Across practices, we are seeing the internet turn into a menace for businesses dealing with law enforcement and regulatory agencies. Risks are present for entities of all stripes, but cannabis businesses in particular need to beware of the Internet and what it says about them. If the Internet says so, it must be drug paraphernalia
The coming New Year heralded new administrative regulations for marijuana in the State of Oregon. These changes came through the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (OLCC) rulemaking process. That process, in turn, stems from cannabis laws passed by the Oregon legislature earlier this year. Common Ownership Issues Common Ownership Definition Oregon allows verticality in its
If you are suing your cannabis insurer, read this first. The venue in which you plan to file is of the utmost importance. The status of marijuana as a schedule I narcotic has made cannabis insurance litigation a bit of a chess match. Many cannabis businesses enjoy the benefits of state legalization and the ability
Parody is a tricky defense to cannabis trademark infringement, or to any infringement allegation whatsoever. For some background on this, check out our posts here, here and here. Still, people riff off established trademarks all the time, and when pursued, they often raise the parody defense. In the cannabis context, this happened most recently in
I really fought myself on putting together a festivus post of all that went wrong for the cannabis industry in 2021. Instead, I want to focus on the positives for 2022 as the industry continues to mature and expand across the U.S. and abroad. As 2021 comes to a close, here’s what I’m looking forward
Welcome to the sixth annual “State of the State” post on Oregon cannabis. This year was relatively staid compared to 2020, but key features included: a plateau in pricing and regulated sales; intensifying local competition; important new laws, administrative rules and policies; a hollowed out hemp market; and some interesting large company activity. Sales look
Vapes. E-cigarettes. Mexico! Like a lot of people, my brother-in-law is trying to quit smoking. And like a lot of people, he’s not having much success. Which is why a few weeks ago I was sitting in the dining room of a hotel in Florida and he was standing outside on the balcony, sucking on
Here’s a scenario our cannabis lawyers and litigation team have experienced countless times: A client calls and wants to take immediate action for breach of a cannabis contract. They want to terminate the contract. Or evict a tenant. Or file a lawsuit. The first question I always ask these clients is whether the contract contains
On December 8th, Harris Sliwoski teamed up with international law firm Clifford Chance to analyze and discuss the latest trends in global cannabis. The discussion covered commercial cannabis and cannabis-based products in the key markets of Africa, Europe, the U.K., the U.S., and Canada. In case you missed this free event, you can watch the
For the past year, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has directed its attention to the cannabis industry– in a helpful way! This includes promulgation of cannabis tax guidelines as well as webinars and public forums dedicated to tax compliance for marijuana businesses (together, the “Guidelines”). The stated IRS goal here is “to positively impact filing
