Add “global pandemic” to the list of challenges faced by the sputtering cannabis industry. The coronavirus COVID-19 is tearing across the U.S. economy. Businesses everywhere are making very difficult decisions. In many cases, those decisions are being made for them. As I write this post on the evening of Sunday, March 15, the Federal Reserve
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
California cannabis regulators are slowly getting into enforcement mode under the Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation Act (“MAUCRSA”). Ostensibly, enforcement to date has been around illegal sales and/or around the manufacturing of illegal products (like vape cartridges). It’s only a matter of time though before enforcement becomes more sophisticated around licensing, including the state
Here we are at the end of 2019, which means it’s time for the fourth annual “State of the State” post on Oregon cannabis (see the 2018 post here; 2017 here; and 2016 here). This past year has been a reckoning of sorts for Oregon cannabis: things slowed down on the marijuana side but accelerated on the hemp side
As a corporate and transactional attorney focused mostly on cannabis, I see my fair share of financing documents and transactions involving cannabis operators. It’s no secret many cannabis businesses can’t get bank accounts or loans or lines of credit from financial institutions because of the Bank Secrecy Act and federal anti-money laundering laws — despite
Last week, amid the impeachment turmoil, President Trump and Democratic leadership somehow agreed on a landmark international trade agreement. The package is generally referred to as USMCA (U.S-Mexico-Canada Agreement), or sometimes as NAFTA 2.0. Although the White House has not yet released a final copy of USMCA, its contents are widely known. As expected, USCMA
We like to check in from time to time on what’s happening with marijuana legalization around the world. To date, around 40 countries have legalized marijuana for medical use. Many more countries have decriminalized marijuana to some extent, and a few have straight up “legalized” recreational marijuana. Among these bellwethers, South Africa and Georgia allow for possession
If you follow state-by-state legal cannabis legalization, you’re aware that despite the federal illegality of cannabis, certain federal agencies police the cannabis industry like they do any other legal industry. For example, the NLRB has been known to go after cannabis companies engaged in hostile workplace conduct and the Department of Treasury contemplates banking services to
In a recent 13-part series, we reviewed the stance of each of the 2020 presidential candidates’ on marijuana, and we assigned each candidate a letter grade corresponding with our analysis. Our grading criteria is as follows: Current stance on marijuana: What have they recently said about marijuana legislation? When did they adopt this stance? We
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that the U.S. is facing a vaping epidemic where consumers are potentially inhaling/ingesting very toxic chemicals in the form of vaporized nicotine liquid and THC oil. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevent (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and state and local governments are still trying
