There has been a ton of speculation about what President-elect Donald Trump and his nominee for U.S. Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, will do about state-legal marijuana in the next four years. Some industry and political experts think a renewed War on Drugs is coming, while others believe neither Trump nor Sessions will undertake the politically
My law firm represents a large number of cannabis operators in Oregon, Washington and California. Some of these operators own the land they trade on; others simply lease. Whenever we are lucky enough to meet the client before the onset of cannabis activity, our first question is often whether the target property is mortgaged, or
This is the second installment on our state by state series on “The Top Ten Things You Need to Know to Start a Cannabis Business.” Our first entry, on Washington, is here. Today’s entry covers Oregon, a pot friendly state with two separate programs: a recreational marijuana program run by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC),
This is our first installment in what will be an intermittent state by state series on “The Top Ten Things to Know to Start a Cannabis Business.” We figured we would start with Washington State because that is where our cannabis business lawyers got their start back in 2010. Washington recently combined its medical and
This is the final installment in a four-part series on the new Oregon marijuana bills, all of which arrived in the recently concluded short session. If you wish to catch up, our summary of HB 4014 (abolishing residency requirements) is here, our summary of SB 1511 (medical and recreational co-location) is here, and our summary
It’s no secret that in the wake of the 2013 Cole Memo federal agencies greatly vary in how they treat marijuana businesses. The Department of Justice has opted to “stand down” for now in those states with “robust state marijuana regulations.” The Internal Revenue Service will not relent on enforcing section 280e against cannabis businesses, even though to do
The marijuana industry is finally beginning to experience meaningful movement on the national level, slowly chipping away at federal prohibition. With the most recent Cole Memo, FinCEN guidelines, legalization in two additional states and D.C., improving Veteran access to cannabis for medical use, and a tiny take-down of at least one significant federal barrier to marijuana
A red herring is “something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important issue.” Sad to say the marijuana industry has more than its fair share of red herrings, including the ten that are most prevalent these days: Federal enforcement memos mean the Feds are taking it easy on the marijuana industry. We wish this
The Department of Treasury today issued guidance for financial institutions that want to do business with the marijuana industry. The primary force keeping banks away from the marijuana industry has always been regulations issued by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) dealing with money laundering. The Bank Secrecy Act that FinCEN enforces requires banks to investigate their customers and to neither negligently or knowingly do business with bad actors. State-legal marijuana businesses have always fallen into the category of bad actors for the banks, so they avoided potential fines by refusing to provide banking services to marijuana businesses. Today's regulations, however, clarify that banks can provide services to marijuana businesses without running afoul of federal regulations, so long as they abide by the following:
