After months of anticipation, the New York State Office of Cannabis Management began accepting applications for five (5) types of licenses this week: cultivator, processor, distributor, and microbusiness. This is generally how the process will work:
National law firm Husch Blackwell is pleased to announce that Hilary Bricken has joined the firm as a partner in the Los Angeles office and as a member of its Food Systems industry group.
Bricken is a highly regarded cannabis law attorney who joins Husch Blackwell’s nationally recognized Cannabis practice team. She has more than a decade of experience in guiding clients of all sizes in cannabis licensing; marijuana and industrial hemp regulatory compliance; mergers and acquisitions; corporate and transactional matters, including negotiating management services agreements, fee slotting agreements, cultivation supply agreements, and intellectual property licensing agreements; receiverships; dissolution and wind downs; and financing and debt restructuring.
Part 1 of this series discussed the lack of bankruptcy protections for cannabis companies since bankruptcy in the U.S. is an exclusively federal procedure and cannabis remains illegal under federal law and proposed a number of alternative options for businesses struggling in the current environment. Part 2 of this series focused on state law receiverships for several states.
In the third and final part of this series, we continue to review state law receiverships for several additional states and discuss the final non-bankruptcy option for cannabis companies, an assignment for the benefit of creditors.
Part 1 of this series discussed the lack of bankruptcy protections for cannabis companies since bankruptcy in the U.S. is an exclusively federal procedure and cannabis remains illegal under federal law and proposed a number of alternative options for businesses struggling in the current environment. Part 2 of this series focuses on one of these alternatives: state law receiverships.
Mastercard sent cease and desist letters to payment processors and banks last week. These letters demanded certain financial service providers to stop allowing marijuana transactions on MasterCard debit cards.
What does this mean?
This is clearly just another body blow to a struggling industry. Obviously cannabis operators will likely deal with more cash but
The problems facing the cannabis industry arising from its ongoing status as a federally illegal enterprise are numerous and well documented: 280E tax burdens, limited access to banking, exclusion from capital markets, uneven access to federal intellectual property right protections, and the inability to access the stream of interstate commerce. The recent woes faced by cannabis companies operating in mature markets reveal another key legal hurdle for cannabis companies, their investors, and their creditors: the inability to access federal bankruptcy protection. However, cannabis companies may have access to a number of contractual and state law remedies to deal with insolvency and other financial woes.
On May 3, 2023, the federal Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (the “TTAB”)—the entity responsible for handling disputes over the issuance of trademarks on a nationwide level—issued a precedential opinion in In re National Concessions Group, Inc. that has significant implications for cannabis companies seeking federal trademark protection.
Earlier this week, members of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate reintroduced legislation that would allow regulated financial institutions to work with state-licensed cannabis companies. The Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act of 2023 would disallow federal banking authorities from prohibiting, penalizing, or discouraging banks from providing financial services to state-licensed cannabis businesses and their networks of counterparties, advisors, and vendors.
Creating further confusion and uncertainty in the hemp derived cannabidiol (CBD) markets, the FDA has determined that the existing regulatory frameworks for food and supplements are not appropriate for CBD. The FDA cited various safety concerns as the impetuous in making this determination.
The voters of Missouri have spoken. During the 2022 Midterm Election, voters passed Amendment 3—a ballot measure legalizing the possession, use, and sale of marijuana to adults 21 years of age or older in the Show-Me-State. Among other things, Amendment 3 includes important information that every Missouri employer should know before the December 8, 2022, effective date.