There are many laws at both the federal and state level that govern the production and distribution of distilled spirits. For example, craft distillers must comply with licensing and permitting requirements, trade practice laws, advertising restrictions, and, depending on the jurisdiction, alcohol franchise law. One of the most fundamental—and most complex—areas of law governing distilled spirits is excise taxes. An article authored by McDermott’s Bethany K. Hatef in the Winter 2020 issue of Artisan Spirit…

Yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its approval of 10 new pesticides for use on hemp products. EPA’s approval of nine biopesticides and one conventional pesticide provides greater certainty to hemp farmers in time for the 2020 planting season. The hemp industry awaits further guidance from other federal regulatory agencies.…

We are very pleased to share that one of our editors for Alcohol Law Advisor and head of McDermott’s Alcohol Regulatory & Distribution Group Marc E. Sorini was named a 2019 National Law Review Go-To Thought Leader. The National Law Review’s 2019 “Go-To Thought Leader Awards” spotlight 75 legal authors—less than 1% of the publication’s 15,000 thought leaders—selected from a pool of over 100,000 news articles published in 2019. Sorini was one of three…

Over the past several months, 15 notable deals have taken place in the craft beer space, continuing a trend toward consolidation in the industry. While the terms of most transactions remain undisclosed, the deals generally fall into three buckets: Strategic deals designed to combine leading brands and brewers and leverage distribution capacity; Targeted asset acquisitions designed primarily to expand brewing capacity; and Restructuring transactions. McDermott’s Marc Sorini, Thomas Conaghan and Daniel McGuire walk through notable…

Last week FDA issued a public release on CBD titled, “What You Need to Know (And What We’re Working to Find Out) About Products Containing Cannabis or Cannabis derived Compounds, Including CBD.” The FDA document does not break much new ground, though it emphasizes again FDA’s concern with the safety of CBD, some of which comes from FDA’s review of the CBD-based epilepsy drug Epidiolex. FDA does not believe it has enough information about…

This Wednesday, November 20, the House Judiciary Committee will hold a markup of H.R. 3884, the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act (MORE Act). The bill’s sponsors and advocates for cannabis normalization say the legislation is the most comprehensive ever considered by Congress. In fact, due to the bill’s sprawling reforms, it was referred to eight separate committees for consideration according to their discrete jurisdictions. The Judiciary Committee will be the first to consider the…