The Blunt Truth

A blog chronicling the evolution and implementation of marijuana laws in the United States

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By: Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Blog Authors

Amy Abeloff
Anthony Califano
Ariel D. Cudkowicz
Adam Laughton
Adam R. Young
Brent Clark
Christopher Lowe
Seyfarth Shaw LLP
Daniel Blumenthal
Dean L. Fanelli, Ph.D.
David D. Kadue
Eric Janson
Gregg Dorman
Gina Merrill
Gregory Sale
Geoffrey Westbrook
Ilana R. Morady
John Ayers-Mann
Jaclyn Gross
Jun Y. Kwon
Jamila McCoy
Jennifer Mora
Jay Myers
Joshua Henderson
Jacob Oslick
Jinouth Vasquez
Kayla Randolph-Clark
Leon Rodriguez
Loren Gesinsky
Lawrence Postol
Lee Vartan
Meredith C. Bailey
Michael Cross
Meredith-Anne Berger
Nick Geannacopulos
Mark Katzoff
Mark A. Lies II
Paul Galligan
Renee B. Appel
Ryan McCoy
Robert Terzoli
Raymond Tran
Robert Winner
Selyn Hong
Stanley Jutkowitz
Sarah Kinne
Susan Ryan
Samuel Sverdlov
Timothy Buckley
Tori Campbell
Tonya M. Esposito

Latest from The Blunt Truth

Cannabidiol (CBD) competed with Vitamin C as a top ingredient in new cosmetic products this past year, with promises of having anti-inflammatory effects and other healing properties. Amid the hype, at the end of 2018, the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, P.L. 115-334 (the “2018 Farm Bill”) was signed into law, changing the marketing of hemp and derivatives of cannabis and further removing hemp from the Controlled Substances Act thereby making it no longer an illegal substance under…
Welcome back to The Week in Weed, your Friday look at what’s happening in the world of legalized marijuana. Possibly the biggest news this week was the first ever Congressional hearing on cannabis banking.  From the hearing’s webpage, you can watch the hearing, read the committee’s memorandum and read the witnesses’ prepared statements.   The committee memorandum has a great graphic of state marijuana laws – only three states allow no marijuana consumption in any…
Welcome back to The Week in Weed, your Friday look at what’s happening in the world of legalized marijuana. Let’s start off this week’s post with some international news.  The World Health Organization is recommending that cannabis should be removed as a controlled substance under international treaties.  The recommendations will come up for a vote in March of this year. Banking for the cannabis industry is a subject we watch closely.  In California, it’s been revealed…
Cannabis and CBD-driven business format franchising is coming. Franchising in the United States has deep historical roots in a nearly endless array of industries, from Benjamin Franklin’s Franchise-esque Printing Business to the Singer Sewing Machine’s profit-share model (1851) to Martha Matilda Harper’s Creation of the Modern Franchise with the Harper Method – all sixty-plus years before Ray Kroc created the World’s best-known franchise. Where business innovation has happened in the U.S., franchising has soon…
Welcome back to The Week in Weed, your Friday look at what’s happening in the world of legalized marijuana. One of the states we  thought might legalize in the near future was Illinois.  The Cook County state’s attorney has come out in favor of cannabis legalization and the expunging of misdemeanor offenses.  That prediction is looking pretty solid. Another state we’ve been watching is Minnesota.  We don’t think they’re likely to be the…
The 2018 Farm Bill lifted the ban on hemp, creating a lot of buzz about products derived from hemp, including hemp-derived CBD oil. Although this creates an exciting market opportunity for veterinarians and members of the pet industry, some important issues still need to be resolved. Passing the Farm Bill did not legalize “pot for pets” — but it does mean pets can enjoy the benefits of CBD derived from industrial hemp.…
Welcome back to The Week in Weed, your Friday look at what’s happening in the world of legalized marijuana. Arizona’s medical marijuana sales jumped a whopping 41% in 2018 – sales are estimated to have been $400 million.  Not chump change by anyone’s standards. Regular readers will doubtless recall that Arkansas’ medical marijuana program was off to a sluggish start.  They have finally issued the first dispensary licenses and cultivation sites are now all under …
Welcome back to The Week in Weed, your Friday look at what’s happening in the world of legalized marijuana. Although most people following AG Nominee William Barr’s hearing before the Senate Judiciary committee may have been listening for his views on the Mueller investigation, those of us with an interest in marijuana were wondering how he feels about legalized cannabis.  In an apparent break from his predecessor, Jeff Sessions, Barr said he would not go …
Welcome back to The Week in Weed, your Friday look at what’s happening in the world of legalized marijuana. The big news this week is that the governor of Washington is going to issue pardons to those convicted of misdemeanors involving marijuana.  Known as the Marijuana Justice Initiative, the program has limitations on who is eligible for the pardon but is expected to effect over 3,000 citizens. Further down the West Coast, times are…
Texas is joining the states weighing whether to expand legalized uses of marijuana, with state legislators filing almost a dozen bills related to marijuana use in advance of the legislative session, which began on January 8.  (In Texas, the state legislature meets biannually for a 140-day session.)  Texas first established a limited compassionate use program for medical marijuana in 2015, and three dispensaries are currently in operation under that program.  However, due to limitations in…