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Video 1 KTLA Channel 5 News Story June 18, 2010: Lake Forest Medical Marijuana Dispensary Appealing Injunction Order Video 2 KTTV Channel 11 News Story June 4, 2010: Los Angeles Medical Marijuana Dispensary Challenges LA's Ordinance Video 3 Cannabis Law Group's Attorney Damian Nassiri Sues the City of Los Angeles To Block It's Ban on Medical Marijuana as Featured on PBS's So Cal Insider - Part 1

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In a move that has shocked the cannabis industry, California is hiking legal marijuana business taxes. This decision comes on the heels of many licensed marijuana companies imploring the state to reduce such taxes.

But with legal storefronts now set to face cannabis taxes nearing 50 per cent beginning January 1, the move is being seen by some as another reason pot customers will choose the Golden State’s already thriving black market. Cannabis business analysts estimate that for every dollar spent in California’s legal pot market, $3 are being spent on the illicit market.Cannabis business attorneys

In a statement released by the California Cannabis Industry Association, members are said to be both outraged and stunned by the decision. The group believes increased cannabis business taxes will only make trading even more difficult for those operating legally, who are already fraught with heavy fees, stringent regulation, local community bans on cannabis cultivation and sales, and a flourishing black market.
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police lineCalifornia vaping brand, Kushy Punch, has had its cannabis license revoked after state cannabis regulators raided its premises and found the company to be conducting business from a facility that it was not licensed to use.

Last month, California cannabis regulators received a tip off suggesting the company was running illegal business activity, and on inspection of the unlicensed Canoga Park facility, authorities seized cannabis products worth $21 million. The products were held by a company called Verticle Bliss, also operating as Kushy Punch when manufacturing and distributing cannabis products.

The Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC) reported that approximately 7,200 unregulated vape cartridges were seized in the raid.
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Cannabis defense attorneyThis month, California has shown an increase in law enforcement activity targeting illegal marijuana growers. A statement from the California Attorney General’s Office said that on November 4, 148 people were arrested by local, state and federal law enforcement officers.

During the raids, California Police seized $1.5 billion worth of illegally grown marijuana. Under California’s “Campaign Against Marijuana Planting” (CAMP) activity, the operations lead authorities to seize and destroy 953,459 plants grown at 345 different cannabis grow sites throughout Southern, Central and Northern California. The November 4 raids also saw 168 weapons confiscated by police.
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture has at last issued the text of its long-awaited interim final rule pertaining to the regulation of domestic hemp. The rule is considered in immediate effect as soon as its published in the Federal Register. hemp farming

The rules were required as part of the plan to implement the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized the production of commercial hemp as an agricultural commodity. The law also explicitly removed hemp from the list of federal controlled substances, marking it distinct from its cannabis cousin, marijuana. Both hemp and marijuana are derived from the cannabis plant, but hemp contains very little to no THC, the psychoactive ingredient that gets people high. Hemp can be used in a broad variety of products, from paper to lotion to clothing.

But as our Los Angeles hemp business attorneys can explain, these new rules don’t automatically make hemp production legal everywhere in the country. It is expressly legal in 46 states, but the farm bill did give states discretion to decide whether to continue to ban growth of the crop within their borders. As it stands, South Dakota, Idaho, Mississippi and New Hampshire have explicitly banned hemp farming and production.

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Despite numerous substantial fits and starts, California’s legal cannabis market is still an a growth trajectory. In fact, it’s anticipated that within the next five years, California sales of the crop will account for almost one-quarter of the legal marijuana sold in the country. That’s according to a new analysis by ArcView Market Research and BDS Analytics.cannabis lawyer

Voters in the Golden State agreed to legalize recreational marijuana use three years ago, and sales officially became legal at the start of last year. Prior to that, only sales for prescribed medicinal use was allowed. Although there was a great deal of anticipation about how legalization would unfold, our Los Angeles marijuana business lawyers know the transition to a legal market was rocky at best.

Despite troubles with the black market and untested regulatory rules (including rigid new testing mandates, heavy taxation and licensing that moves at a snail’s pace in some jurisdictions), the current market size is $2.5 billion, according to the analysis. Continue reading

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The City of Los Angeles has been urged to stop its pot shop vetting process and initiate an independent audit amid complaints that some applicants were given unfair early access.cannabis lawyer

The Los Angeles Times reports City Council President Herb Wesson wants the city to temporarily suspend the approval process until these concerns can be rectified.

As our Los Angeles cannabis business attorneys can explain, the current system only allows for review of a limited number of applications, so it’s done on a first-come, first-serve basis. The concern with this approach is that some applicants had an edge when it came to faster submission.Would-be cannabis entrepreneurs in economically-disadvantaged areas (coincidentally those hit hardest by the decades-long war on drugs before marijuana became legal) struggled to keep pace with those in wealthier communities with widespread access to high-speed internet. Continue reading

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Manufacturers of THC vape cartridges should be alert to the fact that the industry could be facing a wave of product liability lawsuits, if headlines and recent filings are any indication. marijuana lawyer

Recently, a police officer/former U.S. Army Special Forces servicemember filed a product liability lawsuit in Washington State against numerous THC vape cartridge manufacturers, alleging he contracted a condition known as lipoid pneumonia as the result of using the vape cartridges. According to court records in Wilcoxson v. Canna Brand Solutions LLC et al., plaintiff began using a number of cannabis vapor products in January 2018, and continued use through September 2019. He suddenly woke up one night wheezing uncontrollably. When symptoms didn’t improve, he went to the emergency room. He was given the pneumonia diagnosis, and the pathology report noted indicators of a reactive airway disease that doctors traced to the vape pens. He was hospitalized for three days, and while he did return to work, it’s only been part-time and on light duty, as he can no longer run. The full extent of his injuries, the lawsuit says, is not yet known.

Asserting negligence and strict liability against a number of defendants, plaintiff accuses the manufacturers of producing and selling a product that was defectively designed, unreasonably dangerous, unfit for human use and that caused his illness.

The defendants in the case are listed as jointly and severally liable, which as our Los Angeles marijuana lawyers can explain means that a single defendant can be held legally responsible to pay damages caused by other defendants. This civil litigation strategy is often used when there isn’t enough reliable/scientific evidence to prove medical causation of one’s illness against any single defendant. (We saw this exact thing in tobacco and asbestos toxic torts.) It’s beneficial for the plaintiff too because if one defendant goes bankrupt or defunct or can’t be found, any of the others can be responsible to pay their share. Continue reading

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Marijuana is legal in some form in 33 states plus Washington, D.C., but pot-related penalties still abound for those who are students, employees, businesses and public housing residents. Even in places like California where people are unequivocally allowed under state law to buy, sell and consume the drug for recreational purposes, those living in subsidized public housing or who use Section 8 vouchers face eviction if they test positive for the drug – even if they are prescribed it for medical reasons. marijuana eviction lawyer

Housing authority officials cite the conflict between state and federal law, saying they jeopardize their access to much-needed federal dollars if they allow a Schedule I narcotic to be used in taxpayer-funded housing or by those receiving assistance. However, what our Los Angeles marijuana lawyers see is yet another example of double standards when it comes to marijuana law and regulation enforcement – with people of color in low-income communities facing particular adverse consequences. Coincidentally, this is the same population disproportionately impacted by the failed, decades-long War on Drugs.

Officials with the Department of U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have said they do want “sensible” regulation that might legally permit medical marijuana use by public housing tenants, but so far there is no concrete proposal on the table. Continue reading

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When it comes to cannabis conflict between state and federal marijuana laws, college campuses are fast becoming a key battleground. Challenging decades-old drug policies at universities across the country, students (and former students) in states where the drug is legal are taking their schools to court over marijuana-driven discipline. college cannabis lawyer

Our Los Angeles marijuana lawyers can explain that numerous schools have taken action against students for using the drug in violation of campus rules. Representatives for the schools say they have little choice. They risk the loss of invaluable federal dollars if they violate U.S. law, which considers the drug a Schedule I narcotic – something highly dangerous, addictive and with no medicinal value.

This has been a particular problem for those studying certain medical specialties (including nursing) who must submit to random drug testing according to to school policy. Continue reading

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Federal traffic safety officials have expressed concern that with a growing number of states legalizing recreational marijuana, law enforcement may be thwarted in their attempts to enforce laws on marijuana DUI because they won’t be able to test for the drug.marijuana dui defense

One of the main problems is the lack of a reliable quantifiable standard to gauge intoxication. With alcohol, adults over 21 in all 50 states are considered impaired by alcohol if their blood concentration of the substance is 0.08 percent or higher. This is called the per se limit.

As our marijuana DUI defense lawyers can explain, there is no per se limit for marijuana in California or in most other states, whether the drug is legal or not. Even in states where there is a per se limit, such evidence can be vexing for prosecutors because it’s undeniably inaccurate when it comes to actually proving intoxication. Unlike alcohol, which dissipates very quickly from the bloodstream, THC (the intoxicating element in marijuana) is processed much slower by the body. A person may have used the drug the day before – or use it regularly – and no longer be intoxicated, but still meet the per se threshold. Continue reading

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