A couple of months ago, my colleague Vince Sliwoski wrote Oregon Cannabis Dispensary Sales: What We Are Seeing on Valuation, which focused on the secondary market for cannabis licenses and businesses. Vince explained that the retail market, i.e. the purchase and sale of dispensaries, is still mostly done on multiples of revenue. But what is
The last few years have been a wild ride for the United States’ hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD) industry. Ever since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) took the position that CBD is unlawful in many consumer products, the industry has faced many questions about what it can and cannot do. To add fuel to this fire,
One of the coolest things we’ve done here at Harris Sliwoski was work with the National Credit Union Association on its June 2020 guidance for servicing hemp-related businesses. Back when we first started working with small, Northwest credit unions in 2014 and 2015 (on the THC banking side) we never imagined being hired one day
It goes without saying, but 2020 was a pretty wild year for the California cannabis and hemp industries. We think 2021 will be a pretty active year and want to list out some things to watch out for as we kick off the new year. Agency Consolidation: It was announced in January 2020 that California’s
As reported by Hemp Grower magazine, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky introduced legislation on December 15 that would amend the definition of hemp from .3% THC to 1% THC. The bill would also make other major changes to the USDA’s interim final rule, which would affect hemp growers, processors, manufacturers, and shippers. The legislation is
Earlier this fall, several news outlets reported on a lawsuit alleging that federal and state law enforcement agencies in California wrongfully destroyed a hemp grow worth more than $3 million. (See here, and here). The case, Agro Dynamics, LLC v. DEA, et al., was filed in the federal district court for the Southern District of
Here we are at the end of 2020 (thank goodness!), which means it’s time for the fifth annual “State of the State” post on Oregon cannabis. The year 2020 was remarkable for the Oregon cannabis industry, mostly due to COVID and its effects, including record sales on the THC side. But there were also key
We’ve written a lot recently about the law concerning the religious use of psychedelics (see here and here). This is an incredibly broad area of the law that is still developing. Our focus has generally been on the federal laws and decisions affecting religious use of psychedelics, though today we turn our attention to an
On December 22, the Food and Drug Administration (the “FDA”) issued new warning letters to five companies that illegally sold and marketed unapproved CBD products, which the companies claimed could prevent, diagnose, mitigate, treat or cure various medical conditions. This latest round of enforcement actions was triggered by specific concerns with the manner in which
On December 17, the FTC issued a press release announcing its first law enforcement crackdown on deceptive claims in the growing market for cannabidiol (CBD) products. According to the press release, a number of “companies made unsupported claims that their oils, balms, gummies, coffee, and other goods could treat serious diseases such as cancer and
