Cannabis

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We are committed to keeping our knowledge of international cannabis news current, and as legalized cannabis has become an international reality, our lawyers in Spain and in China are naturally seeing more of this work. Zozayacorrea Sahagún Arizaga, a leading law firm based in Guadalajara, Mexico, gave Harris Bricken the express permission to provide our own English summary along with the original Spanish article. Mexico’s New Cannabis Laws Cannabis legalization and regulation in Mexico…
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The FDA is considering regulatory options for CBD. This post was written by Kamran Aryah, an attorney with the Kight on Cannabis law firm. The FDA issued another statement on April 2 concerning hemp and CBD. This may very well be the final statement issued by Scott Gottlieb before his resignation. As has been typical of prior statements from the FDA Commissioner, the April 2 Statement again said a lot, without substantively changing FDA…
  Senate Bill 5318 is making its way through the Washington legislature and seems destined for Governor Jay Inslee’s desk. As of April 16, the bill had cleared both the Washington House and Senate. If signed into law, which seems increasingly likely, SB 5318 would drastically change the way the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (“LCB”) operates. SB 5318 is titled, “An Act Relating to reforming the compliance and enforcement provisions for marijuana licensees.”…
Welcome back to The Week in Weed, your Friday look at what’s happening in the world of legalized marijuana. Beginning our coverage in Texas, the city of Dallas will no longer be prosecuting low-level first time cannabis offenders.  And any pending cases will be dismissed. Moving on to Georgia, we have an update on our earlier coverage.  The Governor has signed a bill lifting the ban on medical marijuana cultivation. The news for proponents of medical…
On March 28, 2019, the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act cleared a House Financial Services Committee vote 45 to 15, and is now expected to proceed to a full House vote before the end of April 2019. The Act provides federal protection for financial institutions that serve state-sanctioned cannabis and cannabis-ancillary businesses, and allows these businesses to use banking services and products – a significant upgrade to the sector’s current means of cash …
Why is the OLCC throwing the book at me? This is a question we hear a lot these days from our Oregon cannabis clients in reference to the OLCC’s recent more aggressive approach to enforcement. As we’ve explained, the OLCC has tightened the reins on marijuana applications and rule violations. This has made the prospects of a favorable settlement seem increasingly out of reach for Oregon cannabis businesses that find themselves the subject of…
If cannabis licensees needed any reminder, Division Three of the Washington Court of Appeals has confirmed that the Washington Liquor & Cannabis Board (LCB) is not required to defer to local zoning laws when deciding whether to issue cannabis licenses. The issue arose from a petition to LCB by Kittitas County that argued the LCB’s licensing decisions are subject to local zoning regulations because LCB issues site-specific cannabis licenses. The LCB denied the petition, but…
Although New Mexico has had a medical marijuana law in place since 2007, it did not contain protections for job applicants and employees. However, all of that changed on April 4, 2019 when New Mexico Governor Grisham signed Senate Bill 406, which amends the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act (the “Act”) to include changes that will impact New Mexico employers and their consideration and treatment of individuals using medical marijuana.…
We’ve written previously about the inability of cannabis companies to receive United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) organic certification for their products (although there are alternative state-level and private certifications available to fill this gap), but what some of our clients are unaware of is that the USDA will provide organic certification for qualified industrial hemp producers. The USDA provided clarifying instructions in its September 2018 Instruction on Organic Certification of Industrial Hemp Production for…