Foreign investors (often in countries that prohibit cannabis) are eager to invest in burgeoning state cannabis markets in the U.S. This can often go very wrong, especially if the investor gets bad legal or tax advice. Our cannabis attorneys and our foreign direct investment team have seen these problems crop up again and again. Today,
Investors in marijuana businesses face many risks. To name just a few: the subject of their investment is illegal under federal law; the businesses in which they are investing face heavy tax burdens because of IRC 280e; and the lack of access to banking services means businesses operate nearly exclusively cash, which makes tracking sales,
Unfazed by the federal leadership vacuum on cannabis, states continue to roll out cannabis proposals and programs. A total of 34 states considered cannabis reform proposals in 2021. Another 32 proposals (some of them pre-filed in 2021) are up for discussion here in 2022. These proposals range from limited decriminalization measures to comprehensive, adult use
Like all commercial litigation, cannabis business litigation is expensive and in most circumstances a party cannot recover its attorneys’ fees. The exception is where recovery is authorized by a contract or a statute. This post discusses how a party in commercial litigation—whether involving cannabis or not—can use an Offer of Judgment to leverage a more
The Caribbean is questioning its enduring ties to the British Crown, as it seeks to fully turn the page on its colonial past. During the next few years, we will likely see several of the independent Caribbean nations that maintain constitutional ties to the British monarch become republics, led by local heads of state. These
For many years, we’ve written about California’s truly bizarre animus towards hemp-derived CBD. Many efforts to regulate CBD failed. Last year, the state finally managed to pass AB-45 but the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) hasn’t really done anything since. That will change soon. Finally, California will regulate CBD. California is getting CBD regulations
Cannabis companies are largely behind the curve in Web3, but in the past few months some top cannabis companies have emerged in the Web3 ecosystem to join the old guard. The connection between cannabis and Web3 may not be apparent at first glance, but both industries are relatively nascent, semi-regulated, and attracting some of the
A couple of weeks ago, the Asociación Indígena Productora de Cannabis de Oaxaca (AIPCO), a Oaxaca non-profit organization comprised of local indigenous cannabis growers, gave indigenous individuals and communities 26 medical cannabis growing licenses issued by Mexico’s Federal Commission For The Protection Against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris). Around the same time, the government of the state
Most people who are (luckily) not familiar with litigation believe alternative dispute resolution (or “ADR”) clauses in their contracts are essentially boilerplate language that’s recycled again and again in every contract. However, well-drafted ADR clauses can not only give you a huge advantage if an issue comes up, they may also cause your counterparty to
When it comes to canna law on the internet, half-truths might be a bigger problem than outright lies or mistakes. Recently, our sister China Law Blog declared that China Law on the Internet Is All Wrong. As a lawyer who spends a lot of time working on China-related matters, I can confirm that there is
