The Canna Law Blog™ is a forum for discussing the practical aspects of cannabis law and their impacts on the cannabis industry. We provide insight into how cannabis businesspeople can use the law to their advantage and in plain language we tell you what works and what does not. We aim to help you strategize how to wield the law as both a shield and a sword.

Compliance will be a frequent topic. But we will tell you more than just “here is what the law is” and “here is how you comply.” We will discuss how the laws as written may say one thing, but our experience dictates something else. We will tell you when you need to do more than just follow the law to succeed, and we will set out what that something else is.

Our intended audience is current and prospective cannabis industry stakeholders, but we invite constructive input from individuals with diverse perspectives and differing backgrounds. Cannabis has long been the domain of those outside conventional business circles, but as it becomes increasingly legal and legitimate, these two worlds will begin merging. The ideas and opinions of everyone involved with cannabis will inform what we discuss here.

We want our blog to be a place for both conversation and controversy. We expect many of you will disagree with us at least some of the time and we are fine with that. We are not afraid of being wrong—in fact, we want you to tell us when and how we are wrong.

It has become a blog cliché to implore readers for their input, but it is so important we must join the crowd. We do not purport to know everything about cannabis law. That is impossible. Our strengths are on the business side of cannabis law — in particular in forming companies, drafting contracts, protecting intellectual property, achieving compliance, and litigating and arbitrating business disputes. We welcome your comments, suggestions and ideas on any area of law relating to cannabis. Cannabis is anything but monolithic and we will be relying in large part on you, our readers, to round out this site with your own stories.

Write us often. We will review your comments before we post them, but that does NOT mean you should not criticize us or disagree with us. We only filter out comments that are without substance and/or personally abusive. We want to encourage a high level of discussion, so we will not ban or delete your comments just because you come after us.

Finally, we know lawyers are not popular. Though we ourselves are really quite likable, we recognize the need to avoid the things that incite lawyer hatred. We will strive to avoid legal jargon and namby-pamby language that attempts to camouflage our views or to avoid dissension. We will not shy away from taking a stand, and we will strive never to bore you. If you want “legalese” or long strings of caveats, you are going to have to pay exorbitant legal fees to get that elsewhere.

We hope you will find our posts informative, to-the-point, and entertaining.

Welcome to the Canna Law Blog™.

The Canna Law Group®

Since 2010, The Canna Law Group has represented hundreds of start-up and established marijuana businesses on their legal matters in multiple states.

The Canna Law Group is a ten-attorney dedicated practice group of Harris Sliwoski, focusing on cannabis corporate, compliance, intellectual property, real estate, litigation, and consumer product issues. Because we are part of a larger law firm, we can take advantage of the abilities of other Harris Sliwoski lawyers when a marijuana legal issue requires more knowledge. We have lawyers licensed in Alaska, California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Oregon, and Washington, and in China, Germany, and Spain. We have the depth and the breadth of expertise you need to operate legally and profitably.

Our cannabis business lawyers have received multiple awards for their work in this burgeoning industry and major media outlets frequently look to The Canna Law Group for expertise on national and developing marijuana issues.

We guide our clients in:

• Forming, managing, and expanding their cannabis businesses

• Building their cannabis brands and protecting their intellectual property

• Complying with cannabis licensing and registry requirements

• Structuring and negotiating cannabis deals and contracts

• Navigating land use and zoning obligations

• Addressing employment issues

• Handling real estate and tenant issues

• Ensuring compliance with cannabis labeling and safety regulations

• Dealing with cannabis banking issues

• Aggressively pursuing and defending litigation matters

Canna Law Group’s commitment to the cannabis industry runs deep. Our lawyers are actively involved in nation-wide organizations and we regularly speak and present at the Marijuana Business Daily’s MJBizCon, NORML annual meetings, state and national legislatures, state and local bar association seminars, and community outreach events. We also host our own well-attended seminars and industry parties.

We know this industry because we have done this before.