Date: October 1, 2026
California’s Department of Cannabis Control rulemaking DCC-2025-03-R, approved and filed with the Secretary of State on July 27, 2026, took effect October 1, 2026. It rewrites the pesticide residue action levels for cannabis products in 4 CCR 15719 and 15731, replaces the old detect or not-detect categories with numeric action levels reported in micrograms per gram with a pass or fail on the certificate of analysis, and phases in tighter limits and a longer analyte list on April 1, 2028.
What it means for calibration
The rule ties the limit of quantitation to the action level: until April 1, 2028 a lab must establish an LOQ at or below the action level for each pesticide, and from that date the LOQ must be at or below 0.10 µg/g, or below the action level where the action level is lower. For chromatographic methods the LOQ needs a signal-to-noise ratio of at least 10 to 1, verified by inspection. That puts the lowest calibration standard, and its accuracy, at the center of every pesticide method. A curve that passes on r² but misses at the low end will fail where the rule now looks.
Source: cannabis.ca.gov, DCC-2025-03-R Pesticide Testing
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