Federal Policy
This pesky provision of the U.S. Tax Code precludes cannabis businesses from deducting ordinary business expenses, but in Californians Helping to Alleviate Medical Problems (CHAMPS), the Tax Court confirmed that businesses may still deduct cost-of-goods-sold under another key accounting provision.
What is 280E?
USPTO rules prevent trademark protection for these cannabis naming conventions, commonly used to describe plant genetics.
What are “varietal or cultivar names”?
This New Jersey agency’s RFA scoring and application rejections were challenged by more than a dozen ATC applicants who had been disqualified owing to submission errors, including unreadable files.
What is the New Jersey Department of Health?
In the lawsuit against STIIIZY, plaintiffs alleged the company’s products contained inaccurate THC potency levels, leading to a rapidly growing category of lawsuits targeting cannabis brands for misleading labeling, inflated test results, or misrepresented product content.
What is the cause of action commonly asserted in these cases?
What is false advertising / consumer fraud?
In examining Florida’s medical marijuana program, the court in Smith noted that the Department of Health’s delay in awarding the statutorily required license conflicted with legislative directives requiring prompt implementation of the state’s cannabis framework, underscoring a key statutory mandate that agencies follow when executing medical marijuana licensing programs.
What is the duty to implement statutory licensing requirements?
In this Second Circuit case, a group of plaintiffs including one Super Bowl champion, two minor children suffering with intractable diseases, an association of individuals promoting diversity in cannabis businesses, and a veteran seeking access to medical cannabis for suicidal ideation, challenged the constitutionality of the Controlled Substances Act, as it pertains to cannabis, and established judicial precedent that cannabis is medicine
What is Washington v. Sessions (later Washington v. Barr)
Businesses often add proprietary modifiers or house marks to varietal names to overcome this refusal basis.
What is “mere descriptiveness/genericness refusal”?
In Variscite NY Four v. New York Cannabis Control Board, the plaintiffs asked the court to stop New York from issuing adult-use dispensary licenses based on a Dormant Commerce Clause challenge. The court found no likelihood of success or irreparable harm and refused to pause the licensing process. What urgent equitable remedy did the court deny?
What is a preliminary injunction?
Colorado resolved its investigation into 1906’s Midnight Drops, stemming from undisclosed adverse health events linked to Corydalis and Stephania (L-THP) extracts, through a formal consumer-protection settlement mechanism under state law, which required the company to cease operations and pay a $400,000 penalty. What was this type of settlement filing called?
What is an “Assurance of Discontinuance”?
In Smith v. Florida Department of Health, the plaintiff challenged Florida’s prolonged delay in issuing a medical marijuana treatment center license reserved for a specific class of historically disadvantaged farmers, an obligation created by state statute. This lawsuit highlighted the state’s failure to timely honor this legislatively mandated licensing priority.
What is the Pigford class preference?
In the Second Circuit’s Washington v. Barr decision, the court explained that, despite cannabis remaining a Schedule I substance and plaintiffs being required to pursue federal administrative rescheduling procedures, this congressional spending rider continues to shield state medical marijuana programs from DOJ interference.
What is the Rohrabacher–Farr Amendment?
Leafly challenged New York’s ban on this type of marketing and successfully argued that they were arbitrary and capricious under state administrative law, violating commercial speech protections
What is “third-party/marketplace paid promotion”?