The Basics of a Cannabis Insurance Policy Insurance in the cannabis industry is big business, and business owners need to know what policies are available and what those policies cover. Why? Because in insurance policies, like all other business contracts (e.g. leases), the risk of a business venture is divided between the contracting parties. Your
We try to cover cannabis-related trademark issues thoroughly on this blog, because branding and trademark protection form the most basic foundation for most businesses. In our most recent posts, we’ve focused heavily on trademark disputes, because as the industry matures, litigation has become inevitable. For reference, you can check out some of the big trademark
California cannabis regulators are slowly getting into enforcement mode under the Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation Act (“MAUCRSA”). Ostensibly, enforcement to date has been around illegal sales and/or around the manufacturing of illegal products (like vape cartridges). It’s only a matter of time though before enforcement becomes more sophisticated around licensing, including the state
As a corporate and transactional attorney focused mostly on cannabis, I see my fair share of financing documents and transactions involving cannabis operators. It’s no secret many cannabis businesses can’t get bank accounts or loans or lines of credit from financial institutions because of the Bank Secrecy Act and federal anti-money laundering laws — despite
One of the most fundamental questions facing any businessperson in the cannabis industry and every other industry is: “What type of business entity should I use?” This is such a loaded question that your lawyer or accountant will first respond with, “That depends,” and then they will need to ask you at least ten follow-up
It is trite of me to say so, but the current “gold rush” in the U.S. has prospectors dreaming of double-fisting cannabis buds and greenbacks, and that makes for fertile fraud soil. In this green rush, investors are voraciously putting money into cannabis ventures that are, in some instances, producing vast amounts of cash and
Recently, Jonathan Bench wrote about the importance of insurance coverage for your hemp or recreational marijuana business. His first article provided the basic anatomy of such policies and his second discussed the importance of product liability insurance. This post highlights recent litigation in which insurance is at issue, or ought to be. Hemp insurer seeks
With Juul recently in the news and vaping bans going into effect around the country (see our recent coverage here, here, here and here), marijuana companies have been asking us questions about what to expect in the near term. In the midst of this uncertainty, we have been stressing to our clients the importance of insurance coverage
Now that we’re about two years into California cannabis licensing, our California cannabis attorneys are seeing a huge uptick in mergers and acquisitions in the cannabis space. It’s critical for potential M&A transactions to understand California cannabis laws and regulations and ensure that any M&A contracts are drafted with the regulations in mind. This is
Since January 2018, distributors have played an interesting role in California cannabis. From a regulation perspective, dealing with a distributor is not optional. However, from the business decision vantage point, they’re not all that necessary. Still, some manufacturing and cultivation licensees opt to utilize distributors for sales and retail relationships with the distributor attempting to
