We get a ton of questions about whether it’s legal to import hemp into the U.S. It’s a complicated question without a clear answer. We do know that the Drug Enforcement Administration has confirmed that the importation of cannabis plant material that falls outside of the Controlled Substance Act’s definition of “marihuana” (e.g., the mature…
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The Oregon wine and cannabis industries can’t seem to get along. Where some see a natural synergy, others see undesirable competition. And as a RICO case filed in the Oregon federal court last week makes clear, Momtazi Family, LLC v. Yamhill Naturals, LLC, et al., No. 3-19-cv-00476-BR, some see only a criminal enterprise. At first…
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BREAKING NEWS: 24 Cities Sue California Over Statewide Cannabis Delivery Rule
CaliforniaUncategorized April 6, 2019
As expected (and as we’ve written about here), California cities have joined forces to fight the State’s regulation allowing delivery of cannabis in every jurisdiction. Here is a copy of the complaint. The lawsuit was filed in Fresno County Superior Court against the California Bureau of Cannabis Control and its chief, Lori Ajax. The local…
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Last week the federal district court in Oregon dismissed with prejudice the plaintiffs’ amended complaint in Ainsworth v. Owenby, Case 6:17-cv-1935. As you may recall, this is one of several cases tracked by this blog in which a group of residential property owners displeased with alleged deleterious effects of a marijuana production or processing facility…
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Last Thursday, in one of the few (to our knowledge) contested cases heard by the OLCC concerning cannabis, the OLCC accepted unanimously the findings of a state Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) and denied an application for a recreational marijuana producer license. You can read the press release here. The decision merits comment as a case…
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Cannabis Patent Litigation Update: Is Extraction and Preparation Prior Art?
Uncategorized March 4, 2019
About six months ago, we posted news of the first ever cannabis patent infringement case. As a reminder, the case was initiated by United Cannabis Corporation (“UCANN”) in the United States District Court, District of Colorado against its in-state competitor, Pure Hemp Collective Inc. (“Pure Hemp”). The subject patent is U.S.P. 9,730,911 – “cannabis extracts…
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U.S. Supreme Court Extends Constitutional Prohibition Against Excessive Fines to States
Uncategorized February 24, 2019
The United States Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling on Wednesday in the case of Timbs v. Indiana, incorporating the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause against the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. As we have written about, the case involves the forfeiture of petitioner’s Land Rover as punishment for selling heroin. The…
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Earlier this week, I wrote about how hemp businesses should not yet rely on the 2018 Farm Bill to protect them from their products being seized. This is because although Section 10114 of the 2018 Farm Bill prohibits states from interfering with the interstate transport of hemp and hemp products, that protection is limited to…
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UPS Sues Multiple Cannabis Delivery Companies for Trademark Infringement
Uncategorized February 17, 2019
As ardent followers of this blog are well aware, one of my favorite pastimes is keeping tabs on who is suing whom in the cannabis industry for trademark infringement. These lawsuits serve as great examples for my clients of what NOT to do when choosing a brand for their company. The last couple of years…
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Federal Court Dismisses RICO Suit Against Sonoma County Cannabis Cultivator
CaliforniaUncategorized January 28, 2019
For a while, criminal conspiracy lawsuits against cannabis operations looked like a potentially promising strategy for cannabis prohibitionists to try and use litigation to reverse the trend of legalization. The idea is to use the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), a federal statute intended to combat organized crime–and which allows private rights of…
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