On July 31, 2015, the New York State Department of Health awarded five licenses for medical marijuana cultivation, processing, and distribution authorized by the state’s Compassionate Care Act that went into effect on July 5, 2014. These five license recipients now have a deadline of January 5, 2016, or eighteen months from the date the law
The best cannabis contracts are those that never need to be enforced. The most important goal in contract negotiation is for the parties to determine their obligations and when those obligations are due to each other. Everything else is secondary. That said, things can and do go wrong in business transactions. Maybe a party tries to
So where exactly are people now allowed to smoke marijuana in Oregon? I get this question often from business clients, who understand that smoking marijuana in public is generally verboten. In the business context, the real question is whether the subject business constitutes a “public place” in the eyes of the state. If the answer
The marijuana industry is finally beginning to experience meaningful movement on the national level, slowly chipping away at federal prohibition. With the most recent Cole Memo, FinCEN guidelines, legalization in two additional states and D.C., improving Veteran access to cannabis for medical use, and a tiny take-down of at least one significant federal barrier to marijuana
We’ve blogged before about products liability and the cannabis industry and we all know it’s just a matter of time before a plaintiff successfully sues a marijuana company for injuries caused by a defective marijuana product. When most businesses hear the term “products liability,” they start to sweat and then to pray that their insurance carrier will
Products liability and its application to marijuana businesses is a topic we’ve discussed at great length. In California, however, marijuana business owners have additional cause for concern: Proposition 65. California’s Proposition 65, or the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, requires the State to publish a list of chemicals known to cause
“If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.”
We’re starting to see a distinct trend with state-sanctioned marijuana operational licenses: the “pay-to-play, greatest barrier to entry” model. In this sort of system, there is usually some combination of the following, all geared towards reducing the number of cannabis businesses actually granted a license and towards making sure that those with licenses are very well-funded:
What comes to mind when you think of Amsterdam? Typically, Van Gogh, historic churches, beautiful canals, and marijuana. Amsterdam is famous for its “coffee shops,” where patrons can purchase and consume marijuana on-site. In light of the success of recent legalization efforts on this side of the Atlantic, we have to ask: where are America’s
We talk a lot on this blog about branding challenges and limitations unique to marijuana businesses. For some of our previous posts on this topic, check out the following: Organic Marijuana: Not Exactly Mirth Provisions Hits it Big with Branding Cold Brew Coffee Protect Your Cannabis Brand with a Trademark Cannabis Branding. Because it is
