Tom Price, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), resigned his post last week amid public health and personal travel debacles. Mr. Price’s resignation drew very little coverage from cannabis reporters, however, which was sort of strange because the HHS Secretary wields more influence over cannabis law and policy than any other public official besides Attorney General
Tuesday afternoon, the Washington Post broke an article that acting Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) chief Chuck Rosenberg plans to resign within a week. Rosenberg is an Obama administration holdover going back to 2015, so the news was not totally unexpected. President Trump will be tasked with selecting a successor, which will lead to a confirmation hearing
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is worried about this country’s “historic drug epidemic and potentially long-term uptick in violent crime.” Because he is so worried, Sessions has spent the past month doing things like: (1) asking his old colleagues for funds to prosecute the War on Drugs, including medical marijuana; (2) writing letters to state
The long-awaited proposed regulations under Proposition M for L.A.'s current and future medical (and recreational) marijuana operators are finally out. The 51 pages of initial regulations (that are now in a 60-day public comment period) cover the governance of cultivators, manufacturers, distributors, testing facilities, transporters, retailers, and microbusinesses in significant detail under Proposition M. If you
We are business and corporate lawyers, not criminal lawyers. This means we know enough about the law to tell someone when he or she may need criminal defense services, but we do not provide those services. Still, the specter of federal criminal charges is ever-present in the cannabis industry. When cannabis clients ask us about
California is in the process of transitioning from its gray market of medical cannabis collectives to a full-blown, heavily regulated regime under the Medical Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act ("MCRSA"). At the end of April, California dropped more than 200 pages of regulation for retailers, distributors, transporters, manufacturers, and cultivators, and it's now taking public comment on the initial
Though the Medical Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act ("MCRSA") initially failed to specifically define the term "manufacturer," California finally rectified the situation with the Department of Public Health's Office of Manufactured Cannabis Safety's release of the initial MCRSA manufacturing rules last Friday. “Manufacturer” now means the production, preparation, propagation, or compounding of cannabis products, including extraction
Last month, the Oregon State Police Drug Enforcement Section published a report titled "A Baseline Evaluation of Cannabis Enforcement Priorities in Oregon." It's a great read. The big takeaway, as reported by The Oregonian, is that Oregon remains a top source for black market pot-- despite our legal cannabis programs. Those familiar with the industry have long known this
Yesterday, the Washington Post ran an illuminating and sad little story on government marijuana, which is pot grown under the oversight of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The government marijuana photographed and featured in the story is a sample distributed to a researcher for use in ongoing clinical studies for treatment of military
Our marijuana business attorneys handle lots of purchase transactions for marijuana businesses. These deals often involve two sides rushing to complete a transaction handled by a business broker who doesn't know or care about the applicable marijuana laws. The worst case scenario is when a company asks us to review a purchase agreement drafted by the
