As so many of you know, few landlords are willing to rent to marijuana businesses. They are afraid of the very real possibility of losing their property in a federal civil asset forfeiture action. The federal government has been known to seize property being used for cultivating, manufacturing, or selling marijuana. In the last seven
One of my clients sent me a link to this story, asking me to comment on whether it was really newsworthy. My response was not really; the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) decision to allow a listing of Terra Tech Corp. is not a major surprise. It is progress, yes, but it was also somewhat inevitable,
The federal government continues to surprise us with its varied treatment of marijuana: this time by federally recognizing marijuana workers' rights. Specifically, the National Labor Relations Board (for the second time) is preparing to hear marijuana workers' allegations against their New Jersey medical marijuana dispensary employer for retaliation, union-busting, and unfair working conditions. That hearing is
Almost everyone in the cannabis industry loathes Section 280E of the Federal Income Tax Code. For more on why this is the case, check out In the Wake of Marijuana Legalization, It’s Time to Repeal Section 280E. Section 280E prevents cannabis producers, processors and retailers from deducting expenses from their income, except for those considered
Our cannabis lawyers been asked several times in the past couple of weeks whether we have any opinion on a Washington Superior Court decision that came out earlier this month that grappled with the interplay of government regulation and commercial free speech. There’s no copy of that Superior Court opinion available online, but in this
Our cannabis lawyers are often asked what it takes to purchase or sell a marijuana business license. This question from our clients sometimes comes up during their license application phase and it sometimes comes up after their licensing has been finalized. People tend to think of marijuana licenses as fungible commodities. This makes sense, as most
If you follow us on Facebook, you probably know about our ongoing saga with the social media giant over its having banned our promoting our page or our posts. Why is Facebook blocking us from promoting content from the Canna Law Blog on its pages? According to the Facebook Advertising Guidelines, and from what we have been
Now that four states have legalized recreational marijuana and another twenty or so states have legal medical marijuana regimes, we are hearing people talk about how taking their legal pot across state borders by car or by air is no big deal. Unfortunately, it is a big deal. A really big deal. It should first
We had a cannabis first over the weekend, when Fireweed Farms out of Prosser hosted the first wholesale marijuana auction. Three hundred pounds of marijuana were sold to processors and retailers for approximately $600,000. This auction brings up all sorts of questions industry stakeholders have been asking. Will the marijuana market in 5 years look
"Not in My Back Yard," or NIMBY, seems to be the word of the day for the marijuana industry and this is not a good thing. With legalization taking over state by state, NIMBY neighbors are coming out in large numbers to go after marijuana businesses. NIMBYs can be aggressive and, in our experience, will
