Category: One-Hit Wonders

Law Firm Epstein Becker Green write, “In a decision that could have sweeping effects on New Jersey employers with drug-free workplace and drug-testing policies, the New Jersey Appellate Division in Wild v. Carriage Funeral Holdings ruled that the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (“LAD”) may require employers to reasonably accommodate employees who use medical cannabis permitted by the state’s Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, N.J.S.A. 24:6I-1 et seq.(“CUMMA”).”

This post concerns the first problem with respect to hemp strains (or, more formally, varietals and cultivars). Now that hemp plants are not prohibited under the Controlled Substances Act, there is no general barrier to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recognizing the rights asserted in a trademark application. Even so, hemp companies that believe they “own” a particular hemp strain and rush to file for a trademark registration may come away disappointed.

Today, more politicians and thought leaders are taking a stand supporting cannabis and related research than at any other time in living memory. While this is clearly a good thing, it bears asking why cannabis, a plant that is so demonstrably benign with properties so obviously beneficial, came to be so highly-controlled in the United States.

The global legal marijuana market should be worth almost $150 billion by 2025.  It is hard to state which other agricultural product could come near that figure. The forecast is very optimistic, predicting a continuous growth, and market analysts do not seem to worry about the market eventually becoming saturated, which is quite unusual

Despite popular belief cannabis is not legal in the Netherlands – it is decriminalised for personal use and can be consumed “in a tolerated way” in coffee shops. Although selling cannabis remains illegal, it is for these establishments “illegal, but not punishable” and this pragmatic approach selling system is subject to a number of rules.

Wirot Poonsuwan Senior Counsel and Head of Special Projects at Blumenthal Richter & Sumet in Bangkok writes…”The Tobacco Authority of Thailand, or TOAT, is one of two governmental entities that has looked to capitalize on the sale of cannabinoids as soon as it received approval from the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA.”

California’s Cannabis Advisory Committee (CAC) was scheduled to meet on March 27 for its first meeting of 2019. But now that the regulations are finalized, what’s left for the CAC to do? Writes An-Chi Tsou the principal at Tsou Consulting, LLC,

The firm writes in its blog, “Texas could make meaningful progress on marijuana-related bills by the end of the 2019 legislative session. Texas is nowhere close to doing what 10 other states have done – legalizing small amounts of marijuana for recreational use.  However, the Lone Star State could make significant progress toward expanding the Compassionate Use Program and putting medical treatment choices for certain medical conditions into the hands of medical providers and patients rather than politicians.”

Kevin Jacoby of Green Light Law Group writes, “knowing the rules is only the first step. The next, and perhaps the most important, is understanding how the rules play out in practice. This is the step where even the most diligent compliance officer can encounter some difficulty, as in many cases the rules are worded in an ambiguous manner, intentionally or unintentionally, such that there could be an interpretation which is costly and time consuming to comply, or an interpretation where the rule does not apply at all. In those situations, it is important for businesses to seek competent legal advice from a lawyer that not only understands how to read and understand administrative rules, but also understands how they can be applied in your industry.”

With so much random information being thrown around the internet, it can be very difficult to differentiate what is true and what is false. New laws and bills are constantly being passed that create a great deal of confusion in the cannabis world.Is CBD legal in all 50 states? Is it legal in the federal government? Do I need a prescription in order to consume CBD?In this article I’m going to update you on the legal status of CBD, and only CBD, in the United States.

Marc P. Press & Robert M. DiPisa of Cole Schotz write March 15, “On Monday, March 18, 2019, the Assembly Appropriations Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee will hold hearings on the foregoing bills which, as written, include the following provisions”

An Arizona federal district court judge entered judgment against Walmart Inc. for terminating the employment of a woman who had been prescribed medical marijuana because it had not established through expert evidence that the employee was impaired by marijuana at work despite high levels of marijuana in the results of her drug test.  Therefore, the court held plaintiff’s termination was contrary to the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act, A.R.S. § 36-2813(B) (“AMMA”).

Authored by Denver Partner David Stauss They write. “The CCPA will require thousands of businesses, including cannabis businesses, to undertake significant compliance efforts or risk substantial penalties. For cannabis businesses, however, compliance efforts must be considered in light of other applicable privacy laws.”

They write, “When it comes to tax planning for cannabis businesses, a superficial understanding of tax law is dangerous. Tax planning for cannabis business requires a deep understanding of federal tax law principles. Recent Tax Court decisions only confirm this fact. In this Advisory, we discuss one of those decisions and the erroneous assumptions on tax law that lead to it. “