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

Articles Tagged with marijuana attorney

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Every single month, there are more than 22 million Americans use marijuana, medicinal or recreational, in the 28 states plus the District of Colombia where it’s legal in some form. Last year, national sales of marijuana reached an estimated $7.1 billion – which is what they are expected to reach in California alone in 2018. marijuana

And yet, a new comprehensive report on the health effects of marijuana indicates that so much of the benefits – and real dangers – of the drug are unknown because, as researchers explain, the federal government has continuously blocked efforts to conduct research that would provide concrete – reliable – answers.

The study, conducted by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, presents approximately 100 conclusions related to the health effects of cannabis and cannabinoid use. The report also makes a series of recommendations for agendas of government, health organizations and researchers to expand and/or improve the kinds of studies being conducted so the public will be adequately informed about their current and future health decisions.  Continue reading

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Lawmakers in California are considering a measure that would prohibit the display of marijuana on state billboards along stretches of highway. billboard

As it now stands, there are a number of billboards that promote a variety of substances, from liquor to prescription medications – and yes, marijuana. But the marijuana industry is the only one being targeted by this effort.

According to the Sacramento Bee, Assembly Bill 64 would result in an amendment to the recently-passed Proposition 64, the state’s recreational marijuana bill, by implementing tighter restrictions for advertising of marijuana and related products. Proposition 64 allows anyone over the age of 21 to possess up to one ounce of marijuana and it also creates a framework for sales of recreational weed that will go into effect the first of 2018. The measure also prohibited advertisements of recreational marijuana along the interstate highways that cross the border into California. However, what it did not do was ban advertising of marijuana on any interstate or state highway. That’s what Assembly Bill 64 would do. Continue reading

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There are a lot of reasons to make California a vacation destination. Now, the newest it seems is recreational cannabis. airplane

On the West Coast, we now have California, Washington, Colorado, Oregon and Nevada that allow recreational marijuana. The only other places allow it are Alaska, Washington D.C., Massachusetts and Maine. For people who live in all the states in between, most are limited to recreational marijuana access, if they have it at all. It’s anticipated that legal marijuana is going to be a major driver of tourism to these states in the coming years.

This has resulted in a number of ancillary cannabis businesses, including travel agencies booking “tours” of various dispensaries and must-see sites. Travel research company MMGY Global reports that while overall travel to California didn’t surge much right after the election, it did spike 23 percent when looking at just Millennials. It also increased notably among households that earned $100,000 or more – presumably because they had more discretionary income to spontaneously make that trip. But others could be planning a trip for the coming months or years.  Continue reading

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It’s being called the “green rush.” Amid a series of pro-marijuana reforms set in motion by the November election, investors are scrambling to buy up stock in a variety of cannabis companies, which are part of an industry expected to cross the $25 billion threshold by 2021. brief case

Of course, not everyone is going to win out big in this, but there will be firms who succeed. Those that do will not take for granted sound legal advice needed to navigate an uncertain statutory landscape. Yes, there are state laws that now allow for both medicinal and recreational pot, but there are tight regulatory frameworks within those. Beyond that, while the federal Justice Department backed off its crackdown on marijuana dispensaries as of 2013, the drug remains a Schedule I narcotic, and the new U.S. attorney general is no fan of marijuana reform.

Still, investors see opportunity, particularly when they may not personally be directly involved in the actual cultivation, processing and distribution of the drug. Landlords and property owners may still be at risk, but they also stand to make substantial profits.  Continue reading

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There was a time not very long ago that property owners were extremely wary of renting space to any type of marijuana business, for fear of running afoul of the federal government. Specifically, 18 U.S. Code Section 981 details the government’s authority to assert civil asset forfeiture. The law was drafted to allow the government to seize the massive assets acquired by drug kingpins. However, it was rarely used until marijuana became legal as medicine in California. At that point, federal prosecutors began going after property owners who allowed their site to be used by any marijuana operation – even if it complied with state law – because marijuana was (and still is) unlawful per federal statutes. warehouse

Today, it’s a much different legal landscape. Technically, prosecutors still have the authority to assert civil forfeiture, but the U.S. Justice Department under the previous presidential administration altered its policy in 2013, with a memo indicating that so long as operations were compliant with state laws, the federal government wouldn’t pursue them unless it had some special reason to do so (i.e., distribution of marijuana to minors, preventing sales revenue from being funneled to criminal enterprises and cartels and preventing dissemination of the drug to states where it isn’t legal).

This has motivated a growing number of real estate investors to dip their toes into the waters. The Portland Press-Herald in Maine recently reported real estate brokers are encountering increasing demand for industrial spaces that could be converted to indoor marijuana farms. News of this comes as Maine is on the verge of being yet another state to approve of recreational marijuana. California is in that same boat.  Continue reading

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Recreational marijuana is now legal in California. But that doesn’t mean it’s Ok for teens to use it for recreation, as there is evidence it can have negative health effects – and of course there is the risk of impaired driving. Although some marijuana advocates downplay these concerns as “Reefer Madness” ridiculousness, the reality is that if the marijuana industry is going to garner legitimacy, there needs to be a concerted effort to keep cannabis away from children who don’t have a medical reason to be taking it. teen

Part of the concern is that teens do not view marijuana as harmful as they once did. Research at the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program indicated that the harmfulness perception of marijuana among eighth-graders fell by 14 percent in Washington state since the drug was legalized. It fell by 16 percent among those in 10th grade. In states where marijuana has not (yet) been legalized, perceptions of the plant’s harmfulness fell at much lower rates, between 5 and 7 percent.

Still, there is competing evidence about whether this translates to more teens actually using the drug for fun. For example, the U.C. Davis study indicated marijuana use by Washington’s eighth-graders spiked 2 percent since legalization, while increasing 4 percent among 10th-graders. In non-legal states, marijuana use fell by about 1 percent. However, a study by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment indicated the percentage of high school students there who used marijuana was actually smaller than the national average – 21.2 percent in the previous 30 days (down a percentage point since before legalization) while the nationwide rate of teen marijuana use was a bit higher at 21.7 percent. The department concluded that “marijuana use (among teens) has not increased since legalization.”  Continue reading

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Medical marijuana dispensaries have been a common sight in L.A. for years – more than two decades, to be exact. So it’s tough to remember that in many parts of the country, these facilities are still having to wade gingerly into their new markets, even as the public has shown overwhelming support for them at the polls.bud

One example is Florida.

Recently, media in The Sunshine State have been exploring the way in which marijuana businesses are carefully entering the market after the approval of Amendment 2, which took effect this month. As reported by one outlet, one 2,000-square-foot storefront in Tampa does not, the reporter noted, “evoke images of the seedy bong-filled pot shops of popular imagination.” Again, we have to remember that it’s still “imagination” to those who haven’t lived in or traveled to a state where this substance has been widely available for years. The writer describes a clean, spacious dispensary with a brightly-lit showroom and materials to help educate buyers on the drug’s merits. One customer, there to purchase products for her son with epilepsy, comments to the writer that in truth, she “didn’t know what to expect,” but was pleasantly surprised.  Continue reading

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One of the primary concerns of opponents to marijuana legalization was that it was going to fall into the hands of teenagers, whose brains are still developing and lack the full capacity for risk assessment. teen

Now, a new study analyzes a host of risky teen behavior, including marijuana consumption. Among the findings of the Monitoring the Future survey, conducted by the University of Michigan, younger teens are reporting that marijuana is more scarcely available to them now than it was nearly 25 years ago.

At this point, explanations for this trend are theoretical. What we do know, however, is that legalization of marijuana leads to greater regulation. It undercuts the black market, where there are no rules about who can buy marijuana or how much. With those black market outlets shrinking, it puts most of the supply in the hands of regulated dispensaries, which are overseen by the state. The state has very strict rules about who can purchase the drug, how much they can buy – and how old those buyers have to be.  Continue reading

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With marijuana now legal in some capacity in more than half of all states, the industry is poised to see a job boom over the next few years. business

Even prior to the election, industry analysis conducted by ArcView group and GreenWave Advisors tallied that the industry was worth somewhere between $4.8 billion and $5.4 billion in 2015, with projections that it would hit $6.5 billion to $6.7 billion this year. Both groups say the industry will surpass $20 billion nationally by 2020, while others, such as Marijuana Business Daily, is opining growth could be up to $40 billion over the next five years. Those estimates are only going up since the results of the November election, when eight states – including California – voting to legalize the drug in some capacity. Here, recreational use and possession is now permitted, and regulations are being worked out to determine the guidelines for production and sales.

Already, some individuals who got in early enough – when the field was still quite new and very risky – have struck a veritable gold mine. One entrepreneur in Denver opened a dispensary there in 2009 called Medicine Man. Now, several of his family members are on board, running nine businesses that employ over 100 workers in total. Employees at his country make anywhere from a starting salary of $13-an-hour, all the way up to six-figure positions for working in critical management roles.  Continue reading

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As we head into 2017, there is a great deal of uncertainty about what a Trump administration will mean for those in the marijuana industry in California and beyond. Cannabis advocates and industry players are struggling with attempting to formulate a strategy when no one knows exactly what the President-elect thinks about legalization.americanflag

There have been efforts to piece together an idea of what the strategy will be, based on off-hand remarks and Trump’s cabinet picks. Then there is the fact that conservatives have historically demonized marijuana use (including both the new attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions, as well as the new health and human services secretary, Rep.Tom Price). But then there is also the fact that Republicans have largely embraced the notion of empowering states’ rights. Plus, marijuana is no longer a red-blue issue, with many conservative Republicans favoring legalization, and there are also liberal Democrats who oppose it. Trump himself has said that he is in favor of medicinal marijuana access.

In light of all this, those in the industry have worked out some loose-level strategies and ideas that will likely need to be tailored as time goes on and the policies become more concrete.  Continue reading

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