marijuana social equity

California Awards $12 Million In Local Cannabis Equity Grants To Repair Drug War Harms

California’s path to cannabis social equity: from arrests to advocacy Data from the California Department of Justice reveals that nearly half a million individuals were arrested on cannabis charges in the state between 2006 and 2015. Even after Governor Schwarzenegger authorized a statewide decriminalization program in 2010, thousands continued to face serious misdemeanor charges related

cannabis industry

California’s Cannabis Industry Conundrum and the Road Ahead

Despite continuously surpassing every other state with recreational cannabis in terms of total retail sales, California’s cannabis industry has faced continuous and far-reaching issues on multiple levels that have only spread even further. From declining sales that result in hundreds of millions less in total retail sales to a massive illicit market that the state

missouri

Missouri Tops $1.3 Billion in First Year of Recreational Sales

With every election season that comes, it’s become almost inevitable that at least one or two more of the states will legalize cannabis for either fully recreational usage or at least medical reasons. Even if it was but a midterm election, the 2022 election season still resulted in two more states legalizing cannabis for recreational

illegal cannabis

California Gives Up on the Illegal Cannabis Market: An Update

At the beginning of the summer, I wrote a post entitled “California Gives Up on the Illegal Cannabis Market” in which I went into detail about the state’s failure to meaningfully address the festering illegal market. More recently, I wrote about “Another California Cannabis Enforcement Program That Won’t Work.” As the name suggests, this post was

vetoes

Oregon Governor Vetoes Marijuana State Bank Bill

Oregon’s governor recently vetoed an effort to create a state bank for marijuana businesses, in another blow to the struggling industry. The lack of consistent, equitable access to banking has been recurring issue for Oregon marijuana businesses and those in other states. Federal reform through the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act (SAFE Act) has

The Real OLCC Scandal Is There Are Two Sets of Rules

We have been working with the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission incessantly since 2015, when rulemaking commenced for the adult use program. Over the years, we’ve dealt with many, many compliance-related issues, including Notices of Proposed License Cancellation to licensee clients from OLCC. We’ve also seen the Commission change its position and philosophy drastically on

vape liquid

Minnesota Supreme Court Reverses Vape Liquid Conviction

As Minnesota approaches the legalization of marijuana, the Minnesota Supreme Court has just ruled on a case we covered in September 2021.  The case involves the difference between hemp and marijuana and a state prosecutor’s burden to prove what side of the line a leafy or liquid cannabis substance falls. As we explained two years

mlk day

MLK Day: Cannabis and Civil Rights

Happy MLK Day! Time to catastrophize just a bit. Last year at this time, I kicked off this post by writing: If Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today, he would almost certainly advocate to end the War on Drugs. Dr. King never spoke publicly about drugs or cannabis in particular: he was assassinated in

drive thru cannabis

Oregon Cannabis: Drive-Thru Marijuana Sales Ending?

The OLCC rulemaking process continues after a public hearing on October 25 and the close of the public comment period on October 31. You can read our prior coverage here, here and here, and you can read the proposed rules here. The public hearing lasted about 35 minutes and a hot topic was whether retailers may

biden

Biden’s Bad Example

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