In a major turn of events today, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it will finally drop its four-year long legal battle against Harborside Health Center (and its landlords) to seize the commercial properties in which Harborside operates in Oakland and San Jose, California. The DOJ’s opting to dismiss its own case before going to trial
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) today issued a decision rejecting Nebraska and Oklahoma’s challenge to Colorado’s marijuana legalization. By a 6-2 vote, the Justices denied Nebraska and Oklahoma’s motion for leave to file a complaint, without providing an explanation. The Court’s two most conservative Justices, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito Jr., filed
It’s no secret that in the wake of the 2013 Cole Memo federal agencies greatly vary in how they treat marijuana businesses. The Department of Justice has opted to “stand down” for now in those states with “robust state marijuana regulations.” The Internal Revenue Service will not relent on enforcing section 280e against cannabis businesses, even though to do
When it comes to marijuana and taxes, there is no bigger buzzword than “280E.” However, there is still a lot of confusion about what exactly 280E is and does. In reality, section 280E is a single sentence of the Internal Revenue Code. It states: “No deduction or credit shall be allowed for any amount paid
We’ve previously written about how First Amendment free speech rights intersect with advertising for marijuana. We’ve also written about how a Colorado television station pulled the plug on a marijuana television commercial over concerns about violating federal broadcast regulations. We have also apprised everyone of how multiple social media platforms are #SorryNotSorry for shutting down pages
The cannabis industry has always been international. Our first cannabis client was actually a Dutch company that hired us years before either Colorado or Washington had legalized. This client hired us to figure out what it would need to do as a foreign company investing in a U.S. cannabis business in a cannabis industry which
In most states with legal cannabis, an illegal cannabis market still flourishes. In many of those states, a large chunk of growing, processing, selling and buying still occurs outside the regulatory system. The illegal market for cannabis stretches across the nation and impacts both states with and without legal cannabis. Before legalization, all cannabis was
Multiple times, the trajectory of marijuana legalization has been compared to the repeal of alcohol prohibition in the 1930s. Many policy experts and marijuana industry hopefuls believe marijuana is following the same pattern as alcohol where the states, just as they did with alcohol, start with medical regimes and slowly opt out of federal prohibition altogether,
When it comes to marijuana licenses, some states are completely indifferent to residency, others give a slight competitive advantage to in-state license applicants, while others adopt a bright-line requirement that residents hold a controlling interest in the licensed entity. Are these restrictions on out-of-staters constitutional? State governments can require licensees to be a certain age,
Thinking about flying with cannabis on your next vacation? In most cases, you better find an alternative because you may face serious criminal penalties for boarding an airplane with cannabis. However, at a few airports, law enforcement allows passengers to fly with cannabis when certain very limited conditions have been met. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is the federal
