The U.S. cannabis industry attracts all kinds of entrepreneurs and investors. That has been true since Colorado and Washington legalized cannabis for adults 21 and up back in 2012, and since other states began creating comprehensive licensing regimes. The ever-emerging nature of the industry and its state-by-state quilt of regulations creates all kinds of business
Towards the end of 2019, it seemed that cannabis investments had all but dried up. Today, our cannabis lawyers are seeing a huge uptick in investment transactions of all kinds in cannabis and hemp businesses. With investments on the rise again, we plan to do more posts on various legal aspects of cannabis investments. At
A few weeks back, the Cannabis Law Institute invited me to discuss contract drafting for cannabis deals. A focal point for the panel was whether courts are willing to enforce cannabis contracts. The last time I had really looked at that issue was early 2019, when I wrote: Cannabis Dispute? Courts are Open. As the
Keeping up with the multitude of (shifting) state and municipal cannabis regulations is a daunting task for any multi-state cannabis operator. One well-known tool for doing so has been CannaRegs, which offers a web-based subscription service to aggregate and organize cannabis rules, regulations, and legislation. In January 2020, CannaRegs was acquired by Fyllo, “a digital
For some reason, many cannabis businesses believe that because they’re already violating the federal Controlled Substances Act, they’re free to violate other existing federal laws. This of course is not the case, and never has been. Even though cannabis businesses can’t get legitimate recognition or fair treatment from the Department of Justice or the Drug
Last week, Oregon Representative Kurt Schrader (D) and Virginia Representative Morgan Griffith (R) introduced The Hemp and Hemp-Derived CBD Consumer Protection and Market Stabilization Act of 2020 (“H.R. 8179”). If enacted in its current form, H.R. 8179 would legalize the manufacture, sale and marketing of hemp, hemp-derived cannabidiol and other hemp extracts (collectively referred to
Recently the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) adopted final amendments to expand the definition of an accredited investor, something that has not happened in nearly 40 years. This is a big deal for cannabis companies (and all other companies) that are in fundraising mode because many of these companies rely on Rules 506(b) and 506(c)
Until a few weeks ago, everyone in the hemp world thought the next big development would come from the federal Food and Drug Administration (after all, the FDA recently submitted proposed guidance to the White House, which has yet to be released). Unfortunately, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) dropped a surprise interim hemp rule a
Perhaps the most exciting announcement in the world of celebrity cannabis companies came last week with the announcement of Martha Stewart’s new line of hemp-derived CBD products, which include tinctures, soft gels, and “pâte des fruit.” The products are manufactured and sold through Canadian company Canopy Growth Corporation, which also produces Snoop Dogg’s cannabis brand
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) took effect at the beginning of the year. CCPA is a massive privacy law similar in scope to the European Union’s infamous General Data Protection Regulation, and applies to many businesses (not just cannabis businesses) that are based in or even “do business” in California. I wrote about the
