New York snuck a pretty significant tax break for cannabis businesses into its 2022 budget. The Revenue Bill included a state tax deduction for cannabis related business expenses that are currently disallowed by § 280E of the federal tax code. We have seen this strategy in other “canna friendly” states and it’s a welcome development.
Real estate is on the forefront of many people’s minds with New York on the doorstep of adult-use cannabis applications. And for good reason: owning or controlling real estate will be a requirement for applicants (with some soon-to-be caveats for social equity applicants). We have fielded lots of calls from prospective adult-use cannabis applicants starting
The creation of New York’s conditional adult-use retail dispensary license has made headlines. Although New York plans to issue only 50-100 of this new license type, the license type and its underlying rules and regulations is incredibly significant. Why? First, because the OCM and CCB have issued actual rules and regulations that will apply to
New York continues to crack down on unlicensed cannabis sales masquerading as “gifts” or “membership fees.” The Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) sent cease and desist letters a few weeks ago, which threatened substantial fines, possible criminal penalties, and “put[ting] your ability to obtain a license in the legal cannabis market at substantial risk.” Of
We’ve written about the need for cannabis companies to mind the Americans with Disabilities Act (the “ADA”) before, and, as evidenced by a recent filing against Good Guy Vapes Int LLC (“Good Guy”), the complaints haven’t slowed down. Cannabis company operators large and small should be aware of the growing trend of federal class action
New York retailers should not “gift” cannabis to avoid putting at risk their ability to secure a license and avoid penalties
Parody is a tricky defense to cannabis trademark infringement, or to any infringement allegation whatsoever. For some background on this, check out our posts here, here and here. Still, people riff off established trademarks all the time, and when pursued, they often raise the parody defense. In the cannabis context, this happened most recently in
I really fought myself on putting together a festivus post of all that went wrong for the cannabis industry in 2021. Instead, I want to focus on the positives for 2022 as the industry continues to mature and expand across the U.S. and abroad. As 2021 comes to a close, here’s what I’m looking forward
In the continuing trend of normalizing the cannabis industry for practical reasons (a topic I will be discussing with New York City Council Member Keith Powers on August 17 at a free webinar), the New York State Bar Association’s (NYSBA) Committee on Professional Ethics issued Opinion 1225 (the Opinion). In short, the NYSBA now expressly
While the Food and Drug Administration (the FDA) continues to drag its feet in forging a legal path for the manufacture, sale, and distribution of hemp-derived products, state regulators are keeping up with the demands of this evolving market and adopting increasingly more nuanced and more sophisticated regulations for these products. Several states, including Oregon
