Listen HERE or stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Stitcher, or Soundcloud! At Harris Sliwoski, we keep close tabs on what is happening around the world, and we know that our friends and clients do, as well. We are happy to provide this podcast series: Global Law and Business, hosted by international attorneys Fred Rocafort and Jonathan Bench, where we look at
Every state has some form of open records laws. Most of us have probably heard of the Freedom of Information Action (“FOIA”) which is the federal open records law. The purpose of the FOIA according to the U.S. Supreme Court is “to ensure an informed citizenry, vital to the functioning of a democratic society, needed
Nationwide, cannabis companies and advocates are hailing the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act as the savior of the future of cannabis (a copy of the bill is here). If the Act passes, we will finally have federal legalization and the consequences of the current federal conflict will end, or, at least be reversed in the
On July 22, the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (“LCB”) issued a notice of adoption of an interpretive statement (the “Notice”) in which the agency clarified authorized practices for marijuana processor licensees. The Notice stipulates that licensed marijuana processors cannot legally convert cannabidiol (“CBD”) into delta-9 THC because their license privileges do not allow
On Wednesday, a draft bill was released to end America's federal cannabis prohibition and remove "marijuana" from the Controlled Substances Act. The bill, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) is titled the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act and was introduced as a discussion draft
This week, Governor Newsom took a major step in reforming California's (pretty tortured) cannabis licensing program by signing into law Assembly Bill 141, which generally consolidates all cannabis licensing and oversight into the Department of Cannabis Control ("DCC"). In our view, centralizing all licensing and regulatory oversight into a single agency in California is a
The Arizona Department of Health Services (the “Department”), which is the cannabis regulatory authority in Arizona, released the draft regulations for the Social Equity Opportunity Program (“SEOP”). Click here to view the draft regulations. Under the SEOP, Arizona will issue another 26 licenses. As set forth in the Arizona Revised Statutes (“A.R.S.”), the SEOP regulations
Back in 2015, when I was a regular columnist for Above The Law, I wrote a piece called "Cannabis Advertising: Is Pot Obscene?". That article focused on general speech issues around cannabis ads. We've also written over the years about how various social media platforms broadly prohibit pretty much any speech with the word "marijuana"
I recently relocated to Washington, D.C. to join our East Coast practice group and have been inundated with inquiries surrounding the legal framework of recreational cannabis (i.e., marijuana and hemp) in the nation’s capital. So, in light of this overwhelming interest, I thought I’d briefly summarize this issue for our readers. Marijuana In November 2014,
In January 2020, Governor Newsom announced that he intended to have the Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC), California Department of Food and Agriculture's CalCannabis Program (CDFA), and California Department of Public Health's Manufactured Cannabis Safety Branch (CDPH), consolidated into a single cannabis agency: the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) (as summarized in the Governor's 2021
