There are a lot of bad ways to set up a cannabis business, and we like to think that we've seen them all. But there's probably no worse category than 50/50 ownership of a business - a recipe for all sorts of disasters. Let's look and why that is, and some ways to avoid it.
We wrote a couple of times about the Department of Cannabis Control's (DCC) proposed emergency regulations. See here and here. Under those regulations, some interesting changes were proposed around the definitions of owners and financial interest holders, alongside restrictions on license stacking on "contiguous" premises (among other things). On September 15, 2021, the DCC submitted
Germans have delightful ways of describing political coalitions. My favorite is the Jamaica coalition, called this way because the colors of the political parties involved are those of the Jamaican flag: green, yellow and black. Following Germany's elections on September 26, the most likely outcome is a traffic light coalition, made up by the Social
I work with many manufacturers and distributors of hemp-derived products and am often surprised by the fact that few understand their general obligations beyond labeling requirements. Every state that authorizes and formally regulates the manufacture, distribution, and sale of these products – Colorado is a good example – imposes stringent manufacturing requirements that squarely align
Last Friday and Saturday, members of the Oregon Bar gathered (online) for the third annual Cannabis Law Institute (CLI) put on by the Cannabis and Psychedelics Law Section of the Oregon State Bar. Topics included agricultural liens and receiverships, securities in the cannabis industry, federal and state hemp updates, Oregon’s Psilocybin Act, and the failures
I was born in Rogers Park, Chicago. When I abandoned college (one of the times), I moved back to work in a Greek and Albanian restaurant and live with my grandparents. I used to enjoy sitting at the breakfast table with them and reading the Tribune, which often carried stories of city and downstate corruption.
Last year, the Isle of Man's parliament (Tynwald) amended the Misuse of Drugs Act 1976, in order to provide a legal framework for the development of a cannabis industry on the island. Specifically, the Act now allows the Gambling Supervision Commission (GSC) to except cannabinol, cannabinol derivatives, cannabis, or cannabis resin (other than a medical cannabis
In follow-up to this post, we are happy to report that Dr. Sisley is still fighting the good fight: on Monday, Petitioners filed a Petition for Panel Rehearing or Rehearing En Banc. Although it’s not uncommon for these to get filed, few and far in between are granted (filing such a petition to rehash the
By and large, cannabis businesses are small businesses. We’ve represented hundreds of these businesses over the years, in many states. Within these businesses one finds many kinds of people. They include legacy operators transitioning from traditional markets, to well-heeled investors coming from industries like banking and private equity. And everyone in between. Of course, performance
I've preached before on the blog about how often our firm gets pulled into M&A deals where the parties have screwed up reporting the transaction to cannabis regulators on both the state and local levels. In California, in particular, changes of ownership have been a painful affair where the Bureau of Cannabis Control ("BCC") routinely
