The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (“2018 Farm Bill”) legalized hemp by removing the crop and its derivatives from the definition of marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”) and by providing a detailed framework for the cultivation of hemp. The 2018 Farm Bill gives the US Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) regulatory authority over hemp cultivation at the federal level. In turn, states have the option to maintain primary regulatory authority over the…

Every Saturday, we have been running a series of blog posts that take a close look at the Democratic Party candidates for President in 2020. We examine each candidate’s historic approach to marijuana law and policy, and we also canvas their current respective stances on marijuana. Over the past seven weeks, we covered Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, Corey Booker and Beto O’Rourke.  Today,…

State governments and the federal Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) take wildly different approaches when it comes to Hemp-derived cannabidiol (“Hemp CBD”), and for the most part, the ball is still in the government’s court to actually regulate hemp and Hemp CBD. The Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) haven’t issued regulations yet, states like California are still considering laws that would allow (or ban) many Hemp CBD products, and…

    In following the progress of the first-ever cannabis patent litigation case, United Cannabis Corporation v. Pure Hemp Collective, Inc., the parties are now in a special phase of patent litigation called “claim construction.” Claim construction is specific to patent cases, and it’s the process of deciding what the various terms of the asserted patent claims actually mean. Claim construction is generally where most cases are decided. The process begins when the parties actually…

Today let’s talk about Curaleaf and the trifecta of very bad things that befell the company over a recent two-week span. Then, let’s see what we can learn from this brutal sequence. To recap, between July 22 and August 5, Curaleaf: 1) was hit with an FDA warning letter for “illegally selling” CBD products and making “unsubstantiated claims” that the products treat cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, opioid withdrawal, and pain and pet anxiety; 2) was hit …

We’ve written many times about how commercial leases to cannabis tenants are their own beasts. Generic leases don’t ever the job done. And, in California, as bad as some landlords want to rely solely on AIR and CAR forms, we generally caution landlords to have a customized lease arrangement when dealing with a cannabis tenant. And even though many of the provisions from the boilerplate will certainly make it into your custom cannabis lease, pretty…

On July 28, 2019, Senate Bill 5318 (“SB 5318“) went into effect. I wrote about this bill back in April when it was awaiting Governor Jay Inslee’s signature. SB 5318 forces the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (“LCB”) to make some major institutional changes, requiring the LCB to work with licensees on compliance matters and limiting the LCB’s ability to issue violations. Below is a summary of the new regime. Education and Technical…