Audit indicates California pot regulators struggling with job

An audit has found the agency overseeing California's legal marijuana market has been overmatched by the job and is struggling to hire sufficient staff and set an overall strategy for the nation's largest cannabis economy.

According to an audit by the state Finance Department about two-thirds of the 219 staff positions authorized for the Bureau of Cannabis Control remain unfilled.

A shortage of staff in the enforcement unit is hindering the agency's ability to conduct investigations.

The report indicates while the cannabis bureau is in its relative infancy and has established a foundation to oversee the market, "the current status and location of personnel isn’t sustainable to provide effective and comprehensive oversight of cannabis activities throughout California."

The problems outlined in the audit provide a backstory to the uneven rollout of the state's legal pot market, which kicked off sales on Jan. 1, 2018. By just about any measure, California's effort to transform its longstanding illegal and medicinal marijuana markets into a unified, multibillion-dollar industry remains a work in progress.