‘licensing’
Federal Appeals Court Agrees: Using residency to award commercial marijuana licenses violates the Dormant Commerce Clause
Aug. 19, 2022—On August 17, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued a decision in NPG v. Maine Department of Administrative and Financial Services. The decision stems from Maine’s appeal of an earlier District Court judgment finding that a provision of the state’s Medical Marijuana Act violated the Dormant Commerce Clause (DCC) because...
Three Federal Courts (So Far) Have Held That State Residency Requirements for Cannabis Licenses (Probably) Violate the Dormant Commerce Clause
Jun. 22, 2021—Federal courts in Michigan and Missouri have just issued rulings in lawsuits challenging those states’ residency requirements for cannabis licenses. Both courts found that the plaintiffs were likely to prevail on the merits of their challenges. In particular, both courts held that using residency to award cannabis licenses probably violated the Dormant Commerce Clause (DCC). The...
State Restrictions on Interstate Commerce in Cannabis are Unconstitutional
Mar. 3, 2021—The title of this post is the takeaway of a new law review article I have just posted on SSRN. The article challenges the widely held assumption that legalization states may ban imports of cannabis or otherwise prevent nonresidents from participating in their local cannabis markets. Here is the link to a nearly final draft...
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),...
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...
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...
The Looping Problem in Marijuana Sales
May. 9, 2018—States commonly limit the quantity of marijuana that a licensed supplier may sell to a consumer (see book pages 462-463). For example, Colorado’s Retail Marijuana Code Rule 402 provides that “A Retail Marijuana Store and its employees are prohibited from Transferring more than one ounce of [marijuana] . . . in a single transaction to...
Suit Challenging Maryland’s Refusal to Use Racial Preferences in Licensing Has Been Settled
Feb. 28, 2018—When Maryland’s legislature passed a medical marijuana law in spring 2013, it instructed state regulators to consider race in awarding a limited number of licenses to cultivate and distribute marijuana (see page 454 n.1 of the book). In 2015, however, the state’s licensing commission abandoned those preferences, apparently due to concerns that racial preferences might...
Cases to Watch: Applicant Sues to Block Ohio from Using Racial Preferences in the Award of Commercial Marijuana Licenses
Dec. 15, 2017—In the book, I discuss the lack of racial diversity in the state-licensed commercial marijuana industry, as well as the measures states have adopted to boost minority participation in that industry (pages 454, 520-25). There are several steps states could take to improve diversity, but one of the most direct is to employ some form...