President Biden’s recent announcement of a pardon for federal cannabis offenses has caught the attention of observers abroad. In fact, I was quoted in an article by Brazilian journalist Anita Krepp on the subject. Unfortunately, the example being set by Biden for other countries is, in part, a bad one. To be clear, we are
Last week, I wrote a piece entitled “Deschedule Cannabis, Don’t Reschedule It.” The post came on the heels of President Joe Biden’s announcement that the federal government is considering the federal scheduling of cannabis. As I noted, rescheduling cannabis to schedule II or below is a bad idea, because it would subject cannabis to DEA
On September 29, I spoke on an opening panel at the 7th annual Cannabis Law Conference for the Cannabis Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan. My co-panelist was the renowned Brookings political scientist John Hudak. One of John’s specialty areas is state and federal marijuana policy. The title of our panel was “Update
I have a bunch of thoughts actually, none of them so flattering. I’m going to break them down by category. The pardons themselves don’t do much President Biden pardoned 6,500 people previously convicted of “simple possession” of marijuana under federal law. The pardons don’t release anyone from prison, as no one was in federal prison
El 6 de octubre de 2022, el presidente Joe Biden anunció un indulto retroactivo por la simple posesión de marihuana. También anunció que el Gobierno federal revisará la clasificación federal de la marihuana. Su anuncio sugiere que el Gobierno federal podría reclasificar el cannabis o incluso eliminarlo de la lista de sustancias controladas. Reclasificar el cannabis es una mala idea, como explico a continuación. Si el Gobierno
The Oregon marijuana industry is hurting, much like industry in California and other states. Among the many reasons (overproduction, market saturation) is that federal marijuana laws have not been reformed at all. For years marijuana entrepreneurs and their cheerleaders have repeated the refrain that federal reform of marijuana laws is just around the corner. These
What is the TCPA again? For years past, we regularly counseled our clients about the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) because the cannabis industry, like many others, were being targeted for TCPA violations which were sometimes legitimate, sometimes not. For those who are still unfamiliar, the TCPA is a federal statute that was passed in
Las dificultades que tienen las empresas de marihuana en quiebra para cerrar sus operaciones y pagar a sus acreedores de forma ordenada no benefician a nadie. Entre los problemas a los que se enfrentan estas empresas —como la falta de acceso a servicios bancarios y la onerosa fiscalidad derivada del artículo 280E del Código de Rentas Internas (IRC)— se encuentra la imposibilidad de acceder a los procedimientos de quiebra. En este artículo se analiza el caso de una empresa de marihuana medicinal con sede en Míchigan
People in the cannabis industry know that marijuana is federally classified as a schedule I controlled substance. Schedule I means the drug has no recognized medical value, has a high potential for abuse, and cannot be safely administered even under a doctor’s supervision. Other schedule I drugs include heroin, methamphetamine, and several psychedelic substances including
I’m guilty of dunking on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the past for not doing more to protect cannabis consumers, despite the current federal illegality of cannabis. That may be changing, at least with respect to CBD consumers. Before diving into this latest development, I should mention that historically, cannabis is treated differently from
