Uproot Blog

Observations of the cannabis industry

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By: Law Office of Kyle Sosebee

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Kyle Sosebee

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A federal judge in Oklahoma was recently asked by a Washington cannabis company to declare that OK’s residency requirements violate the dormant Commerce Clause because the requirement discriminates against non-residents. The judge dismissed the case on the grounds that growing and selling marijuana is federally illegal and so plaintiffs shouldn’t be able to use the federal court system to facilitate illegal activity. Read the opinion here: Case No. CIV-20-820-F…
The Fourth Cooperative Principle   The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) has established seven principles as guidelines by which cooperatives put their values into practice.   The Fourth Principle is Autonomy and Independence: Co-operatives are autonomous, self-help organizations controlled by their members. If they enter into agreements with other organizations, including governments, or raise capital from external sources they do so on terms that ensure democratic control by their members and maintain their co-operative autonomy.  …
New York goes Legal! New York has legalized adult use cannabis.  On March 31,2021, the governor signed the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA), establishing a regulatory agency and a cannabis tax. MRTA provides for a variety of license types, including cultivator, processor, cooperative, distributor, retail, microbusiness, delivery, nursery, and on-site consumption. In this blog, we will take a quick look at the New York cannabis cooperative license.  The regulations have not yet been drafted,…
The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) has established seven principles as guidelines by which cooperatives put their values into practice.  The Third Principle is Member Economic Participation: “Members contribute equitably to, and democratically control, the capital of their co-operative. At least part of that capital is usually the common property of the co-operative.  Members usually receive limited compensation, if any, on capital subscribed as a condition of membership.  Members allocate surpluses for any of the following…
The Cannabis Control Commission recently approved numerous changes to the regulations.  Much of the discussion involved the creation of a new license type for wholesale delivery.  That issue will be addressed separately.  In this writing, we will look at changes that may affect the Craft Co-op license and review the overall characteristics of the license type. What is a Craft Marijuana Cooperative? The basic definition remains the same.  The Co-op is a cultivator formed as…
The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) has established seven principles as guidelines by which cooperatives put their values into practice.   The Second Principle is Democratic Member Control: “Co-operatives are democratic organizations controlled by their members, who actively participate in setting their policies and making decisions.  Men and women serving as elected representatives are accountable to the membership.  In primary cooperatives members have equal voting rights (one member, one votes) and cooperatives at other levels are…
The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) has established seven principles as guidelines by which cooperatives put their values into practice.   The First Principle is Voluntary and Open Membership: “Cooperatives are voluntary organizations, open to all persons able to use their services and willing to accept the responsibilities of membership, without gender, social, racial, political or religious discrimination.” We see immediately that membership in a Co-op must be a voluntary act – no one shall be…
What Happens After Cannabis? Cannabis legalization has spread across most of the country in some form – more than 2/3 of the states have a medical marijuana program and 15 states (representing about 1/3 of the US population) have adult use laws.  A number of other states (like New York and Connecticut) are queuing up to legalize soon.  Hemp has now been made federally legal and federal regulation of CBD should be forthcoming.  While the…
The title of this post is misleading. There’s not ten types on the list, but that’s not the point.  We are actually going to take a tiny, non-inclusive peek into history to look at some types of cooperative businesses that have previously existed, in order to compare to the “standard” list of coop types you will get on the first page of a Google search.  Why would we do this?  To emphasize the idea that…
The term “organic” can be found widely used in the cannabis space, in website copy, advertising, and in casual conversations.  Organic is a term that is, perhaps, most often associated with the produce at certain high-end grocery stores or at the local farmers’ market.  But what does it mean in relation to cannabis? Even though a lot of cannabis is grown in high-tech greenhouses by technicians in lab coats and is regulated like nuclear waste,…