Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) began seizing various cannabidiol (“CBD”) products from store shelves. These enforcement actions reflected the implementation of the agency’s position that CBD, regardless of the source from which it is derived, cannot be lawfully sold for human consumption. A few states, including states that have adopted industrial
On January 16, 2019, each of the three California cannabis agencies dropped a final set of regulations. In many senses, the Bureau of Cannabis Control’s (“BCC”) regulations were the most comprehensive and expansive (we summarized some of the highlights here, and summarized the highlights of the California Department of Public Health’s final regulations here). In
Recently, we’ve been getting tons of questions from clients regarding the international import and export of marijuana around the globe. 2018 was a historic year for the cannabis industry not just in the United States, but also internationally. Canada legalized recreational marijuana for the entire country. Many countries (e.g., Thailand, New Zealand, Mexico, Lithuania, U.K.) took
With the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill and the proliferation of food products containing CBD, we’ve been writing extensively about how the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and in particular, the United States Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) apply to the interstate sale of CBD products. Unfortunately, however, we have little
For a while, criminal conspiracy lawsuits against cannabis operations looked like a potentially promising strategy for cannabis prohibitionists to try and use litigation to reverse the trend of legalization. The idea is to use the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), a federal statute intended to combat organized crime–and which allows private rights of
Since the 2014 Farm Bill passed, products containing cannabidiol (“CBD”) derived from hemp (“Hemp-CBD”) have become widely popular and available in a wide range of stores and online. The Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) has, for the most part, sat on the sidelines. The FDA has occasionally sent out warning letters to Hemp-CBD distributors who
Happy MLK Day! For our international readers, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a federal U.S. holiday marking the birthday of its eponymous civil rights hero. Dr. King was the chief spokesperson for nonviolent activism in the Civil Rights Movement, which successfully protested racial discrimination in federal and state law. Dr. King was assassinated in
We have spilled a lot of ink on this blog related to the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized hemp at the federal level. It’s huge news. And there are so many ramifications, from food law to trademarks to the financial services environment. This blog post is going to cover financial institutions and hemp at about
On January 3rd, according to the owner of a smoke shop in Yuma, Arizona, officials from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seized a variety of CBD products from the store’s shelves. The officials took fewer than fifty items and told the owner to anticipate follow-up paperwork within seven to ten business days. According to
We are heading into the first decade of scaled commercial hemp production in the United States since the 1920s. As a law firm that has been helping cannabis businesses succeed since 2010, we couldn’t be more excited. And for good reason: the recreational market is expanding. Hemp is legal. CBD and other cannabinoids are fast becoming (if not already) household names. The international market is
