The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) is a federal Nixon-era law originally intended to combat drug cartels and organized crime. Among other features, it allows average citizens claiming a loss in property value to bring suit for triple damages plus attorney’s fees against any “person” or “enterprise” that has a part in any
We’ve written previously about some common issues landlords run into when leasing to cannabis businesses (see links at the bottom of this article). Now that we’ve seen almost a year’s worth of emergency regulations, and the state has released its proposed final regulations, we’ve also seen a variety of cannabis leasing issues crop up. Here
Almost two years after the passage of Proposition 64, the 2016 California voter initiative to legalize and regulate medicinal and adult-use cannabis, California has begun to finalize its regulations that will govern the largest cannabis market in the country, though that effort has not been without some hiccups and bumps in the road. But, things
The current state of enforcement in California tends to be dominated by headlines about the Department of Justice, Jeff Sessions, the DEA, and the Controlled Substances Act. And for good reason—under the constitution, federal law is the law of the land, and commercial landlords and tenant alike should study federal enforcement guidelines closely. Lease agreements
Last Friday, California released another round of emergency regulations that essentially renewed the existing emergency rules, but with some updates, a fair amount of which affect commercial cannabis leasing. Here are some of the notable ones. “Premises” distinctions defined. SB 94 and AB 133, the statutes enacted in 2017 to implement and refine Prop 64,
One of the most important elements of a commercial tenancy is insurance. Generally, the landlord maintains property insurance for damage to the building, existing improvements, and surrounding property, as well as liability insurance for bodily injury and property damage occurring on the premises. The landlord will typically pass the cost of that coverage on to
As we’ve discussed time and time again, California’s voter-passed cannabis legalization initiative, as well as all subsequent statutory and regulatory additions to that law, maintains local governments as the ultimate arbiters of whether and how commercial cannabis operations can take place within any given county or municipality in the state. The most prominent exercise of
For any marijuana business not fortunate enough to own its land outright, there are few documents more important than the lease. Not only is the lease the only transactional document reviewed by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) prior to licensure, but it sets fundamental operating parameters than can determine the success –and even life cycle
Commercial leases for cannabis businesses are unique and require special considerations for risk management during the tenancy. Commercial cannabis leases in California are prone to the following pitfalls inherent in a landlord doing business with a cannabis tenant, and these risks should be considered when deciding how to structure your landlord-tenant relationship: Accepting ownership in the cannabis
Arbitration Versus Litigation We’ve written previously on arbitration and why it so often makes sense for cannabis business contracts, primarily because of enforceability issues stemming from cannabis being illegal under federal law. But in the realm of commercial real estate leasing, cannabis uses can present other unique challenges that require thoughtful solutions to disputes, and, more importantly,
