The cannabis industry continues to grow. Each year we see additional states legalize recreational marijuana. Along with more legalized weed, comes more cannabis employees. And more employees means more employment litigation. We recently hosted a litigation webinar where I spoke about employment litigation and ways to protect your marijuana business. One of the tools I
For any marijuana business not fortunate enough to own its land outright, there are few documents more important than the lease. Not only is the lease the only transactional document reviewed by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) prior to licensure, but it sets fundamental operating parameters than can determine the success –and even life cycle
Even though the Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (“MAUCRSA“) stripped distributors of massive amounts of power, they are still relevant and 100% necessary if cultivators and manufacturers want to get their products to retailers. Why? There are three primary reasons: Distributors are the only license type that can transport marijuana products and they’re also the
Our Seattle office often receives calls from entrepreneurs who want to operate in Washington’s thriving recreational cannabis market. Washington is not currently accepting applications for new cannabis licenses which means there are a finite number of licenses available. This leaves one option for entrepreneurs who want to operate their own Washington’s cannabis business: buy an existing
Beginning January 1, California employers with five or more employees will be prohibited from asking about an applicant’s conviction history and cannot consider an applicant’s criminal history until after a conditional job offer has been made. A conditional job offer is an offer made contingent on the completion of a background check. Only after the
Recently, we covered the basics of cannabis supply contracts here on this blog. Supply contracts are used when Party A is selling pot to Party B in a responsible way. Today’s post looks at another form of cannabis contract: the contract packager (“co-packer”) agreement. Co-packer agreements are used when Party A is working with Party B
In the old days, people rarely wrote things down when they sold cannabis. Selling the flower was risky, and leaving a paper trail riskier still. With the advent of medical marijuana programs, though, cannabis supply contracts became routine. Such agreements may be styled as “patient-caregiver agreements” or “patient-grower agreements,” and state agencies may even require their
As business and corporate cannabis lawyers, we have registered and structured a large and ever-expanding number of pot businesses up and down the west coast. Most of these businesses are corporations or LLCs, and most of the time, these businesses are incorporated in the state where they will obtain a license to trade in marijuana.
Back in 2014, we wrote that bankruptcy is not an option for marijuana businesses. That issue has been litigated here and there since then, but as of today, cannabis businesses are no better off than before. The hard reality is this: all bankruptcy cases are handled in federal courts under rules outlined in the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Those courts have held
In cannabis intellectual property (IP) law, as in most areas of cannabis law, separating the flowers from the weeds is difficult. There is a lot of misinformation available on the internet and elsewhere about whether pot is protectable under patent or similar laws, and what patentability means for the industry. This post gives an overview of
