Cannabis: In Focus

  • SAFE Banking Gets a Senate Hearing
  • Representative Nancy Mace Is Promised a Hearing on her Descheduling Bill
  • CLAIM Act Reintroduced in Congress
  • Hawaii Federal Judge Says 11th Amendment Protects State’s Choice to Define Hemp
  • Maryland Governor Signs Cannabis Regulation Bill


Continue Reading Cannabis Legal Report—Week of May 8, 2023

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) introduced the Small Business Tax Equity Act (H.R. 2643) on April 17, 2023, a bill that will allow cannabis businesses to obtain tax write-offs for ordinary business expenses.

Currently, cannabis businesses are not able to deduct business expenses under a provision of the tax code known as Section 280E

Cannabis: In Focus

  • Attorney General Garland Testifies Before Senate Judiciary Committee
  • Ninth Circuit Affirms Ruling that California County May Deny Licenses to Cultivate Cannabis
  • Oklahoma Recreational Cannabis Measure Fails
  • Medical Cannabis Patient Sues Arkansas Company for Inflating THC Levels


Continue Reading Cannabis Legal Report—Week of March 20, 2023

Tough economic conditions are leaving cannabis businesses with fewer financing and transaction options. Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a tool which many businesses have used to reorganize or liquidate, has historically been inaccessible to cannabis and cannabis-adjacent businesses because potential (or actual) breaches of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) were viewed as per se cause for dismissal. But the Los Angeles bankruptcy court presiding over The Hacienda Company, LLC recently denied a motion to dismiss the case of a debtor in the business of wholesale manufacturing and packaging of cannabis products.1 The decision gives hope that bankruptcy could be a viable path to maximize value for creditors and purchasers through a sale structured as one of intellectual property (IP), rather than one of an operating cannabis business.

The decision in Hacienda builds on the other recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decisions allowing narrow windows for cannabis-adjacent debtors to benefit from bankruptcy.

Continue Reading Distressed Cannabis: Growing Room for Bankruptcy in Ninth Circuit

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently released new guidance on sourcing and product quality to companies conducting clinical research related to the development of human drugs involving cannabis or cannabis-derived compounds. The agency’s nonbinding recommendations highlight potential opportunities for clinical researchers and sponsors of investigational new drugs after the 2018 Farm Bill significantly altered the regulatory landscape applicable to cannabis products.

Continue Reading FDA Releases Guidance on Clinical Research into Cannabis-Derived Drugs

Cannabis: In Focus

  • FDA Rejects Citizen Petitions, Declines To Regulate CBD as a Dietary Supplement
  • Ninth Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Cannabis Company’s RICO Claims
  • Tenth Circuit Holds that 2018 Farm Bill Doesn’t Create Private Cause of Action for Hemp Farmers
  • US Virgin Islands Legalizes Recreational Cannabis


Continue Reading Cannabis Legal Report—Week of January 30, 2023