The SAFE Banking Act passed in the U.S. House of Representatives for the fifth time on September 23, 2021. This landmark legislation would pave the way for more financial institutions to serve the state-legal cannabis...more
Article III standing is one of the most significant rubrics to determine a federal lawsuit’s justiciability. The Supreme Court significantly altered the standing calculus in TransUnion v. Ramirez, 141 S. Ct. 2190 (2021),...more
9/20/2021
/ Article III ,
Class Action ,
Class Members ,
Credit Reporting Agencies ,
Credit Reports ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Injury-in-Fact ,
SCOTUS ,
Standing ,
TransUnion ,
TransUnion LLC v Ramirez
Despite the cannabis industry’s explosive growth, many financial institutions have been hesitant to transact with cannabis-related businesses given the ambiguity created by divergent state and federal cannabis laws. The SAFE...more
Alabama became the 36th state to allow cannabis for medical use when Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law the Darren Wesley ‘Ato’ Hall Compassion Act on May 17, 2021. The Act establishes a process through which applicants will...more
Colorado became the third state to enact comprehensive data privacy legislation when Gov. Jared Polis signed the Colorado Privacy Act (CPA) on July 8, 2021. The CPA shares similarities with its stateside predecessors, the...more
7/22/2021
/ California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ,
California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) ,
CDPA ,
Consumer Privacy Rights ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ,
New Legislation ,
Opt-Outs ,
Personal Information ,
Privacy Laws ,
Right to Delete
Latin America’s largest economy recently moved one step closer to allowing domestic medical cannabis and industrial hemp cultivation.
On June 8, 2021, the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies’ Special Commission approved PL...more
There is a scene in The Hunt for Red October when Captain Marko Ramius, played wonderfully by the late, great Sean Connery, says of a pending nuclear standoff: “Once more, we play our dangerous game, a game of chess against...more
It has been said that, sooner or later, everything old is new again. In the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) sweeping the globe in 2020, a heretofore largely overlooked and even less understood nineteenth...more
Few industries promise rapid growth equal to that of the cannabis industry, with one study projecting the industry could reach $30 billion in annual sales by 2025. This growth continues to accelerate as more states legalize...more
3/10/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Breach of Contract ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Commercial Contracts ,
Commercial Insurance Policies ,
Commercial Leases ,
Contract Formation ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Denial of Insurance Coverage ,
Illegality Defense ,
Loan Agreements ,
Unenforceable Contract Terms ,
Unjust Enrichment
We recently wrote that Alabama is on the cusp of enacting a medical cannabis program. Today we turn our focus to a key aspect of the current proposal – the requirement that applicants for limited cultivator and integrated...more
On Friday, the USDA published a long, long awaited Final Rule regulating the production of hemp in the United States. The Final Rule, which arrives more than two years after Congress first allowed for the widespread...more
This is the second article in a three-part series focused on the intersection of the 2020 United States presidential election and marijuana policy. Each article will focus on the specific presidential candidates of the two...more
This is the first article in a three-part series focused on the intersection of the 2020 presidential election and cannabis policy in the United States. Each article will focus on the specific presidential candidates of the...more
Tennessee’s hemp industry is growing fast, and you want in on the action. You have your big idea and a business plan ready. But at some point, you begin to wonder whether you should be thinking about any legal issues as you...more
9/9/2020
/ Banking Sector ,
Cannabidiol (CBD) oil ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Corporate Entities ,
Employment Policies ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Funding ,
Hemp ,
Insurance Industry ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Licenses ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Supply Contracts ,
Tax Planning
So, you want to start a hemp company. You have your big idea and a business plan ready. At some point, though, you begin to wonder whether you should be thinking about any legal issues as you get your company off the...more
7/22/2020
/ Agribusiness ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Commercial Contracts ,
Emerging Growth Companies ,
Employment Practices Liability Coverage ,
Funding ,
Hemp ,
Hemp Cultivation ,
Hemp Related Businesses ,
Licenses ,
Manufacturers ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Popular ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Retail Market ,
Suppliers
...On June 29, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued guidance (the “June guidance”) to “address questions related to Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) regulatory requirements” for providing...more
The Nevada Supreme Court again turned its attention to superpriority liens in the first quarter of 2020, issuing two opinions dealing with tenders, i.e. attempts or offers to pay. These decisions outline additional ways that...more
The cannabis industry is in flux. Part of that is healthy maturation and part is a result of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) global pandemic that has impacted everyone.
Over the last year, falling valuations and volatile prices...more
On December 3, several federal agencies issued guidance (Guidance) that, by its terms, “provide[s] clarity” regarding “the regulatory requirements under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) for banks providing services to hemp-related...more
12/6/2019
/ Agricultural Sector ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Banking Sector ,
Due Diligence ,
Farm Bill ,
FDIC ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinCEN ,
Hemp ,
New Guidance ,
OCC ,
Regulatory Agencies ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) ,
U.S. Treasury
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent a shot across the bow of the cannabidiol (CBD) industry on November 25. The FDA disclosed that it issued warning letters to 15 companies “for illegally selling products...more
11/27/2019
/ Cannabidiol (CBD) oil ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Dietary Supplements ,
FDA Warning Letters ,
Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Labeling ,
Manufacturers ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Marketing ,
Product Labels
After 10 months of anticipation from the American hemp industry, on October 31, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) published its interim final rule (Rule) establishing the regulatory framework for hemp...more
11/5/2019
/ Agricultural Sector ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Controlled Substances Act ,
DEA ,
Farm Bill ,
Hemp ,
Interim Final Rules (IFR) ,
Interstate Commerce ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Cultivation ,
Tribal Governments ,
USDA
On Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sent warning letters to three companies that sell cannabidiol (CBD) products regarding the health claims found in the companies’ advertisements. The FTC did not make the letters...more
9/12/2019
/ Advertising ,
Cannabidiol (CBD) oil ,
Cannabis Products ,
Dietary Supplements ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Health Claims ,
Hemp ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Marijuana-Infused Edibles ,
Product Labels ,
Warning Letters
Cannabidiol (CBD) – a non-psychoactive component of cannabis with numerous claimed health benefits – has steadily grown in popularity in recent years. This upward trajectory went into overdrive with the passage of the...more
7/25/2019
/ Advertising ,
Cannabidiol (CBD) oil ,
Cannabis Products ,
Dietary Supplements ,
Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Health Claims ,
Hemp ,
Manufacturers ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Marketing ,
Product Labels
On January 17, 2018, Florida’s new governor, Ron DeSantis, delivered news that could supercharge the growth of Florida’s medical-cannabis industry. Governor DeSantis indicated he may drop the State’s appeal from a trial...more
2/5/2019
/ Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Dispensaries ,
Licensing Rules ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Cultivation ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Smoking Bans ,
State Constitutions ,
Vertical Integration
For years, the “legal” cannabis industry – operating in states that have legalized cannabis under state law despite its long-standing prohibition under federal law – and the financial institutions that serve the industry have...more