‘Massachusetts’
How Can / Should Regulators Respond to the Vaping Illness Scare?
Sep. 25, 2019—[Updated 9/27 to reflect new information from the CDC and to add one new observation on the timing of these illnesses.] In the last few months, doubts have surfaced about the safety of vaping, due to a surge in reports of vaping-linked lung illnesses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that, as...
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...
Analysis of the Warren-Gardner STATES Act
Jun. 7, 2018—[Update 6/8: I redrafted some of the language below for clarity and conciseness.] On June 7, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D MA) and Cory Gardner (R CO) formally introduced legislation to eliminate much of the conflict between state and federal marijuana laws. A full copy of the proposed legislation, called the “Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through...
Massachusetts Medical Society Launches New Cannabis Curriculum
Dec. 4, 2017—As I discussed in this earlier post and in the book (pages 616-618), many physicians remain reluctant to recommend marijuana to their patients because they never received training concerning the drug. To remedy that lack of training, the Massachusetts Medical Society has just launched an interesting new Cannabis Curriculum for Continuing Medical Education. The Society’s website describes...
Massachusetts court finds employers must accommodate employee’s off-duty medical marijuana use
Jul. 21, 2017—Massachusetts’ highest court has ruled that employers have a duty to accommodate their employees’ off-duty use of medical marijuana. The ruling in Barbuto v. Advantage Sales and Marketing, LLC (Mass. 2017), concerned a state handicap discrimination law (similar to the ADA) which makes it unlawful for any employer “to dismiss or refuse to hire . ....