Though the Department of Justice has been sticking by its promise to stand down when it comes to legalized marijuana, its sister agencies have been dragging their feet. The newest cannabis foe to line up beside the IRS and the Department of Treasury? The Bureau of Reclamation. While some of you have probably never heard
We’ve been marijuana business lawyers for a long time now and in multiple states, and being on the front lines of this industry means that we have seen a lot of good and bad actors. In this post, we share the Top Ten Marijuana Industry Red Flags so that you know what to look for to
It should come as little surprise that someone as demonstrably brilliant as Albert Einstein saw the idiocy of prohibition, and he had this to say on it: The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the
This is our fourth post in our ongoing series of Saturday posts featuring great quotes regarding cannabis, mostly from public figures. This one is from astronomer Carl Sagan, the author of more than 600 scientific papers. Apparently, Sagan was very frustrated (as our we) with how science was playing no part in the banning of marijuana back in his day:
At Canna Law, we can never get enough of the pot puns and jokes. Thursday evening's Colbert Report was flush with them, as it featured several segments on marijuana. Colbert noted the Colorado (or, as he calls it, "Potsylvania") Department of Revenue's announcement this week that it took in more than $2 million in tax revenues in January on recreational pot sales. Forbes reported that the combined tax revenues from recreational and medical marijuana sales of $3.5 million is 1% of the total annual budgets for the states of Delaware, South Dakota, Montana, and West Virginia. In other words, serious coin.
This is the second post in our ongoing series of Saturday posts featuring great quotes regarding cannabis, mostly from public figures. This one is from televangelist and prepetual nutcase Pat Robertson, the point of which is not to show that even a broken clock is accurate twice a day (once if digital) but to arm our readers with a quote that they can use with a particular crowd. This comes from a 2012 New York Times interview:
The Department of Treasury today issued guidance for financial institutions that want to do business with the marijuana industry. The primary force keeping banks away from the marijuana industry has always been regulations issued by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) dealing with money laundering. The Bank Secrecy Act that FinCEN enforces requires banks to investigate their customers and to neither negligently or knowingly do business with bad actors. State-legal marijuana businesses have always fallen into the category of bad actors for the banks, so they avoided potential fines by refusing to provide banking services to marijuana businesses. Today's regulations, however, clarify that banks can provide services to marijuana businesses without running afoul of federal regulations, so long as they abide by the following:
If you want to eventually own a national cannabis/marijuana brand, you should take steps to establish and protect your trademarks now. Since cannabis and cannabis paraphernalia remain federally controlled, the United States Patent and Trademark Office will not issue a federal trademark registration for products that fall into either category. However, it is possible to obtain protection for your trademarks in those states that have legalized the medical and/or recreational use of cannabis. Here is what you should do now:
