California cannabis attorneys

February 11, 2019

California Cannabis Asset Protection When Commerce is All Cash

In the more than two decades since California voters approved legal marijuana as medicine, we’ve seen a dramatically-altered legal and political landscape in the California cannabis industry – and yet cash is still king

When medical marijuana dispensaries and collectives first started cropping up around California in 1997, they had to heavily guard their assets – both product and cash. Banks, cowed by federal law that might ensnare them on criminal money-laundering charges, denied accounts to almost everyone who profited from cannabis, a Schedule I narcotic. Being state-legal didn’t matter. marijuana asset protection lawyer

More than 20 years later, although California was late to join the recreational sales party, our Los Angles cannabis lawyers have seen so much of the legal landscape change. Profits are not only allowed, but encouraged. Collectives and co-ops were outlawed as of last month. Businesses are licensed and heavily regulated and taxed. Everything from seed-to-sale is tracked and tested by outside labs.

And yet: Most Southern California marijuana businesses still can’t convince banks to do business. That means in a world where e-commerce is booming, retail stores are shuttering and most people pay with plastic, marijuana businesses can’t move money electronically. So every time cash must be moved – to pay a vendor or file taxes – it’s almost always coordinated with teams of gun-strapped security officers (many ex-military) and armored cars, equipped with bullet-proof glass and high-end GPS tracking. Continue reading

July 12, 2018

Indiana Judge Won’t Recognize Pot as Part of Higher Power

By Cannabis Law Group

State law, federal law, and religious liberties have collided to form an unholy trinity in a case cannabis lawyers involving First Church of Cannabis. The church had put in a bid attempting to allow smoking of marijuana as a religious sacrament in Indiana. The group sued the state, attorney general, and then Gov. Mike Pence in 2015. But a judge out of Marion County Superior Court recently ruled against the church, according to RTV6.

Indiana currently has extremely limited medical marijuana provisions and relatively strict laws against recreational use. Attempts to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana were thwarted in 2013, and instead an amendment to IC 35-48-4-11 was added to HB 1006 to increase penalties of certain types of possession to felonies rather than misdemeanors. Some attempts to legalize medical marijuana also failed a few years ago, but last year the legislature was able to push through a bill allowing CBD oil specifically for seizures. Considering all of the people nationwide who have found relief from cannabis for a wide variety of ailments, this seems to be the absolute least they could do. Continue reading

November 30, 2017

Addressing Claims That Marijuana Induces Vomiting Sickness

By Cannabis Law Group

There have been many reasons claimed that marijuana was highly dangerous and addictive by those who want to keep it illegal under federal law no matter how many states choose to legalize medical or recreational cannabis. There are as of the time of this article, 29 states that have legalized either medical marijuana or recreational use of marijuana as well as the District of Columbia.

business cannabis One of the reasons they argue it is dangerous is because it has been labeled a so-called gateway drug. The many times disproven theory is that if someone uses marijuana, even though many do not see it as harmful, that a person is far more likely to try “harder” drugs such as cocaine and heroin. In other words, marijuana is a gateway to the dangers of all sorts of illicit drug use. If we take this argument another step, some with claim these marijuana users are not only addicted to marijuana at this point, and have moved no to cocaine and heroin, but they are also engaging in all sorts of street crime to fund their pricey habit. Continue reading

November 13, 2017

Higher Education and the Biotechnology Sector Partner to Study the Science of Marijuana

By Cannabis Law Group

For years, industry and academia have partnered to find better ways of delivering a better product to consumers. This model has allowed entrepreneurs to take advantage of scientific findings and reliable data to improve their operations and products. Now, one cannabis company is partnering with academic researchers to better understand marijuana. cannabis business lawyers

An Unusual Partnership

The Denver Business Journal reports that Front Range Biosciences – an agricultural biotechnology company based in Lafayette, Colorado which specializes in marijuana – has partnered with the University of California-Davis to study marijuana. The deal began with a $150,000 gift – one of several installments – provided to the University of California by the company, which says it is designed to advance understanding of the medicinal and nutraceutical uses of cannabis. In turn, a professor in the UC-Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology says the college is excited to have the opportunity to study and decode the hemp genome, which will enable new insights into the genetic bases of complex pathways of secondary metabolism in plants. The company also seeks to reduce pesticide residues and excessive application of fertilizers in compounds with medicinal benefits.

October 13, 2017

75 Percent of All Indoor Plant Seizures in the United States are in California

By Cannabis Law Group

California is poised to instantly create the country’s largest marijuana market when it begins legal sales of recreational cannabis products on January 2, 2018. Being the largest marijuana market comes with other, more dubious distinctions, as well.

The Sacramento Bee reports that 75 percent of the total numbers of indoor plants seized by the United State Drug Enforcement Administration in 2016 were taken from California. This figure does not include those plants seized by state and local authorities. These numbers are also significant: according to U.S. News and World Report, a single crackdown in Calaveras County resulted in the seizure of 27,000 plants over four days. CBS Sacramento reports that thirty-eight pounds of marijuana were seized in one arrest on the I-80.The defendant was arrested north of Lake Tahoe, and eventually booked into a Nevada County Jail on three counts of narcotics trafficking. cannabis defense attorneys

Why the Number is So High

Interestingly, the 2016 number was more than double the number of indoor plants seized by the D.E.A. in California in 2012. So why have indoor grows increased so quickly in California? According to a D.E.A. report, indoor production has two key advantages: it does not rely on outdoor climate conditions or growing seasons, and it is more difficult for law enforcement officers to discover that open outdoor grows. Outgrow grows can cause other legal complications, too: many outdoor grows in California have been conducted on federal lands. Marijuana is entirely prohibited on federal lands. No state permit, license, or compliance can protect a defendant from being prosecuted under federal law if he or she grows marijuana on federal lands within state borders. Continue reading

August 12, 2017

Influx of Indoor Marijuana Grows Increases California’s Power Needs

By Cannabis Law Group

Since recreational marijuana was legalized in California as of November 9, 2016, residents and government regulators have experienced many unintended consequences of the regulatory sea change. Perhaps one of the most bizarre outcomes is changing an increased power needs for those areas of California which house indoor grow houses. Cannabis farmer attorneys

This is not unlike the British phenomenon of “TV pickup”. There, utility administrators must respond to predictable surges in electricity use. Geek.com reports that these surges are a well-documented correlate of the widespread use of electric tea kettles immediately after popular TV programs end. The British National Grid allots an electricity reserve to manage these surges, and can even access reserves in France when needed. If there is a lesson to be learnt from British utility services, it is that careful planning around reliable data can be used to prevent interruptions in service and other problems as a result of increased electricity demand. Continue reading

August 6, 2017

San Luis Obispo County Considers Marijuana Growth Ban in the California Valley

By Cannabis Law Group

California cannabis lawyers The legalization of recreational marijuana in California on November 9, 2016, brought a host of unexpected questions for the commercial cannabis industry. Municipal and county ordinances have created a confusing web of compliance requirements for marijuana cultivators, distributors, and dispensaries. And in some limited areas, marijuana is simply banned altogether.

County supervisors in San Luis Obispo County are considering a package of commercial cannabis regulations. Among other things, the drafted regulations prohibit the growth of marijuana in areas zoned as residential-suburban. The Tribune reports that this would include the California Valley and the entire Carrizo Plain. Limited groundwater and a high concentration of endangered species (the largest concentration in the lower forty-eight states, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife) are reasons given by opponents in support of banning marijuana growth in the Carrizo Plain. This does not, however, give cause for banning marijuana grows in all other residential-suburban areas of San Luis Obispo County.