Despite continuously surpassing every other state with recreational cannabis in terms of total retail sales, California’s cannabis industry has faced continuous and far-reaching issues on multiple levels that have only spread even further. From declining sales that result in hundreds of millions less in total retail sales to a massive illicit market that the state
With every election season that comes, it’s become almost inevitable that at least one or two more of the states will legalize cannabis for either fully recreational usage or at least medical reasons. Even if it was but a midterm election, the 2022 election season still resulted in two more states legalizing cannabis for recreational
We are helping build out another cannabis banking program here in Oregon. My law firm has done a series of these for credit unions (“CU”s) and other financial institutions (“FIs”) going back to 2014. We have also handled a good bit of hemp banking work– mostly in 2019 and 2020 before that industry cratered. In
On November 8, 2023, the Florida Supreme Court held oral arguments on the validity of a constitutional amendment initiative to legalize adult-use cannabis (case number SC2023-0682). The Florida Constitution requires the state’s Attorney General to request an advisory opinion from the Supreme Court on the validity of any ballot initiatives. Attorney General Ashley Moody has
During New York’s Cannabis Advisory Board’s meeting on September 26, 2023, the Office of Cannabis Management’s (OCM) Executive Director Christopher Alexander revealed that the OCM anticipated issuing “over a thousand, closer to 1,500 licenses” as part of the initial licensing window that is currently scheduled to open on October 4, 2023. As referenced in this
Over the last several months there has been a lot going on in New York’s cannabis world, with the “highlights” being litigation, corporate letters, municipal legislation, and generally just a lot of back and forth about where New York’s adult-use cannabis market is going and how it is getting “there” (wherever “there” is”). Over the
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that a pretty historic announcement was made last week by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS officially recommended that marijuana be rescheduled from Schedule I to Schedule III of the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA). The HHS news means that the country’s top
It’s no secret that the cannabis industry is on a steep decline in a variety of states, including California. We have time and again written about the specific woes plaguing the California cannabis industry. High taxes, a staggering credit crunch and collections problems, receiverships, rampant local prohibition, overregulation by the state, and the raging illegal
Oregon marijuana growers dreading the new aspergillus testing rule can exhale (for now). That’s because on Friday, August 25, the Oregon Supreme Court stayed enforcement of the new aspergillus testing rule pending a final hearing on the merits. This is a big deal! Kudos the Cannabis Industry Alliance of Oregon (CIAO) and the co-petitioners who
The Florida Chamber of Commerce has filed a brief with the state Supreme Court, opposing the placement of an adult-use cannabis legalization initiative on the 2024 ballot. The Chamber’s opposition is curious, given the clear potential that legalization holds for, well, commerce. If only for this reason, it is worth taking a closer look at
