The insanity of the war on drugs needs to stop. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for adult recreational use. Roughly 40% of Americans live in jurisdictions where some form of marijuana use is legal-- that’s over 130 million people. Marijuana companies trade on stock markets. Former Congressman John Boehner, once
I recently relocated to Washington, D.C. to join our East Coast practice group and have been inundated with inquiries surrounding the legal framework of recreational cannabis (i.e., marijuana and hemp) in the nation’s capital. So, in light of this overwhelming interest, I thought I’d briefly summarize this issue for our readers. Marijuana In November 2014,
Virtually any time that there are transactions involving cannabis company mergers, cannabis company acquisitions, or cannabis real estate sales, and in many cases involving the sale of assets of a cannabis company, the parties are likely to encounter a concept called "closing" in their purchase agreements. Closing isn't necessarily unique to purchase and sale situations
Here at the Canna Law Blog, we had intended to start our series on the real estate implications of the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA) with a discussion of issues faced by each license type. But after reading The New York Times’ recent article on the real estate “rush” caused by the MRTA, we
In recent weeks, I have spoken to several entrepreneurs interested in growing cannabis in Africa for exportation to the United States and other markets. It is not hard to see their attraction to the idea: The areas in question have suitable climates to grow cannabis, while inputs such as land and labor are relatively inexpensive.
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
