Capitol Weekly’s Top 100: Amy O’Gorman Jenkins

99. Amy O’Gorman Jenkins

Cannabis is big business in California, with the former black market industry generating close to $1 billion a year in state tax revenue. As big as it is, the ‘official’ cannabis market has never done the numbers projected prior to legalization in 2016. And, sales are down, dropping 7% the first quarter of this year. Most observers ascribe lagging sales to the thriving – untaxed – underground market that still makes up a majority of sales. This year, the state responded to pleas from the industry, and the 2022-23 California Budget includes a major tax cut on cannabis producers, eliminating the cultivation tax on growers, and capping the excise tax at 15% for three years. The move is a big win for the legal market, and for lobbyist Amy O’Gorman Jenkins, the state’s preeminent pot lobbyist. Prior to opening her own firm in 2018 she was a senior policy director at Platinum Advisors, where she advocated on behalf of the California Cannabis Industry Association. Before all that, Jenkins was chief of staff to state Sen. Lou Correa.

Updated Aug. 22, 2022