Why 2018 was a Tough Year for the California Cannabis Industry
CaliforniaUncategorized December 21, 2018
2018 has been a roller coaster for California cannabis businesses. The cannabis laws and regulations in California have made life difficult, to say the least, for anyone wishing to obtain licensure. This isn’t necessarily the fault of any single legislature, municipality, or agency, but instead was the result of a perfect storm of legal and…
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ICYMI: Los Angeles Updates Its Phase 2 Cannabis Licensing Process
CaliforniaMedical MarijuanaRecreational MarijuanaUncategorized December 18, 2018
The ups, downs, and unknowns around L.A. cannabis licensing have abounded from the passage of Measure M back in March 2017. This is not uncommon, especially in large cities, as regulators determine how to handle things on the fly and as issues arise (see, for example, social equity in L.A. and the ability to re-locate…
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California Cannabis Cultivation: CDFA Accepts All Changes to Proposed New Rules (and Then Some)
CaliforniaUncategorized December 13, 2018
This past Friday, California’s three agencies charged with writing and enforcing cannabis regulations—the Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC), the Department of Public Health (DPH), and the Department of Food and Agriculture (DFA)—made public their respective proposed final regulations, which are currently pending a 30-day review by the Office of Administrative Law before becoming law. Some…
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What Will the California Cannabis Industry Look Like in a Few Years (From the Legal Perspective)?
CaliforniaUncategorized December 5, 2018
Because California’s cannabis regulatory scheme is still in relative infancy, 2018 has looked the same for most operators: applying for annual licenses and waiting (and then continuing to wait) for them to issue or fighting to get temporary license applications submitted before they can no longer be issued. But what happens in two or three…
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California Cannabis Landlords: More Regulatory Snags to Avoid
CaliforniaReal EstateUncategorized November 26, 2018
We’ve previously written about some of the pitfalls for landlords to avoid when leasing to commercial cannabis tenants in California. We’ve also written about how the state’s recently proposed modifications to its final cannabis regulations could affect licensees and the industry writ large (see here, here, and here). The comment period for those rule changes…
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OLCC Report: Oregon Cannabis Producers in Substantial Compliance
OregonRecreational MarijuanaUncategorized November 23, 2018
On Monday, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (“OLCC”) released results of enforcement inspections of recreational marijuana producers, which indicate that the majority of inspected licensees are in compliance with Oregon laws and the OLCC rules. “Operation Good Harvest” was a saturation compliance effort that focused on Oregon’s fall 2018 legal outdoor cannabis harvest. OLCC inspectors…
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California Cannabis: The Race is On for Temporary State Licenses
CaliforniaMedical MarijuanaRecreational MarijuanaUncategorized November 19, 2018
Unless you’ve been completely out of the loop, you already know that many, many people are in a race to submit their California state temporary cannabis license applications before December 31 of this year, which represents the “drop dead” date for cannabis temporary licenses. Add to that the regulatory curve balls thrown by the California…
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A couple of months ago, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC), for the first time, rejected a settlement offer from a licensee who had violated OLCC rules. At the time, we speculated the OLCC was done with settling and moving towards stricter compliance requirements. It seems, along with more stringent review of applications, the OLCC…
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California Cannabis: Cities and the End of Temporary Licenses
CaliforniaUncategorized November 16, 2018
We recently wrote about an announcement by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (“CDFA”) that temporary license applications need to be submitted by December 1, 2018 in order to be reviewed on time for approval and issuance before December 31, 2018. To date, California Department of Public Health (“CDPH”) followed suit, but the California Bureau…
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Uncertainty Abounds in Defining “Commercial Cannabis Activity” under California’s New Rules
CaliforniaUncategorized November 11, 2018
Last month, California’s regulatory agencies charged with writing commercial cannabis rules released new modifications to the final rules proposed in July. The Bureau of Cannabis Control’s (BCC) proposed modifications contained some of the most dramatic changes, including what would effectively be an outright ban on intellectual property licensing for cannabis products—something we are still trying…
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