency.” (Health & Saf. Code, § 11362.45(g).) Furthermore, a public employer retains the right to “maintain a drug and alcohol free workplace,” is not required “to permit or accommodate the use, consumption, possession, transfer, display, transportation, sale, or growth of cannabis in the workplace,” and may have policies “prohibiting the use of cannabis by employees and prospective employees, or prevent employers from complying with state or federal law.” (Health & Saf. Code, § 11362.45(f).) Therefore, pursuant to Penal Code section 4573 and Health and Safety Code section 11362.45, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED as follows: No public employee or member of the public is permitted to possess or use cannabis, cannabis products, cannabis accessories, or cannabis plants within any of the courthouse facilities of the Superior Court of California, County of San Diego, including but not limited to courtrooms, lobby areas, hallways, stairs, elevators and escalators, and business offices. For purposes of this order, cannabis mean “all parts of the plant Cannabis sativa L., whether growing or not; the seeds thereof; the resin extracted from any part of the plant; and every compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of the plant, its seeds or resin” (Health & Saf. Code, § 11018); "cannabis products" means “cannabis that has undergone a process whereby the plant material has been transformed into a concentrate, including, but not limited to, concentrated cannabis, or an edible or topical product containing cannabis or concentrated cannabis and other ingredients” (Health & Saf. Code, § 11018.1); and "cannabis accessories" means “any equipment, products or materials of any kind which are used, intended for use, or designed for use in planting, propagating, cultivating, growing, harvesting, manufacturing, compounding, converting, producing, processing, preparing, testing, analyzing, packaging, repackaging, storing, smoking, vaporizing, or containing cannabis, or for ingesting, inhaling, or otherwise introducing cannabis or cannabis products into the human body.” (Health & Saf. Code, § 11018.2). Rare exceptions to this rule may be made by court order, in the court’s complete discretion, for persons whose documented medical need to have access to cannabis or cannabis products while conducting business within the courthouse cannot be reasonably accommodated in any other way. The Sheriff, or other authorized security personnel, is authorized to inspect any and all items to determine whether they fall within the scope of this order, and shall forbid possession of such items in the courthouse facilities by allowing the individual who possesses such item or items to remove them from the building. Disobedience of this order is punishable as a contempt of court and under the general laws of the State of California. Nothing in this order is intended to nor shall diminish the legal and lawful authority of the Sheriff as a peace officer. This order shall become effective on January 1, 2026, and expire on December 31, 2026, unless otherwise ordered by this court. Service of this order is ordered on the San Diego Sheriff’s Department. IT IS SO ORDERED. DATED: December 31, 2025 [signature] HONORABLE MAUREEN F. HALLAHAN PRESIDING JUDGE
[File stamp: FILED, Clerk of the Superior Court, DEC 31 2025, By: G. Arce-Barraza, Deputy] THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO IN RE BAN ON CANNABIS POSSESSION AND USE IN COURTHOUSE FACILITIES GENERAL ORDER OF THE PRESIDING DEPARTMENT ORDER NO. 010126-22 THIS COURT FINDS AS FOLLOWS: The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department (“Sheriff”) is designated as the Court Secur
Reviewer note: Composed 2026-09-28 (California T3 San Diego build) from BenchPath custody ca/t3/ca-san-diego/go/general_order_010126-22.pdf (230401 bytes, sha256 773b3b4d978497cdbaeafd302d490e025c2e05eb1b868f75699611adce273ca1; 4 pages) - the court's own posted PDF, a scan with no usable text layer: transcribed from the rendered page images, every page read against the image; a machine reading (RapidOCR) was used only as a second reader for a word-level diff; every quotation mark, apostrophe, dash and section sign checked in full-resolution crops; pleading line numbers and “///” fill marks omitted; the file stamp and signature bracketed. The order prints “11056, 1057, or 11058” in quoting Health and Safety Code section 11007. Printed irregularities are kept as printed.
9 verbatim requirements from 4th Circuit Administrative Order 1997-10.
6 verbatim requirements from 4th Circuit Administrative Order 1997-13.