On March 31, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law the much-anticipated “Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act“ (the “MRTA”). You can find our ongoing coverage of all things MRTA here. What isn’t obvious from the title of this new law, however, is that it includes provisions that may change how the state will eventually regulate its
Back in January, I published the first part of this article, which, not surprisingly, is all about how bad the law is getting for hemp CBD vape companies. Since then, things have, also not surprisingly, gotten even worse. Let’s just jump right into it and see what’s happening. First off, California recently proposed a law
Although Americans, and citizens of certain states in particular, have a reputation as a litigious bunch, the reality is that very few civil lawsuits actually go to trial. The vast majority of cases—perhaps more than 90%—end in settlement. This is certainly true in my practice and for most attorneys I know who specialize in business
As anticipated, Delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol (“Delta-8 THC”) has become the hottest, most flourishing cannabinoid currently found on the U.S. market. In the past few months, the sales of Delta-8 THC products have exploded, representing the fastest growing segment of hemp-derived products. Yet, despite its growing popularity, the legality of Delta-8 THC, including that of Delta-8 THC
South Africa is one of the few jurisdictions outside North America that has legalized recreational cannabis, albeit under very limited circumstances. Appropriately for a country belonging to the common-law tradition, legalization was not the result of a legislative enactment, but rather of a 2018 decision by the Constitutional Court (“ConCourt”) of South Africa, which partially
Along with a robust cannabis practice, our law firm works with businesses around the globe on legal matters involving dispute resolution, customs, trade, employment, foreign direct investment, manufacturing, technology, intellectual property, and entertainment. Several years ago, these practice areas rarely overlapped; that is no longer the case. Our international and cannabis business lawyers now regularly
A few weeks back, I wrote a post entitled “California Tries Again with CBD“, in which I discussed a new piece of legislation (AB-45) introduced to ostensibly provide a regulatory framework for the manufacture and sale of certain hemp-derived products. Those products include foods or beverages that contain cannabidiol (CBD). In that post, I mentioned
On February 4, the European Union (EU)’s Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs added cannabidiol (CBD) “derived from extract or tincture or resin of cannabis” as a legal cosmetic ingredient to its CosIng guidelines. CosIng is a database of cosmetic regulations that expressly provides for authorized and unlawful ingredients and sets forth their
Last month, I spent a Saturday scraping together a syllabus for the Cannabis Law and Policy class I teach at Lewis & Clark Law School here in Portland, Oregon. In one unit, we go through the regulatory history of Oregon cannabis. From an academic perspective, it’s amazing to look at all the things that have
The Oregon legislative session kicked off in earnest last week (online) with 28 proposed cannabis bills crowding the docket. We’ll probably see another dozen or so between now and June. In this post, I will run down the list and offer brief comments on each offering. Before diving in, though, some context will be useful.
