Yesterday afternoon, on January 16, 2019, the California Office of Administrative Law (“OAL) finally approved the sets of final regulations under it had been reviewing after submissions from the California Department of Public Health (“CDPH”) which regulates cannabis manufacturers, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (“CDFA”) which regulates cultivators, and the Bureau of Cannabis Control (“BCC”) which regulates distributors, retailers, event organizers, and testing laboratories. You can find the final regulations here. The…

We have spilled a lot of ink on this blog related to the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized hemp at the federal level. It’s huge news. And there are so many ramifications, from food law to trademarks to the financial services environment. This blog post is going to cover financial institutions and hemp at about 10,000 feet. Since late December, we’ve had many clients come to us with frustrations about the ongoing lack of…

On January 3rd, according to the owner of a smoke shop in Yuma, Arizona, officials from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seized a variety of CBD products from the store’s shelves. The officials took fewer than fifty items and told the owner to anticipate follow-up paperwork within seven to ten business days. According to the owner’s account, FDA officials had stopped by the shop a few days earlier and asked what products were edible…

A few months ago, I wrote a blog post about the precarious state of industrial-hemp derived CBD in California. Since then, as everyone knows, President Trump signed the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018 (or “Farm Bill”). A lot of people think that in the wake of the Farm Bill, hemp-derived CBD (“Hemp CBD”) is now completely legal. This is in many cases a wildly inaccurate misconception—especially in California. Now, the legal status of Hemp CBD…

Congratulations to Canna Law Blog’s Hilary Bricken, recently named one of the cannabis industry’s top lawyers by Business Insider! The cannabis industry is volatile and deals are growing more complex as markets evolve. Having worked with clients in the cannabis industry for over eight years, though, and in multiple jurisdictions, there is no deal too complex for Hilary. In 2018 alone, she closed an estimated $100 million in industry transactions. Because Hilary has been…

We hear from clients on a regular basis who receive fraudulent notices pertaining to their U.S. federal trademark applications, and because we’ve seen an uptick in these scams over the last month, we thought it would be prudent to publish a PSA on the topic, together with what to look out for if you are a trademark applicant or owner. These trademark scams often come in the form of an official-looking letter or invoice requesting…

I recently wrote about a case in the Tenth Circuit, Kenney v. Helix TCS, Inc., where the Court of Appeals is asked to decide if the Federal Labor Standards act (FLSA) provides wage and hour protection to employees of cannabis businesses. That case hasn’t seen much movement since I wrote about it, but its decision could have a significant impact on a case recently filed in Federal District Court in Oregon. Michael Garity has…