canna law blog

Ninth Circuit Agrees with Montana: Employees Can Be Fired for Off-Work Marijuana Use

Medical marijuana is legal in Montana. Unfortunately, that does not prevent local employers from terminating workers for legal, off-work use of marijuana in the state. In 2010, while already employed by Charter Communications, LLC, Lance Carlson was issued a medical marijuana card under Montana Medical Marijuana Act to treat chronic low back and stomach pain.

Anti-Competitive Alert? Marijuana Slotting Fee and Pay-to-Stay Contracts in California

Anti-Competitive Alert? Marijuana Slotting Fee and Pay-to-Stay Contracts in California

With the roll out of the Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act ("MAUCRSA"), our California cannabis attorneys see all kinds of agreements between and among licensees. From IP licensing to white labeling to distribution contracts, we're beginning to see people emerge from the shadows and enter into written agreements with each other, which

canna law blog

California Cannabis: The Race is On for Temporary State Licenses

Unless you've been completely out of the loop, you already know that many, many people are in a race to submit their California state temporary cannabis license applications before December 31 of this year, which represents the "drop dead" date for cannabis temporary licenses. Add to that the regulatory curve balls thrown by the California

canna law blog

Get Ready Now for the California Cannabis Licensing Logjam

A backlog of cannabis license applications has no doubt happened in almost all of the other states that have medical and adult use licensing. You wouldn't normally think this is such a big or concerning development, but in cannabis licensing delays can mean angry investors, a complete 180 for your business plans and even insolvency.

canna law blog

California Cannabis Bill Round-Up: What Matters Most

It's not a normal day in California if there aren't around 50 cannabis bills floating around Assembly halls. And this legislative session did not disappoint in getting certain much-needed cannabis legislation passed (though some important legislation also bit the dust). All in all, there is a lot of legislation and it can be difficult to

canna law blog

Cities Should Not License Cannabis Businesses. They Should Support Them.

Recently, the City of Portland announced that it would lower cannabis business licensing fees. Most notably, retail license fees have been reduced from $4,975 to $3,500, in line with other license types. That is still too steep (especially considering the state licensing fees), and although the City has cleaned up its process over the past

canna law blog

A Gray Area: Foreign Investment in California's Cannabis Industry

In addition to our California cannabis business attorneys' work on corporate, finance, and transactional issues with marijuana-related businesses, we also work with our firm's foreign direct investment group. As California has implemented MAUCRSA since January 1 of this year, we have been getting tons of interest and questions in and about foreign investment into California's booming

canna law blog

Los Angeles Cannabis: Don't Forget Your Social Equity Business Agreements

Applicants who qualify for commercial cannabis licensure during Phase II of the City of L.A.'s cannabis licensing process only have until September 13 to get their applications into the Department of Cannabis Regulation ("DCR"). This phase of licensing is reserved for existing, non-retail, social equity applicants. To get a license during this phase, the DCR

canna law blog

California Cannabis Distributors and Motor Carrier Permits

Oftentimes in the marijuana industry, licensees forget or don't believe that existing federal, state, and local laws apply to their cannabis operations. For example, things like ADA and OSHA compliance get overlooked where the thinking can be, "I'm already violating one federal law, so I don't have to comply with other, existing federal or state

canna law blog

California Cannabis Leasing: Landlord Pitfalls

We’ve written previously about some common issues landlords run into when leasing to cannabis businesses (see links at the bottom of this article). Now that we’ve seen almost a year’s worth of emergency regulations, and the state has released its proposed final regulations, we’ve also seen a variety of cannabis leasing issues crop up. Here

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