The Department of Cannabis Regulation (DCR) in the City of Los Angeles is making a big push for a comprehensive overhaul of certain parts of the City’s cannabis licensing protocols and its Social Equity Program. Los Angeles has been through the ringer on cannabis legal reform from the inception of the passage of Measure M […]

The City of Los Angeles is no stranger to change and struggle around its local cannabis industry. Since the passage of Proposition M back in 2017, the City has made great strides but also suffered significant setbacks in building its licensed cannabis marketplace. Even through the COVID-19 pandemic, this trend continues for Los Angeles and […]

Anyone who knows me knows that I really enjoy sports of all kinds. I was a college soccer player and played competitive club soccer in Florida before that from the age of 7 onward (and I now play in an adult co-ed league in Los Angeles). Unfortunately, COVID-19 has put the damper on watching live […]

  One of the main reasons why “marijuana” remains a federally illegal, Schedule I controlled substance is that, according to the Feds, it has no currently accepted medical use. At the same time, because of the federal illegality of cannabis, the federal government has routinely denied third party requests for further research in regards to […]

Even though they’re currently deemed “essential“, California cannabis businesses were already struggling financially before the onset of COVID-19. Increasing competition from unregulated, un-taxed, illegal actors combined with high local and state taxes combined with costly and competitive local barriers to entry were all leading to delayed opening timelines, shorted budgets, terrible margins, and increasing failures […]

In my ten years of advising and guiding cannabis companies from a corporate, transactional, and M&A perspective, and especially since 2012 (when Washington and Colorado legalized), every cannabis market in which I’ve worked has experienced a period of extensive business failures, consolidations, and market stress. And it’s that time now for California cannabis (and that […]

The rapid and devastating proliferation of COVID-19 has affected businesses worldwide, and cannabis is no exception. Here in California (and in other states), the state announced that medical cannabis dispensaries are essential and may remain open as part of the state’s Stay-At-Home order. The medical cannabis businesses that supply those dispensaries are also essential under […]

On March 23, Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed Executive Order No. 20-12 (the “Order”), which mandates that Oregonians stay home and observe social distancing and community mitigation measures to slow the spread of COVID-19. The Order, in part, expressly prohibits the operation of certain non-essential businesses, such as amusement parks, barber shops and gyms. The […]

At 5:30 p.m. yesterday, California Governor Gavin Newsom took a giant step forward in preventing the spread of COVID-19 by enacting a “Stay At Home” order (the “Order”) across the state, mandating that California state residents remain in their homes, except to fulfill “essential” needs. The Order is in place seemingly indefinitely as Newsom would […]

Last fall, we ran a 13-part series taking a hard look at each of the 2020 presidential candidates’ history and views related to marijuana. We assigned each candidate a letter grade corresponding with our analysis (for the final summary post, go here). In that popular series, grading criteria was as follows: Current stance on marijuana: […]