Cannabis Law Group’s Medical Marijuana Legal Blog

Applicants vying for a cannabis retail business license in L.A. say the first-come, first-serve process the city used was fundamentally flawed. The Social Equity Owners and Workers Association, along with one of its members, have filed a lawsuit that would compel the city to either consider all the licensing applications it received last fall or…

Prosecutors for the U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of California have launched a grand jury subpoena, calling for records from Californian marijuana based companies, including the parent company of Weedmaps. Criminal prosecutors for the U.S. attorney ordered records from 30 cannabis companies, including Ghost Management Group LLC, owner of the subsidiary Weedmaps. Through…

California has been hailed with potential to rein as the world’s largest regulated marijuana market on the planet, but currently trails in per-capita sales when compared with other recreational markets across the United States. Much of this can be attributed to California’s rampant illicit cannabis market, and further compounded by the state’s stringent regulation requirements…

Three separate law suits have been filed, alleging that a Californian-based marijuana company and its key executive defrauded $1.2 million in loans from investors. The suits allege that Case Mandel and his Cannadips business operations, used fictional projections — inflated by as much as 2,000 percent — to deliberately mislead lenders into investing in his…

Regulations were proposed by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) last month, suggesting that appellations of origin are established for cannabis. As such, February 20 marked the beginning of the 45-day period required by Californian law, where the public can submit any comments it may have on the matter. The CDFA has continued…

As of March 1, 2020, California has allowed qualified medical marijuana patients and primary caregivers to receive free cannabis, donated by retailers. This welcomed update arose after the passing of Senate Bill 34, which is also responsible for exempting donated cannabis items from cultivation, sales and use, and excise taxes. The bill states licensed growers,…

Arroyo Verde farm, owned by Barry Brand in Carpinteria, was considered a prime example of how a legal cannabis business could flourish under close regulation from Santa Barbara County. Then in January, a sheriff-led raid of the farm found evidence to suggest the farm was not only selling licensed products, but also selling products on…

For 22 years, medical marijuana was the only kind of legal cannabis sold in California, until the state went on to legalize recreational cannabis in 2018. Within the months immediately following that addition, a number of medical marijuana dispensaries shifted away from leaving pot out on counters for customers to view and smell, to exclusively…

California’s cannabis industry is sitting on a not-so-well kept secret — that many of its licensed, above board, legal business operators have also traded unlawfully, at some point, and to one extent or another. As many industry insiders have echoed, anyone turning a profit in this new era, has to have at least one hand…

Ever since California legalized marijuana, state government job applicants have found cannabis use to be a major hurdle in gaining employment. Too often, legal cannabis is the reason candidates are deemed ineligible for government agency jobs. With a sharp rise in the number of public and private sector job seekers disqualified for testing positive for…