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
We’ve blogged before about products liability and the cannabis industry and we all know it’s just a matter of time before a plaintiff successfully sues a marijuana company for injuries caused by a defective marijuana product. When most businesses hear the term “products liability,” they start to sweat and then to pray that their insurance carrier will
Cannabis businesses far too often come to one of our cannabis lawyers after they’ve opened their doors in violation of applicable local laws. Making matters worse is that they never learn of their violation by poring over their city or county code in their spare time; they find out by being on the wrong end of a
We’re starting to see a distinct trend with state-sanctioned marijuana operational licenses: the “pay-to-play, greatest barrier to entry” model. In this sort of system, there is usually some combination of the following, all geared towards reducing the number of cannabis businesses actually granted a license and towards making sure that those with licenses are very well-funded:
The media is currently abuzz about the inadequacy of lab testing for marijuana and marijuana infused products, which once again raises a critical issue for business owners: lawsuits. There are circumstances under which marijuana producers, processors and retailers alike can be held liable for a defective product, even without any knowledge of the defect. Anyone
As so many of you know, few landlords are willing to rent to marijuana businesses. They are afraid of the very real possibility of losing their property in a federal civil asset forfeiture action. The federal government has been known to seize property being used for cultivating, manufacturing, or selling marijuana. In the last seven
One of my clients sent me a link to this story, asking me to comment on whether it was really newsworthy. My response was not really; the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) decision to allow a listing of Terra Tech Corp. is not a major surprise. It is progress, yes, but it was also somewhat inevitable,
The federal government continues to surprise us with its varied treatment of marijuana: this time by federally recognizing marijuana workers’ rights. Specifically, the National Labor Relations Board (for the second time) is preparing to hear marijuana workers’ allegations against their New Jersey medical marijuana dispensary employer for retaliation, union-busting, and unfair working conditions. That hearing is
Almost everyone in the cannabis industry loathes Section 280E of the Federal Income Tax Code. For more on why this is the case, check out In the Wake of Marijuana Legalization, It’s Time to Repeal Section 280E. Section 280E prevents cannabis producers, processors and retailers from deducting expenses from their income, except for those considered
Our cannabis lawyers been asked several times in the past couple of weeks whether we have any opinion on a Washington Superior Court decision that came out earlier this month that grappled with the interplay of government regulation and commercial free speech. There’s no copy of that Superior Court opinion available online, but in this
