‘lawsuit’
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),...
Why We Won’t Learn Much from a New Products Liability Lawsuit Against Marijuana Vape Manufacturers
Oct. 4, 2019—A plaintiff has just filed a products liability lawsuit against several companies that manufacture (or sell) marijuana vape products. The plaintiff blames the Defendants’ products for a lung illness he has recently experienced. The complaint in Wilcoxen v. Canna Brand Solutions, LLC, et al., was filed in Washington State court on September 23, 2019. Several...
UPDATE: Florida Passes Law Removing Ban on Smokable Marijuana
Mar. 20, 2019—Back in the fall of 2016, Florida voters passed Amendment 2, which legalized the medical use of marijuana. When Florida lawmakers passed legislation to implement the Amendment, they imposed a limitation on how patients could consume marijuana: namely, they defined “medical use” to exclude smoking of marijuana: “(j) ‘Medical use’ . . . . does...
UPDATE: Plaintiff Loses Colorado RICO Lawsuit (Safe Streets)
Nov. 1, 2018—As reported by various new outlets (see links below), the jury in the Safe Streets case (now known as Reilly v. 6480 Pickney, LLC) rejected the plaintiff-landowners’ civil RICO claims against a state-licensed marijuana supplier. I discuss the plaintiffs’ claims in an earlier post here and in the book (pages 403-406). Although the defendant (and...
Court Dismisses Civil RICO Suit Against Marijuana Supplier, Tees Up Potential Circuit Split
Aug. 27, 2018—[Updated 8/30 to add two new sources with useful background on these lawsuits.] Last week, the US District Court for the District of Oregon dismissed a civil RICO lawsuit brought by a landowner against a neighboring marijuana supplier. The full decision in Ainsworth v. Owenby is available here; page citations below are to the linked...
Cases to Watch: California Growers Association vs. California Department of Food and Agriculture
Feb. 3, 2018—UPDATE (2/20/20): The California Grower’s Association voluntarily dropped its lawsuit back in January of 2019. See Scott Rodd, Growers association drops lawsuit against state over permitting large-scale cannabis cultivators, Sacramento Business Journal. However, the issues discussed below remain relevant as states ponder whether / how to regulate the structure of the licensed marijuana industry. An association of...
Federal appeals court allows private civil RICO to proceed against state-licensed marijuana grower (Safe Streets)
Jul. 25, 2017—In Safe Streets Alliance v. Hickenlooper (June 2017), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit reversed the dismissal of a civil RICO lawsuit brought by a private plaintiff against a Colorado licensed marijuana cultivator. The original RICO suit – and the district court’s decision dismissing it – is discussed in the book at...