safe banking
Canna Law Blog

How Important is the SAFE Banking Act, Anyway?

I’m pretty sure that more ink has been spilled on the Secure and Fair Enforcement Act (“SAFE Banking”), than any other proposed cannabis law. It just won’t pass and it just won’t die. Specifically, SAFE Banking was introduced in 2017 and it passed the House seven times (seven times!) with bipartisan support since 2019. The

cannabis investment
Canna Law Blog

What Rescheduling Means for Cannabis Investments

Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommended rescheduling cannabis from schedule I to III under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). My colleagues already covered various implications of the proposed cannabis rescheduling (see here and here). Today, I want to talk about one of the most important consequences of the announcement other than

schedule III
Canna Law Blog

Marijuana as Schedule III: Woe is Me?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that a pretty historic announcement was made last week by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS officially recommended that marijuana be rescheduled from Schedule I to Schedule III of the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA). The HHS news means that the country’s top

cannabis tax
Canna Law Blog

Read This Before Selling Your Cannabis Business. Or Filing Your Next Tax Return

I’d like to send a shoutout to tax lawyer Nick Richards for an intriguing opinion piece published on Friday, September 1 in Marijuana Business Daily. Nick outlines two approaches to potentially help cannabis businesses recoup buckets of cash from Uncle Sam. One approach, which is known to us, may be utilized by cannabis businesses throughout

marijuana rescheduling
Canna Law Blog

Three Myths and Three Facts on the HUGE Marijuana Rescheduling Recommendation

Huge news yesterday. Huge! The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has officially recommended that marijuana be rescheduled, from Schedule I to Schedule III of the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA). This means that the country’s top health agency has finally conceded that cannabis has medical value, and isn’t a drug of abuse

federal cannabis
Canna Law Blog

Predictions for Future Federal Cannabis Laws

Most Americans favor federal cannabis legalization. Nearly all Americans support medical cannabis legalization. This is not a new development. It has been that way for years. And it is a rare non-partisan issue. Over the past few years while support has been its highest, well, ever, a series of federal election cycles have come and

fda approval
Psychedelics Law Blog

Will Psychedelics Be Rescheduled After FDA Approval?

A handful of entities are in various stages of the FDA approval process for MDMA and psilocybin drugs (see here and here for some of our prior analysis of the issues). FDA approval could happen in the next few years. But there’s a catch: psilocybin and MDMA are both schedule I drugs under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

cannabis tax
Canna Law Blog

Cannabis Taxation is Theft

Whether you’re the kind of person who wants to End the Fed, or the kind of person who wants to tax the rich like a Scandinavian nation, you’ll probably agree on one thing: cannabis taxation is a problem. And it’s not just a small one. It’s theft. If I (or basically anyone else) had to

psychedelics industry
Psychedelics Law Blog

Making Money in the Psychedelics Industry Will be Harder than Cannabis

Anyone familiar with the cannabis industry knows how difficult it is to make money. Things are going to be even worse for people in the state-legal psychedelics industry – much worse. There are a few key reasons for this. I should note that this post is focused on the state-legal psychedelics industry (i.e., service centers)

cannabis taxes
Canna Law Blog

Webinar Takeaways: IRS Cannabis Taxes and Enforcement

On April 13th, I moderated a webinar about cannabis taxes called “IRS Enforcement of Cannabis Operators is Here – What Do We Do Now?“. Cannabis taxes should scare anyone in the industry, but federal incomes taxes under I.R.C. 280E probably take the cake when it comes to general anxiety. Our webinar featured Ani Galyan and