canna law blog

BREAKING NEWS: 24 Cities Sue California Over Statewide Cannabis Delivery Rule

As expected (and as we’ve written about here), California cities have joined forces to fight the State’s regulation allowing delivery of cannabis in every jurisdiction. Here is a copy of the complaint. The lawsuit was filed in Fresno County Superior Court against the California Bureau of Cannabis Control and its chief, Lori Ajax. The local

canna law blog

California Cannabis Deliveries May Soon Change, Again

For a few moments there, it seemed like the California cannabis delivery companies could deliver anywhere in the state—even to cities that said no. It now looks like that may not be allowed. In January 2019, the California Bureau of Cannabis Control (“BCC”)—which regulates cannabis delivery companies—issued Rule 5416(d), which says that “A delivery employee

canna law blog

The Battle Over the HARVEST Trademark for Cannabis Retail

I’ve written extensively about trademark litigation matters involving cannabis brands, but up until now, the trend in these lawsuits has been well-known non-cannabis companies suing cannabis companies. To read more about these cases, see the following posts: UPS Sues Multiple Cannabis Delivery Companies for Trademark Infringement What NOT to do with your Cannabis Brand: The

canna law blog

California Hemp Cultivation: It’s Complicated

Our California hemp lawyers regularly get asked about the laws and regulations about growing hemp in California, manufacturing hemp products, and shipping those products around the country. I’ve written about the various hemp laws in California and how confusing they are previously (see here and here). Those posts, however, were more geared towards the manufacture

canna law blog

California Cannabis: Where Prop. 65 and Labeling Rules Meet

Our California cannabis attorneys have been getting inundated with packaging and labeling review since each California cannabis licensing agency adopted its final rules in January 2019, and even before that when the rules were under consideration. One thing that many California cannabis companies—and especially cannabis companies from other states who are stakeholders in California—often overlook

canna law blog

The California Bureau of Cannabis Control’s Final Regulations Immigration Impact on Foreign “Owners”

On January 16, 2019, each of the three California cannabis agencies dropped a final set of regulations. In many senses, the Bureau of Cannabis Control’s (“BCC”) regulations were the most comprehensive and expansive (we summarized some of the highlights here, and summarized the highlights of the California Department of Public Health’s final regulations here). In

canna law blog

Federal Court Dismisses RICO Suit Against Sonoma County Cannabis Cultivator

For a while, criminal conspiracy lawsuits against cannabis operations looked like a potentially promising strategy for cannabis prohibitionists to try and use litigation to reverse the trend of legalization. The idea is to use the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), a federal statute intended to combat organized crime–and which allows private rights of

canna law blog

California Cannabis Red Tape Alert: New BCC “Change of Ownership” Rules

Our California cannabis lawyers are seeing a major spike in mergers and acquisitions (M & A), and it’s time to discuss what’s on the horizon for changes of ownership for some California cannabis businesses. In every cannabis state, M & A is no breeze because the regulators almost always require pre-approval of the transaction or

canna law blog

Navigating California Cannabis Leases in 2019

We’ve previously written about some of the pitfalls for landlords to avoid when leasing to commercial cannabis tenants in California. We’ve also recently discussed some relevant issues for landlords created by the state’s near-final regulations. And we’ve also looked at some of the biggest uncertainties remaining after the state issued those regulations. Now that we