Regulatory

A few days ago, I wrote a post on cannabis investing and the concept of debt v. equity. I noted that it’s very common to see lenders ask for personal guarantees when providing loans to cannabis businesses. Guaranty agreements are a hugely important type of contract that deserve their own post. Below, I will get […]

People have been complaining about Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) marijuana licensing bottlenecks for a long time. And rightfully so. New license applications are effectively suspended (and have been for over two years), while delays in approval requests for investment intake, ownership changes and business sales make these standard business activities extremely challenging in many

This November 2020 election, cannabis legalization initiatives will appear on the ballots of five states: Arizona, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota. Every Sunday until November 3, Canna Law Blog will publish a post centered on one of these state ballot initiatives, and the current laws surrounding cannabis in that state. Today is the

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the USDA’s decision to reopen commenting on the interim hemp rule for 30 days. (Here is a good article by Hemp Grower magazine on the reopening). The deadline for submitting comments is October 8. So get your comments in!  The USDA is particularly interested in comments on

When President Trump announced he was nominating Judge Amy Coney Barrett to succeed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court last week, the future of many key issues was called into question. We won’t mention or write about them here because this blog is dedicated to all things cannabis, but there is one issue

For thousands of years, groups of people across the globe have consumed psychedelic (also referred to as entheogenic) plants as part of religious practices. In the twentieth century, many of these religious practices were outlawed by international treaties such as the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 and the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of

In recent posts, we’ve explored legislative developments regarding cannabis in Argentina, Colombia and Mexico. Today, we turn our attention to Central America, and specifically Costa Rica, where a bill that seeks to legalize medical cannabis is winding its way through the legislative process. The bill was originally introduced by Zoila Rosa Volio in March of

On September 24, 2020, the Bureau of Cannabis Control (“BCC”) issued a press release announcing its filing of a complaint seeking civil penalties from Vertical Bliss, Inc., also known as Kushy Punch (“Vertical Bliss”), as well as other related individuals for unlicensed commercial cannabis activity. For a bit of background, in November of last year,

On August 21, the Drug Enforcement Agency (the “DEA”) released an Interim Final Rule (the “Rule”), which, in part, suggests that in-process hemp extract shall be treated as a schedule I controlled substance during any point at which its THC concentration exceeds 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis. “Any point” includes even fleetingly during

We’ve been monitoring and reporting on the growing trend of investment and securities fraud litigation in the cannabis industry, and this week brings yet another case. In Murray v. Camp, et al., Murray is suing three Washington entities and their principals for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, fraud, and violation of the Securities Act of