California’s cannabis regime is set up to separate every point in the supply chain into different license types: cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, testing and retail sales, to name a few. Except for a few vertically integrated companies, virtually all cannabis businesses must rely on other companies in the supply chain to get products from farm to
These days in cannabis, we see lots of toll processing agreements between licensees. And that’s for good reason– not every licensee wants to be vertically integrated, which is expensive and significantly complex. Most licensees simply want the benefits of being able to offer a variety of products that they can’t otherwise directly make themselves. How
A bill (369/2021) to allow veterinarians to prescribe cannabis products has been introduced in Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies. Under the terms of the bill, products must be authorized by the Brazilian regulatory authorities or, in the case of imported products, their counterparts in the country of origin. If the government does not issue specific regulations
South Africa is one of the few jurisdictions outside North America that has legalized recreational cannabis, albeit under very limited circumstances. Appropriately for a country belonging to the common-law tradition, legalization was not the result of a legislative enactment, but rather of a 2018 decision by the Constitutional Court (“ConCourt”) of South Africa, which partially
Arizonans knew zoning issues could cause headaches for dispensary owners. However, what was unanticipated are the new bans by some of the Arizona cities for recreational marijuana establishments. Shortly after the passage of Proposition 207, otherwise known as the Smart and Safe Arizona Act (the “Act”), several Arizona cities moved to ban recreational marijuana sales,
In my experience, lobbying is truly an art and not a science, and a very important art at that. And there’s been no shortage of cannabis lobbying over the years on both the state and federal level. Typically, cannabis trade groups (and there seems to be one for every cannabis topic now, including a recently
The year 2020 was a shock for all of us from both personal and business perspectives, but 2021 is shaping up to look much better, especially for Washington cannabis companies. In the past three months, I have had serious conversations with many clients and prospective clients regarding M&A activities. The pace of inquiries has accelerated
Our cannabis business attorneys have drafted many cannabis supply chain agreements (such as distribution agreements, licensing agreements, etc.) over the years. Generally, supply chain cannabis contracts follow the same format and the same nuanced provisions seem to pop up time and time again (I wrote about some of them previously in the context of tri-party
Five* Latin American nations are set to hold presidential elections in 2021, with some important legislative elections taking place as well. Some of these contests will have implications for cannabis policy, and we will be looking at what is at stake in each vote, starting with Ecuador, which heads to the polls next Sunday, February
The Oregon legislative session kicked off in earnest last week (online) with 28 proposed cannabis bills crowding the docket. We’ll probably see another dozen or so between now and June. In this post, I will run down the list and offer brief comments on each offering. Before diving in, though, some context will be useful.
