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
Last week, amid the impeachment turmoil, President Trump and Democratic leadership somehow agreed on a landmark international trade agreement. The package is generally referred to as USMCA (U.S-Mexico-Canada Agreement), or sometimes as NAFTA 2.0. Although the White House has not yet released a final copy of USMCA, its contents are widely known. As expected, USCMA
Over the past few years, our international trade team has advised a rapidly expanding suite of clients on import/export issues related to cannabis. We regularly advise clients on manufacturing overseas, hemp import/export issues, and customs. Currently, we are also working on heady questions surrounding international treaties and cannabis. One thing no one has hired us for yet,
If you follow state-by-state legal cannabis legalization, you're aware that despite the federal illegality of cannabis, certain federal agencies police the cannabis industry like they do any other legal industry. For example, the NLRB has been known to go after cannabis companies engaged in hostile workplace conduct and the Department of Treasury contemplates banking services to
In a recent 13-part series, we reviewed the stance of each of the 2020 presidential candidates' on marijuana, and we assigned each candidate a letter grade corresponding with our analysis. Our grading criteria is as follows: Current stance on marijuana: What have they recently said about marijuana legislation? When did they adopt this stance? We
Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that the U.S. is facing a vaping epidemic where consumers are potentially inhaling/ingesting very toxic chemicals in the form of vaporized nicotine liquid and THC oil. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevent (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and state and local governments are still trying
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
Over the course of of ten weeks, we recently ran a series of blog posts that take a close look at the Democratic Party candidates for President in 2020. We examined each candidate’s historic approach to marijuana law and policy, and we also canvassed their current respective stances on marijuana. In all, we covered Joe Biden, Bernie
For years now, I've seen and analyzed many different cannabis business relationships across the industry spectrum. Specifically, many proposed and draft agreements have come across my desk detailing the contractual relationships between a variety of parties in the cannabis industry for various purposes--from investors, ancillary services providers, and licensees to intellectual property holding companies, equipment
