Lately I have been fielding questions regarding cannabis business opportunities to or from Mexico, Canada, and China, and I always get questions from clients and prospective clients regarding importing and exporting hemp or marijuana to or from the U.S. market. If you are wondering what is going on in international cannabis, the answer is that there is a lot going on. Many countries, governments, businesses, and voters around the world are in some stage of…

In recent posts, we’ve explored legislative developments regarding cannabis in Argentina, Colombia and Mexico. Today, we turn our attention to Central America, and specifically Costa Rica, where a bill that seeks to legalize medical cannabis is winding its way through the legislative process. The bill was originally introduced by Zoila Rosa Volio in March of last year, but has since stalled. Based on comments by Volio, bureaucratic ineptitude is mostly to blame…

In a word, yes. A lawsuit recently filed in Jackson County, Oregon by a tenant alleges that his landlord has wrongfully evicted him from a warehouse containing 36,000 pounds of hemp, which the plaintiff alleges will be worth $1.5 million when processed, and 500 pounds of trimmed flower with a market value of $175,000. (Marks v. Laminate Tech., Inc., 20CV31971 – email me if you’d like a copy of the complaint). Before discussing the lawsuit,…

Recently, in Cannabis is Coming! The Latest on Colombia and Mexico, we wrote about legislative initiatives regarding cannabis in two of Latin America’s most important economies. Today we turn our attention to another of the region’s traditional powerhouses, Argentina, which is seeing developments not just at the national level, but also in its provinces and even cities. Medical cannabis was legalized in Argentina in 2017, but inadequacies in the accompanying regulatory framework meant…

Due to coronavirus, what normally would have been a pretty robust legislative session in the California Assembly for new cannabis bills was generally underwhelming. The set-up is markedly different than the 2020 session, where there were over 30 cannabis-related bills. Nevertheless, here we are. At this point, we have a handful of live bills that are not terribly mind-blowing or potentially impactful. In fact, there’s not even a gubernatorial budget trailer bill catch all this…

Como muchos de nuestros lectores sabrán, la Cámara de Representantes de los Estados Unidos votará este mes para despenalizar la marihuana en todo el país. De prosperar ciertas iniciativas legislativas en Colombia y México, las contrapartes de la Cámara en estas dos importantes economías latinoamericanas podrían seguir sus pasos. En Colombia, los representantes Juan Carlos Losada y Juan Fernando Reyes (ambos del Partido Liberal, representando a Bogotá y el Valle del Cauca respectivamente) han presentado…

As many of our readers will know, the U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote on nationwide decriminalization of marijuana this month under the MORE Act. If legislators in Colombia and Mexico have their way, the House’s counterparts in two important Latin American economies could be following its steps. In Colombia, Reps. Juan Carlos Losada (Liberal – Bogota) and Juan Fernando Reyes (Liberal – Valle del Cauca) have introduced a bill to permit…