Author: Hilary Bricken
[ad_1] The biggest legal shift in the cannabis industry in decades just occurred on the heels of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) proposal today for cannabis rescheduling. Specifically, as many anticipated, the DEA will exercise its authority to reschedule cannabis from a schedule I controlled substance to a schedule III controlled substance on the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). This cannabis rescheduling comes in part from the recommendation of the Department of Health and Human Services to reschedule cannabis from a I to a III on the CSA. The DEA’s proposal must now go before the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval.…
[ad_1] Due to federal illegality, the cannabis industry has long been plagued by federal agencies taking a variety of different enforcement approaches to cannabis businesses. From the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to the National Labor Relations Board to the Bureau of Reclamation, the cannabis industry has not really received consistent treatment across the board. All that to say that a new threat has entered the chat–cannabis qui tam actions. Not many people know what a “qui tam” action is. And with good reason as it’s fairly antiquated and an obscure means through which the federal government (potentially) seeks financial recovery from individuals and businesses…
[ad_1] By Hilary Bricken, Attorney at Husch Blackwell Dealing with creditors is never a fun experience. However, some creditors are more severe than others, especially in the cannabis industry. One of those is the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA), which administers California’s sales and use, fuel, tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis taxes, as well as a variety of other taxes and fees that fund specific state programs. It’s no secret that CDTFA cannabis taxes are crippling the California cannabis industry. For example, I recently recorded a Cannabis Law Now podcast episode with Anthony Almaz, general counsel for Catalyst.…
[ad_1] By Hilary Bricken, Attorney at Husch Blackwell If you’re in house counsel at any company, you’re likely looking to cut down on the day to day, high volume minutia posed by a variety of commercial agreements and transactions that come your way time and again. Doubly so in the cannabis industry given the fact that you have bigger fish to fry with labor and employment issues, day to day operational issues, fundraising and finding more capital, and dealing with the precarious legal environment created by the current federal law conflict (even with possible rescheduling on the horizon). To alleviate some…
[ad_1] By Hilary Bricken, Attorney at Husch Blackwell In November of last year, we wrote about how Total Wine & More jumped into the cannabis drinks arena in Minnesota. Since then (and probably before that), there’s been an influx of “THC Beverages” hitting the marketplace, and I don’t mean the state-licensed cannabis marketplace either. At this point, you can buy these drinks online or in person at a number of retail outlets and locations that don’t have any kind of state cannabis licensing at all (here’s one in Alabama, for example). How, you may be asking, is this legally possible…
[ad_1] Between linkedin, twitter, the media, and diehard marijuana investors, there is more noise and froth in the industry about a marijuana reschedule than I’ve seen since Washington and Colorado legalized back in 2012. When speculation about the Feds starts to explode in the industry, I usually ignore most of it as fairly useless hearsay backed by a lot of hope, negativity, and/or hypotheticals. This time, the tea leaves surround the number one question in the industry, will there be a 2024 marijuana reschedule from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on the back of the Department of Health and Human…
[ad_1] By Hilary Bricken, Attorney at Husch Blackwell In October 2022, President Biden asked the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Attorney General to review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law. In August 2023, the HHS marijuana recommendation went to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). In October 2023, HHS released a heavily redacted copy of its recommendation to DEA. And until last Friday, no one outside of Bloomberg News and choice government insiders had seen the totality of the HHS marijuana recommendation. However, thanks to a Freedom of Information Act legal battle by lawyer Matt Zorn,…
[ad_1] By Hilary Bricken, Partner at Husch Blackwell Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to jump leaps and bounds in 2024. As a lawyer, I’m always curious about how to integrate AI into my practice in order to better serve my clients. And now and then I check in with this seemingly omnipotent technology to ask what it deems top of mind for the cannabis industry. Given that we’re fresh into the new year, I logged into ChatGPT to ask it “What are the most asked questions about cannabis law”, and its answers honestly surprised me. Mainly because, after almost 14 years…
[ad_1] By Hilary Bricken, Attorney at Husch Blackwell Overall, 2023 was a tough economic year for the entire cannabis industry. And with lean economic times comes a myriad of bad behavior, and cannabis is no exception. Every year, I like to put out a list of the top cannabis scams and swindles so that cannabis consumers, companies, and investors don’t wind up buying into one of these schemes. Pump and Dumps (still) Pump and dump scams are a type of securities fraud where the criminals artificially inflate the price of a company’s stock through false and misleading statements and actions…
[ad_1] By Hilary Bricken, Principal at Harris Bricken Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that a pretty historic announcement was made last week by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS officially recommended that marijuana be rescheduled from Schedule I to Schedule III of the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA). The HHS news means that the country’s top health agency has finally conceded that cannabis has medical value, and isn’t a drug of abuse on par with fentanyl or heroin. Many people in the cannabis industry are convinced that this HHS recommendation to the Drug Enforcement Administration…
[ad_1] By Hilary Bricken, Principal at Harris Bricken It’s no secret that the cannabis industry is on a steep decline in a variety of states, including California. We have time and again written about the specific woes plaguing the California cannabis industry. High taxes, a staggering credit crunch and collections problems, receiverships, rampant local prohibition, overregulation by the state, and the raging illegal market are just a few. Now, queue the California cannabis voters who may have initially supported this democratic experiment but are now thinking twice about local laws and rules permitting commercial cannabis activity in their borders. Cannabis repeal may be on the horizon. Cannabis…
[ad_1] By Hilary Bricken, Principal at Harris Bricken As the cannabis economy tanks (with the exception of states that just came online for medical and/or adult-use), cannabis litigation is picking up. Most of this litigation revolves around partnership disputes, unpaid bills, breached contracts, and solvency. All cannabis entrepreneurs and businesses should be mindful of cannabis litigation trends, especially in these lean times. To make your lives easier, below is the list I’m keeping of cannabis lawsuits and litigation trends to watch and study this summer and into fall, beyond run-of-the mill partnership and small business contests. Cannabis-related gun bans Cannabis users cannot…