Everyone in the hemp industry knows that last fall the U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) released its interim hemp rules governing the production of hemp. Our hemp-CBD attorneys have written extensively about the new hemp rules and their shortcomings, as well as the panoply of different hemp regulations at the state level and the DEA’s
In an inevitable conclusion, the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) and Department of Justice (“DOJ”) won their federal court case against the California Bureau of Cannabis Control (“BCC”) pursuant to which the BCC must now comply with a recent DEA subpoena regarding alleged criminal activity by certain state-licensed distributors hailing out of (what’s probably) San Diego
The California legislature is considering a new law (AB-1639) that, if passed, would restrict how cannabis vape products are made and sold. AB-1639 would change California law for tobacco and cannabis businesses (for the purposes of this post, we’ll just focus on the cannabis side of the law), and would effectively prohibit almost any kind
On June 29, the folks at “Yes On IP 34” announced that the Psilocybin Therapy Initiative will qualify for the ballot this November in Oregon. The campaign said it had collected over 164,000 signatures and that its recent submission of additional signatures would comfortably put the initiative above the requirements. This is exciting news! You
On June 23, 2020, John Elias, a career Department of Justice (DOJ) official, submitted written testimony to the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary (the Committee) in response to a Congressional investigation into the politicization of the DOJ office under Attorney General William Barr. Elias claims Barr directed the DOJ’s Antitrust Division (the Division) to
Our last update on the first-ever cannabis patent case, United Cannabis Corporation (“UCANN”) v. Pure Hemp Collective, Inc. (“Pure Hemp”) was back in July 2019. A lot has changed in the world since then (although the case was largely unremarkable), and the possible ending to this once-deemed “pivotal” case for the industry may now face
At 5:30 p.m. yesterday, California Governor Gavin Newsom took a giant step forward in preventing the spread of COVID-19 by enacting a “Stay At Home” order (the “Order”) across the state, mandating that California state residents remain in their homes, except to fulfill “essential” needs. The Order is in place seemingly indefinitely as Newsom would
On February 20, 2020, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) released its proposed regulations for the Cannabis Appellations Program, something that many cultivators have been anticipating since the inception of the Medicinal and Adult Use Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA). We’ve written about appellations and their applicability to cannabis before, but a quick
Last week, the Food Standard Agency (“FSA”), the agency responsible for protecting public health in relation to food in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (collectively, the “UK”), cleared a path for the sale of CBD-infused food for the next 12 months. Specifically, the FSA is giving the CBD industry until March 31, 2021 to submit
Last month, comedian Sacha Baron Cohen delivered a now widely shared keynote speech at an Anti Defamation League event in New York, in which he spared no harsh words for social media companies who he claims provide a platform for hate speech and the proliferation of fake news. In his speech, Cohen offered sharp criticisms for
