Cannabis Law Group's Medical Marijuana Legal Blog

March 29, 2018

Cannabis Farm Gets Big Insurance Payout After Fire

If you are a marijuana cultivator in California, you might be reluctant to buy insurance on your business. But our experienced cannabis business attorneys know there are many good reasons to invest in insurance.

A recent article from Santa Barbara Independent reveals a big payout one cannabis farmer in Carpinteria received due to losses caused by the Thomas Fire in December, the largest wildfire in the state in recent history. The farm got more than $1 million dollars from their insurance company after thousands of marijuana plants on property were destroyed. This equated to about market value for the plants. While the farm’s crops did not burn in the fire, white ash blew into the greenhouses and tainted the plants. The plants tested positive for lead, arsenic, asbestos, and magnesium. This type of damage was covered under the policy’s clause covering changes in atmospheric conditions.

Meanwhile, most of the other cannabis farms in Northern California were not so fortunate. Many opted out of insurance policies to keep costs low. This money-saving tactic is typical among farmers of all kinds, who often skip this expense to keep profit margins higher. But this is a big gamble, particularly in an area so prone to fires. Continue reading

March 27, 2018

Cash-Only System Tough on Marijuana Businesses When Paying Taxes

By Cannabis Law Group

In the midst of tax season, the paradox of tax-paying marijuana business owners being treated like criminals takes center stage. The San Francisco Chronicle recently described the scene as marijuana retailers brought bags of cash to tax administration offices. Some retailers reported bringing in up to $80,000 at a time.

But what other choice did they have? California has opened the door for legal recreational sales with the implementation of Proposition 64 this year, which is bringing a new wave of money-making opportunities for cannabis entrepreneurs. And where there is money-making, there are also taxes. These businesses want to pay their taxes, but without the option of processing transactions and savings in a bank like a normal business, cannabis companies end up paying taxes with cash out of bags.

As our marijuana attorneys can explain, at the heart of this issue is Controlled Substances Act, 21 U.S.C. Section 812. According to the federal government, marijuana is classified as a Schedule I narcotic under this act. A Schedule I classification means that a drug “has high potential for abuse” and has no accepted medical use in the United States. And even under medical supervision, it would not be considered safe to consume. Obviously, nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to marijuana. For more than 20 years, cannabis has been offering relief to patients in California for everything from cancer to arthritis to anxiety thanks to the Compassionate use Act of 1996. Continue reading

March 25, 2018

Marijuana Legalization Takes Detour in Nebraska

By Cannabis Law Group

There’s no finer example of the ongoing struggle between politicians and the people over the issue of marijuana legalization than the current events taking place in Nebraska. Despite efforts on two different fronts to get medical marijuana on the 2018 ballot, all efforts have been halted, at least for the time being.

A recent survey of Nebraska residents showed that 77 percent of respondents would vote yes on a ballot initiative to legalize medical marijuana in the state, according to an Omaha World-Herald report. The survey was conducted as part of research one state senator was conducting to support a resolution to make way for voters to decide on medical marijuana legalization. The resolution was dropped, though, when the senator determined she did not have enough support from her fellow legislators, despite the overwhelming support from voters.

Meanwhile the Marijuana Policy Project (which offered support for Proposition 64 when it was on the ballot in California) has been trying to organize a petition drive to get an initiative on the ballot as well. However, the group determined there was not enough time to rally for 2018 and are instead focusing their efforts on a big 2020 push. Continue reading

March 23, 2018

Med Students Must Learn About Medical Marijuana

By Cannabis Law Group

It’s been more than 20 years since California legalized medical marijuana with the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. Much of the country is just now catching up to what California and our trusted attorneys have known for a long time: That marijuana is a safe and effective treatment for many illnesses and ailments. So safe, in fact, that laws are expanding to open up marijuana for recreational consumption as well, with California implementing Proposition 64 Jan. 1. We are now one of 29 states that has some form of cannabis legalization.

But we also know the more things change, the more they stay the same.

High Times recently delved into the issue of medical schools and teaching about medical marijuana to students. One medical journal study last year showed that 90 percent of med students don’t learn anything about marijuana in medical school. Less than 10 percent of medical schools have any sort of medical marijuana curriculum. And roughly 25 percent of graduates wouldn’t even feel prepared to talk about cannabis as an option with a patient.

March 21, 2018

Tax Bill Would Offer Relief to Cannabis Businesses and Consumers

By Cannabis Law Group

For many years now, attorneys with the Cannabis Law Group in California have been cannabis business working with medical marijuana operations obtain compliance with the law. More recently, we’ve been on the forefront of helping recreational marijuana businesses align their operations with the regulatory parameters set forth in Proposition 64 Jan. 1, as well as those guidelines established by local governments.

However, the level of success a business owner can achieve requires help from all levels, including government officials setting regulations and tax rates. Many owners face a broad range of challenges when transitioning from medical to recreational sales or opening a business for the first time under the new adult-use standards.

Rob Bonta (D-Oakland) and Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale) want to ease some of those pains. They have introduced Assemblybill 3157, which would reduce the state marijuana excise tax to 11 percent for three years. The tax currently sits at 15 percent. The bill states: “The cumulative tax rate imposed by existing law is substantial and undermines the legal regulatory system if high taxes cause prices to far exceed that what is found on the black market.”

March 19, 2018

CA Medical Marijuana Recommendations Offer Protections in AZ

By Cannabis Law Group

Every state that allows the use of medical marijuana has their own regulatory scheme and requirements pertaining to how patients are able to access this much-needed medicine. For example, anyone who needs medical marijuana in California must go to a doctor and get a recommendation letter. Once they have a recommendation letter, they can register as a patient with a medical marijuana dispensary and are then are eligible to obtain medical cannabis. Because every state has different regulations, the concept of medical marijuana reciprocity becomes important. This is when a registered patient in one state goes to another state and needs to get their medicine there.

cannabis business This may seem like a novel concept, but it should not be anywhere near as controversial as it has become. If a patient is taking a drug manufactured by a big pharmaceutical company and runs out of it while on vacation, they can simply go to a pharmacy location in their current jurisdiction and ask to have their prescription transferred there. This can be done permanently, or on a one-time basis, no questions asked. Typically, this is not how things work for medical marijuana patients because many states allow only residents to obtain medical marijuana from a dispensary located there. This creates obvious problems. One way to address this is by allowing medical marijuana reciprocity whereby a patient registered in one state, can travel to another state and use their home-state registration to obtain medical cannabis products. Continue reading

March 18, 2018

Legal Marijuana Lounges On the Rise in CA

By Cannabis Law Group

Long before anyone even thought about the possibility of legalizing marijuana for recreational use, or even medical marijuana in the U.S., cannabis has been legal in Amsterdam. This led many college students to travel to the city and visit the fabled coffee shops where they could not only purchase marijuana, but could sit at the bar and smoke a joint, or “spliff” like a civilized person without the fear of being harassed or arrested by the police. For this reason, Amsterdam was for decades the world’s leading destination for marijuana tourism.

Caifornia marijuana lawyers When legalized recreational use marijuana came to Colorado, other western states, and now California as well, the concept of cannabis tourism became possible in the U.S. The problem, however, is while it is legal to go to one of these states and purchase marijuana, assuming you are over the legal age of 21, laws prohibiting public consumption of marijuana made anything other than the use of edibles very impractical. For anyone staying in a hotel, most are non-smoking entirely, and this also includes the use of marijuana products. Continue reading

March 15, 2018

CA Proposed Bill to Lower Marijuana Tax

By Cannabis Law Group

When Canada legalized the recreational use of marijuana, the government set out to drive all black market cannabis sellers out of business. They did this not through more rigid enforcement methods, but by making legal marijuana as cheap, if not cheaper, than buying it from a traditional dealer. This was accomplished by setting the tax rate very low for legal sales of recreational marijuana.

marijuana business On the other hand, when California legalized marijuana, the ballot initiative was sold to many as a way for the state to generate billions of dollars in revenue. While this is certainly true, and a laudable goal, it was accomplished by setting a tax of 15 percent, which is many times higher than the tax rate set in Canada. There is also a separate tax on the cultivation of cannabis set at nine percent, which results in a direct expenses passed on to distributors and consumers as discussed in a recent news article from Forbes. Continue reading

March 12, 2018

Colorado Hopes to Bag Residency Requirements for Marijuana Businesses

By Cannabis Law Group

Despite appalling and misguided federal efforts to hold back marijuana businesses, the industry continues to blaze trails with expanded marijuana laws and opportunities, clearing away for progress and reason to prevail.

The latest example comes out of Colorado, where the state is looking to get rid of residency requirements for marijuana businesses. House Bill 18-1011 would allow non-Colorado residents and publicly traded companies own a stake in state-licensed businesses as well as make investments. Right now ownership for non-residents is limited to 15 people. A bi-partisan group of legislators is leading the charge on the bill, which they said will not only attract more investments in the state, but also allow local businesses to be publicly traded, according to The Cannabist.

Officials said Colorado law is causing the state to fall behind roughly a dozen other states that no longer have such limitations. Indeed, California already rid itself of residency restrictions with the creation of Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act in June 2017. The act combined the Adult Use of Marijuana Act and the Medical Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act in an effort to consolidate regulations and laws governing medical and recreational marijuana. Many regulations carried over from the two previous acts, but one notable change was the removal of a rule in AUMA to prohibit licenses from being issued to non-California residents until Dec. 31, 2019.

March 12, 2018

Court Snuffs Out Attempted Extortion of Medical Marijuana Dispensary

By Cannabis Law Group

Attorneys at Cannabis Law Group are committed to helping marijuana dispensaries achieve medical marijuana dispensary compliance with state and local regulations. We are experienced in civil and criminal cannabis-related cases and fight hard for the rights of our clients. We support the continued expansion of marijuana legalization and hope to see a day soon when businesses are free to operate on a national scale.

Too often, we see hard-working cannabis business owners who may be niave or unclear about the state and local regulations and their obligations. In a recent case in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, a former Congressional aid was recently convicted of taking advantage of a dispensary owner.

Recently Michael Kimbrew, a former Congressional aide, was found guilty of attempted extortion and bribery. He was convicted of taking a $5,000 bribe, which he allegedly elicited from a pot shop that at the time was operating illegally, according to the Associated Press. Prosecutors allege he approached the Compton dispensary in 2015, when it was still illegal to operate such a business in the city. He then allegedly told the owners they would be shut down unless they could work out a deal with him. That deal reportedly included a $5,000 payment to Kimbrew, even though he did not have the connections to get them proper medical marijuana permits that he allegedly claimed he did.