Clients have often as asked whether HIPAA applies to the cannabis industry. As with anything else in healthcare, the answer can be complex. HIPAA was enacted in 1996 to help protect a patient’s healthcare information. While HIPAA is expansive, to the extent state law is more restrictive or protective, then state law will control in
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s policy of rejecting applications to register trademarks that identify nonhemp cannabis products, as well as certain hemp CBD products, reflects an unduly doctrinaire approach that ultimately makes Americans less safe. As the cannabis industry continues to enter the business mainstream, the extension of trademark rights to cannabis companies’ products
On May 3, the District Court for the District of Columbia ( “trial court”) dismissed a petition filed by the Hemp Industries Association and others (“Petitioners”) challenging a DEA interim final rule (the “Rule”) that amended its regulations following the enactment of the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018 (“2018 Farm Bill”). Although not a good
California’s cannabis regime is set up to separate every point in the supply chain into different license types: cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, testing, and retail sales, to name a few. Except for a few vertically integrated companies, virtually all cannabis businesses must rely on other companies in the supply chain to get products from farm to
In January 2020, Governor Newsom announced that he intended to have the Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC), California Department of Food and Agriculture’s CalCannabis Program (CDFA), and California Department of Public Health’s Manufactured Cannabis Safety Branch (CDPH), consolidated into a single cannabis agency: the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) (as summarized in the Governor’s 2021
This post discusses the use of the federal “illegality defense” in connection with third-party subpoenas in litigation. Let’s start with a review of the illegality defense. Cannabis litigators, investors, and companies who decide to file a lawsuit arising out of a business transaction likely are familiar with the “illegality defense.” An initial question is choosing
Most people know that any party to litigation unquestionably owes an “uncompromising duty to preserve” what they know or reasonably should know may be relevant evidence in their lawsuit. What they don’t know is this is true before any discovery requests are served, and sometimes, even before the complaint is filed. Here’s a primer on
It’s common in many different kinds of cannabis contract negotiations for the parties to execute a document early in the stages of negotiations that is often called a letter of intent (or LOI), but can also be called a term sheet. LOIs are used in most real estate and M&A transactions, but can be used
Today is that hallowed cultural holiday for the cannabis industry, 4/20. Of all of the 4/20’s of the past, this one hits a little different (although 2015 was a nice year, too). We have seen so much political change in support of cannabis, including state-by-state legalization in the past year. We’ve also seen some fun,
In a recent bankruptcy decision by the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Panel (“BAP”), the BAP had the occasion to explore some of the intricacies of how the Bankruptcy Code interacts with the cannabis industry. Burton v. Maney, 610 B.R. 633 (B.A.P. 9th Cir. 2020) (“In re Burton”). While, generally, a putative debtor cannot enjoy the protections
