In my last post in this series, I discussed how the purchase price is structured in cannabis M&A transactions, and how escrow can be used in connection with the purchase price. Today, I want to discuss how adjustments are commonly made to the purchase price, both during the pre-closing period (between signing and closing), and
The year 2020 marked the 50th anniversary of the so-called War on Drugs. As states across the country decriminalize and commercialize legal cannabis, some have declared drugs the winner of the Drug War. There is some truth to this assessment. Two-thirds of Americans currently support decriminalizing marijuana, now referred to by its less racialized, scientific
The City of L.A. has had no shortage of tweaks and changes to its cannabis laws and regulations over the past four years. Admirably, as industry issues have arisen, the City and its Department of Cannabis Regulation (“DCR“) have tried to keep pace. At times though, that pace has been glacial much to the chagrin
Just a few days ago the Texas Court of Appeals published an opinion concerning smokable hemp. Before getting into the ruling, let’s review what happened in Texas after enactment of the 2018 Farm Bill. In 2019, the Texas Legislature enacted statutory provisions regulating certain hemp products. Among the statutes was a law prohibiting any state
Last month, I wrote a post explaining some of the issues buyers of cannabis businesses face when dealing with the landlords for the purchased business. In a nutshell, leases almost always contain clauses restricting assignment and subletting, and these clauses will often note that certain changes of control of the cannabis tenant are considered assignments
People familiar with the Oregon cannabis industry know of its strange and lucrative secondary market for cannabis producer licenses. For the past few years, but especially the past year, we’ve helped many farmers buy and sell these licenses (or, more accurately, “interests in successor licenses”). To be clear, most of these sales involve no equipment,
Nationwide, cannabis companies and advocates are hailing the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act as the savior of the future of cannabis (a copy of the bill is here). If the Act passes, we will finally have federal legalization and the consequences of the current federal conflict will end, or, at least be reversed in the
A hemp grower in Jackson County, Oregon has filed suit against the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) over failure to issue hemp registrations and against the Jackson County Sheriff to prevent the destruction of its hemp. We’ve written on about the difficulties hemp farmers face when law enforcement seeks to destroy, or does destroy, a
On July 22, the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (“LCB”) issued a notice of adoption of an interpretive statement (the “Notice”) in which the agency clarified authorized practices for marijuana processor licensees. The Notice stipulates that licensed marijuana processors cannot legally convert cannabidiol (“CBD”) into delta-9 THC because their license privileges do not allow
In the continuing trend of normalizing the cannabis industry for practical reasons (a topic I will be discussing with New York City Council Member Keith Powers on August 17 at a free webinar), the New York State Bar Association’s (NYSBA) Committee on Professional Ethics issued Opinion 1225 (the Opinion). In short, the NYSBA now expressly
