Regulatory

Microdose hosted its annual psychedelics conference in Miami last week (appropriately titled “Wonderland”). We were there, meeting industry insiders and clients, and keeping on the cutting edge of the psychedelics space. For our readers who weren’t able to make it, here are some of our key takeaways from two days of all things psychedelics: Everyone […]

Can companies in the psychedelic space register their trademarks, for psychedelics themselves? This is a question that often comes up, given U.S. trademark law’s requirement that marks be lawfully used in commerce as a precondition to registration. In recent times, many trademark applications filed by cannabis businesses have been refused on lawful-use grounds, though this

On the 25th anniversary of Prop. 215, I was recently interviewed on KCRW to give my take on how California (and specifically the City of Los Angeles) has done when it comes to legalizing and licensing cannabis businesses. I’m a pretty tough critic of California in general if you read any of my writings on

When it comes to medical cannabis, Israel has long been among the leading nations in the world. You can read a post I wrote about Israel’s achievements on that front, both in terms of legality and actual research, here. But despite its deep history with medical cannabis, the country still does not permit legal sales

Big news from the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (OLCC) this week as it announced it has resumed accepting and processing of new marijuana retailer, wholesaler, and processor applications submitted after June 15, 2018. This is welcome news as the OLCC had imposed an administrative “pause” on new applications to focus on existing licensees and

Something strange happened yesterday. Psychedelics unicorn Compass Pathways released data for the largest clinical trial ever conducted of a psilocybin drug. Not only did the drug seem to work, but the heavily anticipated data were “breathtaking” in the words of Compass’ CEO. Immediately, the company’s publicly traded shares dropped 16%. Including the day prior, it

As we have written about before, the corporate practice of medicine doctrine (“CPOM”) is a creature of state law (click here to review a prior post on CPOM). While some states do not have a CPOM doctrine (like Florida), other states have very strict CPOM doctrines (like New York and California). At its core, CPOM

Legal representation in disputes with insurers has become paramount for cannabis companies in an ever-expanding operational environment. Cannabis companies may seek to insure against risk of loss as a result of challenges such as unexpected fires, crop protection, business interruption, or adverse consumer reactions to products. In many instances, cannabis companies are even required to

Since California passed the Compassionate Use Act in 1996, there have always been folks who insist that federal legalization is right around that corner. As more and more states decriminalized and then regulated cannabis, the ranks of people who believe federal legalization is imminent has grown exponentially. Recently, when Joe Biden won the presidency, it

Public and scientific interest in psychedelics such as psilocybin and MDMA is expanding. Once off-limits because of federal prohibition, a trickle of research from the 1990s has grown into a stream. But despite increasing acceptance by the public, and commercial investment in psychedelic therapies, aging federal laws stem the flow of vital research. Psilocybin, a