Author
Locals Sue, Seeking to Force Maine to Re-instate Residency Requirement for Marijuana Licenses
Jun. 27, 2020—As I blogged about earlier, the state of Maine recently abandoned a residency requirement for obtaining commercial adult use marijuana licenses. See Company Sues Maine for Discriminating Against Non-residents When Licensing Marijuana Businesses and UPDATE: Maine Drops Residency Requirement for Adult-Use Commercial Licenses, Moots Legal Challenge. Residency had been expressly required by the state’s adult use marijuana law (the 2018 Marijuana Legalization Act),...
New Paper on Murphy v. NCAA, Commandeering, and State Marijuana Reforms
Jun. 15, 2020—I’ve just posted a new paper analyzing Murphy v. NCAA, the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision invalidating a federal statute that barred the states from legalizing sports gambling: Murphy’s Mistake, and How to Fix it (SSRN). I previously blogged about the case here. The new paper discusses the case and its implications for state marijuana reforms in much greater depth. The paper has also been...
New Study of Diversity and Opportunity in Denver’s Marijuana Industry
Jun. 9, 2020—In June 2020, the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses released a new report on opportunity in the Denver area marijuana industry. The full Cannabis Business and Employment Opportunity Study is available here. Using a survey of participants in the local marijuana industry, the report seeks to identify the extent to which different factors –...
UPDATE: Maine Drops Residency Requirement for Adult-Use Commercial Licenses, Moots Legal Challenge
May. 13, 2020—A few weeks ago I blogged about an interesting lawsuit challenging Maine’s residency requirement for commercial recreational marijuana licenses. See Company Sues Maine for Discriminating Against Non-residents When Licensing Marijuana Businesses. Brought by a Delaware corporation, the suit claimed that the residency requirement violated the Dormant Commerce Clause doctrine. Although I suggested two reasons why Maine...
Could “No Action” Letters from the DOJ (and other Federal Agencies) Help State-Licensed Marijuana Suppliers Overcome Some Obstacles They Now Face?
Apr. 30, 2020—Tom Firestone (Baker McKenzie) has an intriguing post over at the firm’s Global Cannabis Compliance Blog: DOJ No-Action Letters for the Marijuana Industry? In it, he suggests that the DOJ and other key federal agencies (such as the SEC and FinCen) could issue “No Action” letters to state licensed marijuana suppliers and the third parties...
Company Sues Maine for Discriminating Against Non-residents When Licensing Marijuana Businesses
Apr. 2, 2020—A Delaware corporation (Wellness Connection) has sued Maine, challenging a provision of that state’s recreational marijuana law that bars out-of-state companies and non-resident investors from obtaining commercial marijuana licenses. The suit was filed on March 20, 2020, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine. The story has been reported in local papers...
Could the President Legalize Marijuana Through Executive Action?
Mar. 19, 2020—The title of this post is inspired by Senator Bernie Sanders’s campaign promise “to legalize marijuana in the first 100 days [of his Administration] with executive action.” See here. Other Democratic Presidential hopefuls made similar promises, but since Sanders is the last such candidate standing (former Vice President Joe Biden has made no similar promise),...
New Jersey Court Orders Employer to Reimburse Injured Employee for Cost of Medical Marijuana
Feb. 17, 2020—In January 2020, a New Jersey state court ordered an employer to cover the costs of an injured employee’s medical marijuana. The full 31 page decision in Hager v. M&K Construction can be found here. The New Jersey court ruling recognizes a split among state courts concerning whether state agencies may require employers to cover...
Update: State Judge Upholds Idaho Seizure of Massive Hemp Shipment (and Gets Lost Along the Way)
Feb. 3, 2020—This is an update on an interesting case I blogged about last January. See Federal Court Refuses (for now) to Order Return of 7,000 Pounds of “Hemp” Seized by State Police. I encourage readers to review my earlier post before diving into this post, which covers some key developments in the case since last January,...
Updates to Help Organize the Posts on this Website
Dec. 30, 2019—I have just updated two pages under the Resources tab. These pages should help readers manage what has become a very complicated body of law and policy. They organize my blog posts (the Updates) in two different ways: Updates and New Materials by Topic – Identifies the specific section(s) in my book for which each post is most relevant....