The lawsuit filed on October 26 against Merrick Garland to “end federal cannabis prohibition” wouldn’t really end federal cannabis prohibition. If you had that impression, it may be because reporting on this topic has been subpar. Many of the headlines are incomplete or downright misleading. Some stories take several paragraphs to explain the actual nature
One of the best insurance policies a cannabis business can get is a written contract. Paying a lawyer a little bit up front can save hundreds of thousands when things go south. A lot of folks in the cannabis industry are still doing deals on a handshake basis (you can see some of our older
We are seeing in an uptick in China-related matters involving cannabis brands. Here are three tips for cannabis brands that are getting their products made in China: 1. Sign a Contract As I recently wrote in our sister blog, “while having a contract provides no guarantee of smooth operations or favorable dispute resolution, a well-drafted
Can a creditor, landlord or other third party take a security interest in an OLCC license? Can an OLCC licensee collateralize or pledge its license– as if that license were personal property, and not just a permission conferred by the state? These are two sides of an academic question we’ve been batting around for years
At the beginning of the summer, I wrote a post entitled “California Gives Up on the Illegal Cannabis Market” in which I went into detail about the state’s failure to meaningfully address the festering illegal market. More recently, I wrote about “Another California Cannabis Enforcement Program That Won’t Work.” As the name suggests, this post was
Cannabis businesses use non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) constantly. This may be due to a series of factors, or some combination thereof: 1) the relative hardship of acquiring and protecting intellectual property over marijuana-related processes and products, today and historically; 2) a general modus operandi of “close to the vest” dealings in an industry that historically was
It’s 2023 and many cannabis businesses are still missing one critical operating document: a privacy policy. I’ve been writing and talking about this issue for years. And things are not getting better. So let’s talk about it once more. To start, California has required privacy policies for a very long time (well, “long” at least
The OLCC announced several changes to the tax compliance rule this weekend at the Cannabis & Psychedelic Section of the Oregon Bar Association’s annual conference (where I was pleased to moderate a panel on the failures of legalization). This rule has been a hot topic in Oregon cannabis for several months and the OLCC will
During New York’s Cannabis Advisory Board’s meeting on September 26, 2023, the Office of Cannabis Management’s (OCM) Executive Director Christopher Alexander revealed that the OCM anticipated issuing “over a thousand, closer to 1,500 licenses” as part of the initial licensing window that is currently scheduled to open on October 4, 2023. As referenced in this
When Congress passed the 2018 Farm Bill, did it intend to legalize intoxicating hemp products? If it did, why didn’t it just legalize marijuana? And why didn’t it address the manufacture or sale of intoxicating hemp products? I think the answer to all of these questions is clearly “no.” Congress did not intend to open
