The state-legal cannabis industry is often a cutthroat place. State cannabis regulations are difficult to navigate and it usually takes significant capital to get a cannabis business up and running. And even once operating, margins get shrunk by aggressive and unfair federal taxes and limited access to banking. To top it off, cannabis is still
I absolutely loved Washington State when I lived there. I lived in Seattle for seven years and was one of the first attorneys in the state to take on medical cannabis business clients in 2010 and then again with adult use clients in 2012 when I-502 passed. Our law firm is a pioneer in the
For better or worse, the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (a/k/a Prop. 65) has long plagued California businesses. And cannabis businesses are no exception (see here and here). Prop. 65 requires businesses to provide "a clear and reasonable warning before they cause an exposure to a chemical listed as known to
California's cannabis regime is set up to separate every point in the supply chain into different license types: cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, testing and retail sales, to name a few. Except for a few vertically integrated companies, virtually all cannabis businesses must rely on other companies in the supply chain to get products from farm to
These days in cannabis, we see lots of toll processing agreements between licensees. And that's for good reason-- not every licensee wants to be vertically integrated, which is expensive and significantly complex. Most licensees simply want the benefits of being able to offer a variety of products that they can't otherwise directly make themselves. How
A bill (369/2021) to allow veterinarians to prescribe cannabis products has been introduced in Brazil's Chamber of Deputies. Under the terms of the bill, products must be authorized by the Brazilian regulatory authorities or, in the case of imported products, their counterparts in the country of origin. If the government does not issue specific regulations
South Africa is one of the few jurisdictions outside North America that has legalized recreational cannabis, albeit under very limited circumstances. Appropriately for a country belonging to the common-law tradition, legalization was not the result of a legislative enactment, but rather of a 2018 decision by the Constitutional Court ("ConCourt") of South Africa, which partially
Arizonans knew zoning issues could cause headaches for dispensary owners. However, what was unanticipated are the new bans by some of the Arizona cities for recreational marijuana establishments. Shortly after the passage of Proposition 207, otherwise known as the Smart and Safe Arizona Act (the “Act”), several Arizona cities moved to ban recreational marijuana sales,
In my experience, lobbying is truly an art and not a science, and a very important art at that. And there's been no shortage of cannabis lobbying over the years on both the state and federal level. Typically, cannabis trade groups (and there seems to be one for every cannabis topic now, including a recently
The year 2020 was a shock for all of us from both personal and business perspectives, but 2021 is shaping up to look much better, especially for Washington cannabis companies. In the past three months, I have had serious conversations with many clients and prospective clients regarding M&A activities. The pace of inquiries has accelerated
