Pursuant to the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act, Mississippi residents can petition the state’s Department of Health to add new serious medical conditions or their treatments to the existing list of conditions that qualify a...more
Word began circulating a few days ago that tobacco giant Philip Morris has agreed to purchase Israeli cannabis company Syqe Medical for a whopping $650 million if certain future events come to fruition. While the two...more
I sound like a broken record, but I will say it again: To remain compliant in the cannabis industry requires an almost constant state of diligence. This point was reinforced earlier this month when the Mississippi Department...more
After years of uncertainty, the USPTO has finally provided insight on how it views applications for cannabis-related marks, suggesting that the use of such marks will be heavily scrutinized.
In 2016, National Concession...more
5/12/2023
/ Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Patent Applications ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Registration ,
Patents ,
Trademark Application ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO
If you haven’t heard, the patient numbers in Mississippi’s new medical cannabis program are not rising at the pace many hoped they would. This has caused quite a bit of concern across the industry down here. A healthy pool of...more
4/20/2023
/ Advertising ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Revenue ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Marketing ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
State and Local Government
Welcome to the latest installment of the Editors’ Roundtable, in which our editors – Whitt Steineker, Jay Wright, Hunter Robinson, and Slates Veazey – discuss cannabis issues in the news and take a stab at where the cannabis...more
4/4/2023
/ Amended Legislation ,
Cannabidiol (CBD) oil ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
DEA ,
Farm Bill ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Hemp ,
Hemp Cultivation ,
Hemp Related Businesses ,
THC
For at least the past decade, federal bankruptcy courts have routinely prohibited cannabis businesses from seeking protection under federal bankruptcy law, regardless of whether a cannabis business is legally operating under...more
A revamped Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act heads to Gov. Tate Reeves’s desk after both chambers amended the law in several key respects, most notably to help improve patient count numbers that have created quite a bit of...more
Obtaining adequate and affordable insurance coverage remains one of the many challenges in the cannabis industry. Most large insurance carriers – adverse to the risk posed by unfavorable federal law – have so far chosen to...more
Oh Daddy! It’s not “Rumours” or one of your “Dreams” – although it may be “Second Hand News” to our most knowledgeable readers: A federal court in Washington recently upheld the state’s cannabis residency requirement for...more
Texas is increasingly a purple political state. The motto of the state's capital city implores its citizens to keep it weird. Recent polling shows that Texans overwhelmingly support medical cannabis. Every one of Texas'...more
On January 16, 2023, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Regulatory Services Division (RSD) announced it would begin accepting new applications for medical cannabis dispensaries in Texas, under the Lone Star State’s...more
1/18/2023
/ Applications ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Dispensaries ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Medical Marijuana ,
New Legislation ,
Physicians ,
State and Local Government ,
State Legislatures ,
Texas
As we turn the calendar to another year, and because we run a cannabis law blog, it seems fitting to write about year one of Mississippi’s medical cannabis program and to preview what 2023 may have in store as the program...more
In the gift-giving spirit of the season, the Mississippi Department of Health has dropped proposed additions and revisions to the agency’s regulations for medical cannabis cultivators, processors, testing facilities,...more
12/21/2022
/ Cannabis Products ,
Dispensaries ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Cultivation ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Public Comment ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
State and Local Government
For decades, the federal government only allowed scientists to research marijuana grown on the campus of the University of Mississippi. While Mississippi-grown cannabis will continue to be the subject of federally sanctioned...more
On Oct. 13, Mississippi's highest court ruled that a South Korean company, LG Chem Ltd., which manufactured a battery that powered a vaping device, could be sued in Mississippi, despite that company having no physical...more
“Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness… Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
– George Santayana, The Life of Reason -
We originally aimed to quote Santana rather...more
Welcome to the third installment of the Editors’ Roundtable, in which our editors – Whitt Steineker, Jay Wright, Hunter Robinson, and Slates Veazey – discuss cannabis issues in the news and take a stab at where the cannabis...more
Last week, Mississippi’s highest court ruled that a South Korean company, LG Chem, which manufactured the battery that powered a “vaping device,” could be sued in Mississippi, despite that company having no physical presence...more
Yesterday, President Joe Biden made two historic announcements which he described as steps to “end” the federal government’s “failed approach” to marijuana. First, he is issuing mass pardons for federal convictions of simple...more
10/7/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Cannabis Products ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Deregulation ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana ,
Presidential Pardons ,
Presidential Proclamations ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Wrongful Conviction
Welcome to the second installment of the Editors’ Roundtable, in which our editors – Whitt Steineker, Jay Wright, Hunter Robinson, and Slates Veazey – discuss cannabis issues in the news and take a stab at where the cannabis...more
10/5/2022
/ Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Dispensaries ,
Hemp Cultivation ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Cultivation ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
State and Local Government
The changes in the cannabis industry in Southeastern United States represent some of the most surprising and remarkable changes in the history of the industry...
Originally published by Bloomberg Law....more
9/15/2022
/ Alabama ,
Arkansas ,
Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Florida ,
Georgia ,
Louisiana ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Medical Marijuana ,
North Carolina ,
Proposed Legislation ,
State and Local Government ,
State Legislatures ,
Tennessee
As we predicted back in April, disputes between medical cannabis businesses and counties or municipalities over local zoning ordinances and permits are starting to arise. Participants in Mississippi’s medical cannabis program...more
This is the first in what we hope will be a regular feature where our editors – Whitt Steineker, Jay Wright, Hunter Robinson, and Slates Veazey – discuss cannabis issues in the news and take a stab at where the cannabis...more
In late 2018, my esteemed partner, Whitt Steineker, recruited me to join the firm’s newly formed Cannabis Industry team. Around that time, groups in Mississippi were actively seeking signatures to get a ballot initiative in...more