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 officers, directors, partners, members and managers of cannabis companies need to understand what constitutes a “security” and how to comply with applicable securities laws. The failure to do so may result in their personal liability for securities fraud. Let’s start with what constitutes a “security.” As my colleague Jonathan Bench recently explained in layperson’s
Last week the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued a bad interim hemp rule. I wrote that it was dangerous because I viewed it as making most hemp processing activities illegal if, at any point in processing hemp, the level of delta-9 THC increases beyond 0.3%– even if the hemp was remediated before it left the
When the 2018 Farm Bill was inked, one of the biggest perceived wins was a provision prohibiting states from interfering with interstate transport or shipment of hemp. It turns out that this protection was for a long time meaningless. Many hemp transporters today face just as much risk when transporting hemp as they did before
California’s three cannabis agencies–the Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC), California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), and California Department of Public Health (CDPH)–aggressively regulate every aspect of the state’s licensed cannabis industry. Most of the agencies’ rules make sense or have some justifiable purpose. Today, I want to talk about some of the rules that
Insurance is a key part of any business, including cannabis businesses. As Jonathan Bench has explained: Insurance in the cannabis industry is big business, and business owners need to know what policies are available and what those policies cover. Why? Because in insurance policies, like all other business contracts (e.g. leases), the risk of a
If you have spent much time around the world of private capital raising, then you know that there are only two avenues for a company that wants to bring on investors. Either you register your capital offering (equity, debt, or some hybrid) or you find a state or federal filing exemption that you can qualify
On Friday, the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) released an Interim Final Rule (the “Rule”) that, as we discussed, threatens the hemp industry by treating partially processed hemp extract not intended for consumption (also known as “intermediary hemp”) as a Schedule I controlled substance. This is hugely problematic because intermediary hemp is an essential and necessary
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued an interim final rule on hemp (“DEA hemp rule” or “rule”) on August 20, 2020. As per the DEA’s own executive summary, the rule “merely conforms DEA’s regulations to the statutory amendments to the [Controlled Substances Act (CSA)] that have already taken effect, and it does not add additional
After we discussed TCPA claims in our last webinar, we received a few follow-up questions relating to the somewhat recent Supreme Court decision in Barr v. American Ass’n of Political Consultants (“Political Consultants”) and its impact on TCPA claims going forward. Here’s the deal: Political Consultants is not really going to have an effect on
