Last Friday, January 15th, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (the “USDA”) announced today’s publication of its hemp production final rule in the Federal Register, which will go into effect on March 22, 2021. This final rule builds on the interim final rule (the “IFR”) that was published on October 31, 2019. It includes revisions based
Last month, along with streamlined licensing, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) announced a significant (and welcome) change to its compliance function by instituting a new Verification of Compliance program (VOC) that will focus on education rather than penalties for certain types of marijuana rule violations. The VOC launched in early October and arose from
People have been complaining about Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) marijuana licensing bottlenecks for a long time. And rightfully so. New license applications are effectively suspended (and have been for over two years), while delays in approval requests for investment intake, ownership changes and business sales make these standard business activities extremely challenging in many
On September 24, 2020, the Bureau of Cannabis Control (“BCC”) issued a press release announcing its filing of a complaint seeking civil penalties from Vertical Bliss, Inc., also known as Kushy Punch (“Vertical Bliss”), as well as other related individuals for unlicensed commercial cannabis activity. For a bit of background, in November of last year,
Given that cannabis remains federally illegal in the United States (despite the fact that more than a majority of states have some form of cannabis legal reform), we get pretty excited when we see other countries undertake legalization experiments at the federal level. Canada was the first country to legalize commercial licensing for the cultivation,
The City of Los Angeles is no stranger to change and struggle around its local cannabis industry. Since the passage of Proposition M back in 2017, the City has made great strides but also suffered significant setbacks in building its licensed cannabis marketplace. Even through the COVID-19 pandemic, this trend continues for Los Angeles and
Conceptos básicos de una póliza de seguro para el sector del cannabis: El sector de los seguros en la industria del cannabis es un gran negocio, y los empresarios deben saber qué pólizas hay disponibles y qué cubren. ¿Por qué? Porque en las pólizas de seguro, al igual que en cualquier otro contrato comercial (por ejemplo, los contratos de alquiler), el riesgo de una iniciativa empresarial se reparte entre las partes contratantes. Su
On October 31, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) published its interim final rules for the production of hemp under the 2018 Farm Bill. Our firm has provided a broad overview of the rules and written about the potential impact of the testing rules on the hemp industry. Today we address disqualifying criminal history for
If you follow state-by-state legal cannabis legalization, you’re aware that despite the federal illegality of cannabis, certain federal agencies police the cannabis industry like they do any other legal industry. For example, the NLRB has been known to go after cannabis companies engaged in hostile workplace conduct and the Department of Treasury contemplates banking services to
Getting a cannabis license in Los Angeles has been notoriously difficult—and may be about to get worse as news dropped last week that a Los Angeles City Council member is recommending that the most recent phase of licensing applications essentially be suspended. For some background on LA’s complicated licensing process, it has proceeded to date
