Regulatory

Not long ago the news media was awash with awash with glowing economic reports about the burgeoning hemp and CBD industry following the enactment of the 2018 Farm Bill. Everyone was going to get rich. And quick. Fast forward to 2021 and things have changed dramatically. At least here in Oregon, selling biomass—especially biomass preceding […]

For the past few years, I have been engaged as an expert witness on a series of cannabis litigation matters here in Oregon. My partner Hilary Bricken also has handled a spate of them in California during the same period. The way litigants use experts varies across jurisdictions due to local rules of evidence and

In my last post in this series, I discussed how the purchase price is structured in cannabis M&A transactions, and how escrow can be used in connection with the purchase price. Today, I want to discuss how adjustments are commonly made to the purchase price, both during the pre-closing period (between signing and closing), and

REGISTER TODAY! In March of 2021 New York became the 15th State to legalize recreational cannabis through the passage of the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act. New York City is poised to become the retail epicenter of New York’s cannabis industry with the potential influx of several types of cannabis business, most notably retail dispensaries and

Register HERE! As New York entrepreneurs gear up to apply for state licenses to produce and sell regulated cannabis products, there are many unknowns surrounding how the business environment will develop. Michael Dundas founded and led one of the largest regulated cannabis businesses in Massachusetts from the inception of its medical program in 2012 until

The year 2020 marked the 50th anniversary of the so-called War on Drugs. As states across the country decriminalize and commercialize legal cannabis, some have declared drugs the winner of the Drug War. There is some truth to this assessment. Two-thirds of Americans currently support decriminalizing marijuana, now referred to by its less racialized, scientific

As regular readers of this blog will know, cannabis businesses face unique challenges when it comes to protecting their brand, particularly in the context of federal trademark registration. The federal government’s ongoing prohibitions on cannabis with THC levels exceeding 0.3%, as well as on a wide range of CBD products, means that marks identifying those

Just a few days ago the Texas Court of Appeals published an opinion concerning smokable hemp. Before getting into the ruling, let’s review what happened in Texas after enactment of the 2018 Farm Bill. In 2019, the Texas Legislature enacted statutory provisions regulating certain hemp products. Among the statutes was a law prohibiting any state

Yesterday morning New York Governor Cuomo announced his resignation (which will take effect in 13 days), a week after a report from the New York State attorney general concluded that Governor Cuomo sexually harassed nearly a dozen women. Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul will then be sworn in as the first woman to hold the position