It’s 2021 and Cannabis is still NOT completely legal. People are still being arrested. The time for this to change is long overdue. Too many people have had their lives ruined because of the insane, archaic laws that still exist

In most states. the state could not just permanently set and forget drug schedules without delegating law making authority to an International Treaty, protocol or Uniform Law Commission. 

GrayRobinson   The High Court Quashes Lower Court Rulings Against the Existing Statutory Framework By Richard M. Blau, Esq.,Chairman Robyn Vines, Shareholder   Cannabis Industry Group On May 27, 2021, the Florida Supreme Court issued a decision weighing in...

Senate Bill 311 would require that hospitals and certain types of healthcare facilities in the State of California allow a terminally-ill patient to use medical cannabis for treatment and/or pain relief. Smoking or vaping cannabis is expressly prohibited, and the bill is not applicable to a patient receiving emergency services or care.

The recently published Ordinance No. 83/2021, which came into force on 16 April, details the requirements and procedures for obtaining authorisations for the exercise of activities related to the cannabis plant in Portugal, and its use for medicinal, medical-veterinary and scientific research purposes.

Cannabis (also known as marijuana) and hemp have been classified as a category 5 narcotic under the Narcotics Act since 1979. All activities related to the plants and their derivatives had been very much restricted until the recent rise of the cannabis legalization movement—its first milestone being Amendment (No. 7) to the Narcotics Act, effective February 19, 2019. The Thai government has since been working to reclassify the products and lay out the regulatory pathways to accommodate these new “economic plants.”

A Green surge in Germany is opening up the possibility it could be the first European country to fully embrace adult-use cannabis.

Good news for UK hemp and cannabis with the unveiling of proposals which could free the industry from the regulatory grip of the crime-focused Home Office and unleash its economic and well-being potential.

The occupational safety issue is not cannabis, alcohol, or other drug use itself, but whether employees show evidence of cognitive and motor impairment on the job

Market analysts have been predicting that the legal cannabis industry has been ‘about to blow up’ for what seems like years now, so why hasn’t it? Individual companies have performed well, but year to year there hasn’t been the shocking growth that many speculated would occur after national legalization. Is there something in the way, or did the analysts get something wrong?

Since the amendment of the Thai Narcotics Act allowing the use of cannabis for medical purposes for the first time in 2019, Thailand continues to take strides to deregulate certain parts and extracts of the cannabis and hemp plants, expanding the scope of their application to cosmetics and food. Recent legislative changes that are impacting the cannabis and hemp industry are summarized in further detail below, with a particular focus on cosmetics and food.

On June 22nd, 2021, after a hard-fought battle, Connecticut’s governor finally decided to sign Senate Bill 1201, which legalized adult-use recreational cannabis as well as to expunge thousands of past convictions for marijuana possession. With his signature, Connecticut became the 19th state to legalize recreational marijuana, and the fifth to do so this year following New Mexico, New York, Virginia, and New Jersey.

After the Court denied a review of a Colorado case which dealt with a medical marijuana dispensary and a challenge to a public policy provision in the Tax Code, Associate Justice Thomas, notoriously one of the most conserveative judges to ever sit on the bench, wrote a statement acknowledging that, because of an acceptance of state-level cannabis legalization, “a prohibition on intrastate use or cultivation of marijuana may no longer be necessary or proper to support the Federal Government’s piecemeal approach.” He further asserted that the Colorado case that the Supreme Court refused to hear is a prime example of the fact that marijuana businesses do not experience “equal treatment” under the law.

On May 27, 2021, the Florida Supreme Court issued an opinion addressing several constitutional challenges to Florida’s medical marijuana law. The 6-1 decision determined that the constitutional challenge to vertical integration and licensing caps is not likely to succeed on its merits and overturned the lower court’s injunction.   The Court’s decision will impact small companies hoping to enter the state’s marijuana market and means that regulators of Florida’s medical marijuana industry will not be required to amend the current licensing structure.  The Supreme Court’s decision stems from a lawsuit filed by Florigrown, a Tampa-based medical marijuana company that applied to become a Medical Marijuana Treatment Center (“MMTC”).

There are over 2,000 pending federal trademark applications for supplements containing cannabidiol (“CBD”). None of these applications is likely to proceed to registration under current law.

Earlier this month, the Federal Court issued its decision in Subway IP LLC v Budway, Cannabis & Wellness Store, 2021 FC 583, a case involving a cannabis retailer that knowingly adopted a parody mark in connection with its business. This case was no laughing matter for the plaintiff, Subway IP LLC (Subway), or the Court, which ruled in favour of Subway, and awarded the plaintiff permanent injunctive relief, damages and over 80% of its costs.

This paper will focus on some of the most critical aspects involved in the production and disposal of hemp particularly the different types of permits offered, the issues of possession of industrial hemp as well as the harvesting process and the process after harvest and penalties for non-compliance with the regulations. According to the regulations, industrial hemp means the plant cannabis sativa and any part of the plant including the seeds thereof and all derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids, isomer, acids, salts and salts of isomers, whether growing or not with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of not more than 0.3% on a dry weight basis.