Griffen is an attorney in Harris Sliwoski’s Los Angeles office, where he focuses his practice on corporate, transactional, intellectual property, data security, regulatory, and litigation matters across a wide variety of domestic and international industries.
Last week, California‘s Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) released illegal market enforcement data for quarter 1 of 2024. It’s become a new tradition of mine to compare this quarterly data and see whether the state is actually doing anything to fight the illegal market (for example, see my posts for Q4 2023, Q3 2023, and
Cannabis investments are difficult enough when the investor is a U.S.-based person or entity. But things can get immensely more complicated when foreign investment is on the table. Today I want to highlight some of the top considerations for foreign investors and U.S. cannabis companies alike. 1. Legality could cause serious headaches To this day,
Cannabis contracts are – in the simplest sense – binding agreements between two parties. But how you get to something being “binding” can be complicated. And in the cannabis industry, where things move a mile a second and people often overlook basic contract requirements, the results can be disastrous. Today I want to focus on
Cannabis businesses often use letters of intent (LOIs) to get agreed deal terms in writing before spending time and money negotiating the definitive written contract. LOIs can be a big help, especially with a complicated deal. But they are easy to botch, and can lead to some pretty devastating consequences if not done right. Be
The California Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) just published some new guidelines for cannabis cultivators following the passage of SB-833. Among other things, California will let cannabis cultivators reduce their canopy size and thereby reduce license costs. This will be a huge benefit. I write a lot about the woes that California’s cannabis industry faces
Cannabis companies and (depending on the state) brands often use license agreements to grow their brands. If done correctly, they can be a huge driver of revenue for the brands and licensees, and can grow the good will of the brand across a particular territory. However, they are notoriously easy to botch. A bad license
Our cannabis team has performed due diligence on countless business purchases, investments, loans, and just about every other kind of transaction you can imagine. As you can imagine, we’ve seen some pretty bad and even sketchy things over the years. With rescheduling on the horizon (see here and here), we expect to see an increase in loans, investments,
California’s cannabis taxes are a disaster, with no end in sight. I’ve written about the state’s tax problems extensively, but today I want to talk about what the state can do when it comes to tax collection. Late cannabis taxes? Get used to hefty penalties If a licensed cannabis business fails to timely or fully
California has a population of nearly 40 million, six years of cannabis licensing, but only has about 1,200 licensed dispensaries. These stores are mostly spread out in highly populated areas like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and so on. The problem is that many California cities still prohibit cannabis licensing, even in places where a majority
Cannabis M&A (short for mergers and acquisitions) in California is much more complicated and problematic than in other states. The biggest reason for this is that licenses are not transferrable, which all but eliminates the possibility of asset sales. In turn, this means that deals are much more complicated for both buyer and seller, and
