canna law blog

The Regulatory Twilight Zone: California Cannabis Transactions

For years now, I’ve seen and analyzed many different cannabis business relationships across the industry spectrum. Specifically, many proposed and draft agreements have come across my desk detailing the contractual relationships between a variety of parties in the cannabis industry for various purposes–from investors, ancillary services providers, and licensees to intellectual property holding companies, equipment

canna law blog

An Update on California’s Proposed Hemp and CBD Laws

California’s legislature introduced a potentially game-changing hemp-derived cannabidiol (“Hemp CBD”) bill in January 2019: Assembly Bill 228 (“AB-228”). For those of you who aren’t familiar with AB-228, see my posts here, here, here, and here. AB-228 would change California’s anti-Hemp CBD policies, and the highlights of some of the more significant changes from the recent version are: Licensed cannabis companies

canna law blog

The Biggest Pitfalls of California Cannabis Leases in 2019

We’ve written many times about how commercial leases to cannabis tenants are their own beasts. Generic leases don’t ever the job done. And, in California, as bad as some landlords want to rely solely on AIR and CAR forms, we generally caution landlords to have a customized lease arrangement when dealing with a cannabis tenant.

canna law blog

Hemp-CBD Across State Lines: California

The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (2018 Farm Bill) legalized hemp by removing the crop and its derivatives from the definition of marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and by providing a detailed framework for the cultivation of hemp. The 2018 Farm Bill gives the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulatory authority over hemp

canna law blog

California is Poised to Pass a Landmark Hemp CBD Law

California is on the brink of legalizing hemp-derived cannabidiol (“Hemp CBD”) in many products—well, sort of. The law at issue is Assembly Bill 228 (“AB-228”), and I’ve been writing about it since it was introduced in January 2019 (for my posts on it, see here, here, and here). As of today, it’s made its way

canna law blog

ICYMI: California Cannabis Provisional Licenses Are Given New Life

On July 1, Governor Newsom signed into law AB 97 and SB 97, which combined, extend the life and power of provisional cannabis licenses, giving much needed relief to licensees sitting on temporary licenses that were about to expire and/or that are awaiting their provisional licenses to issue in the face of massive red tape

canna law blog

California Cannabis Legislation: SB 475 Would (Finally) Allow Licensees to Exchange Trade Samples

An issue our clients have encountered in a variety of transactions, including basic product purchase transactions and intellectual property licensing transactions, is that the California rules governing commercial cannabis licensees currently do not allow the exchange of free samples between licensees. We are unaware of an industry in which the wholesale purchaser of a large

canna law blog

Six Ways California Can Combat the Cannabis Illict Market

California’s illicit market for cannabis is booming—not just out in remote grows deep in the wilderness, but also in delivery and even brick-and-mortal retail stores in big cities all over the state. Our California cannabis attorneys regularly receive questions from licensed cannabis companies about what they can do to stay competitive in the face of

canna law blog

California Bill to Mandate More Cannabis Stores Is Dead, For Now

California cannabis has a problem: roughly 80% of jurisdictions in the state prohibit cannabis stores of any kind, despite voters approving full legalization with Prop 64 (the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, now the Medicinal and Adult Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act, or MAUCRSA) in 2016 by nearly 60%. The result has been “cannabis