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Cole is a member of the firm’s Regulatory Investigations, Strategy and Enforcement (RISE) group. He has a decade of experience working in the attorney general community, having joined the firm from the Wyoming Office of the Attorney General, where he was assistant attorney general.

Just before the close of the Colorado legislature’s 2024 session, lawmakers approved a bill aimed at streamlining several deficiencies in the state’s regulation of marijuana businesses. While not all the bill’s intended fixes were passed, certain provisions will facilitate significant changes for businesses, including for licensing processes, contaminant testing protocols, reporting obligations, compliance procedures, and operations management practices. Several notable changes are discussed below.

In the grand experiment of American democracy, it is often said that states serve as laboratories, testing policies that challenge the status quo without risking the stability of the whole. Oregon, known in recent years for its pioneering drug decriminalization laws, is at a crossroads that marks the end of a significant experiment. State legislators recently passed a bill aiming to recriminalize the possession of small amounts of certain substances, a move now awaiting Democratic Governor Tina Kotek’s approval. Last week, the governor announced that she plans to sign the bill. The move toward recriminalization highlights a broader conversation on the re-evaluation of drug policy, public health, and social justice in a post war-on-drugs environment in the U.S.

One of the most interesting aspects of marijuana law and policy in the U.S. is its tendency to strike at our most foundational democratic principles. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court held, in Gonzales v. Raich,[1] that Congress has the power to regulate the purely intrastate cultivation, manufacture, distribution, possession, and use of marijuana under the commerce clause, even if the marijuana never crosses state lines, because marijuana-related activity has a “substantial affect” on interstate commerce. Several challenges have been made to this conclusion since Gonzales was decided, none of which have been successful to date.

Whether you believe that cannabis legalization has occurred too quickly or too slowly, one thing is certain: recent developments herald a potentially seismic shift in federal cannabis policy in the U.S. Reflecting on our article from September, which discussed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) recommendation to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to reschedule cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), it is clear that the landscape continues to evolve rapidly. Since that publication, numerous noteworthy developments have unfolded, along with a growing discourse on the potential unintended consequences of such a reclassification. This article aims to catch readers up on the latest developments in federal cannabis legalization.

With rapid technological advances, expanded regulatory oversight, and constantly shifting market dynamics, owning and operating a business in the modern world has become an increasingly difficult challenge. Chief among the challenges that business owners face is the likelihood of financial distress, a daunting scenario that can arise from market downturns, management issues, or unexpected crises. When a business finds itself in financial turmoil, it is crucial that business owners and investors have viable options for navigating these challenges. Traditionally, bankruptcy is the primary avenue of relief for distressed businesses, offering a structured way to address financial woes and creditor claims.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has drawn criticism for heavily redacting a recommendation letter to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) concerning the rescheduling of cannabis. HHS said the redactions were justified under Exemption 5 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which protects inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters that would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the agency. As Stephen C. Piepgrass, Agustin E. Rodriguez, Jean Smith-Gonnell, and Cole White noted in a recent article published by Law360, this has sparked debates about the balance between necessary secrecy and the public’s right to government information. Legal challenges to these redactions are expected. The deliberative process privilege, which safeguards deliberative discussions within government corridors, is often invoked in the context of FOIA.

The principle of open government is foundational to a healthy democracy, and the availability of government records upon request from the public is one of its chief cornerstones. In the U.S., the primary mechanism by which the public gains access to government records is the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).[1] FOIA serves as a pivotal tool for ensuring governmental transparency by allowing the public to make requests to governmental entities to access specific government records.

In the latest episode of Regulatory Oversight, Troutman Pepper RISE attorneys Jean Gonnell and Cole White are joined by AGA’s Bruce Turcott, legal editor of the Cannabis Law Deskbook, to discuss the evolution of cannabis regulation in Colorado and Washington, the first two states to legalize marijuana. They discuss the challenges and successes of implementing cannabis laws, including the development of licensing systems, the impact of local authority on licensing, and the role of receiverships in the industry.

The cannabis industry has witnessed significant growth in recent years, marked by the legalization of medical and/or recreational marijuana in 38 states, Washington D.C., and three territories. Alongside this expansion comes the need for robust regulatory frameworks to ensure compliance and safety within the industry. One such regulatory component that has stirred considerable debate over the years is the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag technology in state track-and-trace systems. While RFID tags can offer significant benefits to both regulators and business owners when compared to traditional barcodes, the costs imposed on licensed businesses often outweigh the benefits that state regulators receive from requiring the use of the technology. In fact, in the Colorado Department of Revenue – Marijuana Enforcement Division’s (MED) latest draft rules governing the industry, the agency removed references to the requirements for RFID technology, a step that could signal the beginning of the end of state-mandated RFID tracking of cannabis products.

State attorneys general (AG) are continuing their push for cannabis banking reform, underscoring the need for action to promote public health and safety in legal cannabis markets. On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of 22 state AGs sent a letter to Congress urging passage of the Secure And Fair Enforcement Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act, coinciding