cannabis loans

Top Five Cannabis Loan Issues

As we inch closer to a cannabis recession, businesses are desperately looking for new ways to stay afloat. A few years ago, our cannabis attorneys saw equity investments left and right. It seemed like everyone wanted to own a piece of a cannabis business. But as things grow more precarious for the industry as a

oregon cannabis legislative forecast

Oregon Cannabis 2023: Legislative Forecast and Report

The 2023 Oregon legislative session kicked off yesterday. It’s a regular session this year, meaning we’re in for a longer stretch– a 160 day calendar, versus the 35 day affair we see in even-numbered years. Following November’s elections, the state government also looks quite different than the last few years, from the Governor’s office on

new Oregon cannabis rules

Reviewing the New Oregon Cannabis Rules

In November 2022, the OLCC adopted and amended a suite of cannabis rules that became effective January 1, 2023. You can download the changes here and read our previous coverage of many of these changes here, here, here, and here. Now that Oregon’s new cannabis rules are effective, let’s take a look at some of

mlk day

MLK Day: Cannabis and Civil Rights

Happy MLK Day! Time to catastrophize just a bit. Last year at this time, I kicked off this post by writing: If Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today, he would almost certainly advocate to end the War on Drugs. Dr. King never spoke publicly about drugs or cannabis in particular: he was assassinated in

washington cannabis social equity

Washington LCB Releases Disproportionately Impacted Area Map for Social Equity Licensees

Yesterday, January 13, 2023, the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (“LCB”) released an interactive mapping tool for determining whether people meet have lived in Disproportionately Impacted Areas (“DIA”)–one of three eligibility criteria for the forthcoming Social Equity in Cannabis (“SEIC”) program licensing. The map can be found by a link on the LCB’s website,

connecticut cannabis marijuana

Connecticut Adult-Use Sales Begin

Connecticut is the latest state to permit the sale of adult-use cannabis. The possession of cannabis by adults has been legal in Connecticut since 2021, following the enactment of Public Act No. 21-1. Impressively, this law also erased 43,754 convictions for cannabis offenses. In December, the state’s Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) announced that hybrid

google cannabis advertising

Google Changes Its CBD Advertising Policies

Cannabis advertising has always been a precarious art. From first amendment commercial speech issues to zealous state marketing and promotion regulations to false claim lawsuits, cannabis advertising can go down some dark rabbit holes. Notoriously, tech giants like Instagram and Facebook would take down cannabis-related ad content for violating site terms and conditions around the

cannabis tax 280E

IRC § 280E is a Target for Cannabis Legal Reform in 2023

Will we see tax reform in 2023 for cannabis sellers? Specifically, will Congress finally get something done about the pain inflicted on industry by the Internal Revenue Code at 26 USC § 280E? (“IRC 28oE”.) It feels like a long shot, but you never know. After many attempts to get the SAFE Banking Act through

cannabis advertising and branding

New York’s Cannabis Retail Dispensary Regulations, Part 4: Advertising and Branding Your Dispensary and Products

Welcome to Part 4 in our series on New York’s Cannabis Retail Dispensary Regulations. For prior posts in this series, check out the following: New York’s Cannabis Retail Dispensary Guidelines are Here! New York’s Cannabis Retail Dispensary Guidelines, Part 1: Dispensary Operations New York’s Cannabis Retail Dispensary Guidelines, Part 2: Security and Surveillance New York’s

california cannabis

A Look Back at California Cannabis in 2022

The year 2022 was a busy one for the California cannabis industry, with everything from tax reform to the beginning of enforcement. In this post, I’ll go back through some of the highlight’s for California’s cannabis industry last year. California hints at enforcement? Anyone who knows anything about California cannabis knows that the regulators simply