Category: Regulatory Compliance

Categories
Legislation Regulatory Compliance

MA Cannabis Commission Releases New HCA Resources

Lauren Medeiros Forster —

Last week, the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission (“CCC” or the “Commission”) released new resources for navigating the rocky waters of community impact fees (“CIFs”) and host community agreements (“HCAs”). This announcement likely comes in response to the ruminating and yearning for additional guidance by operators and municipalities following the CCC’s release of new regulations and host community agreement template last year. See our prior blog post, “CCC’s Model HCA & Approval Process,” for more information on those regulations and HCA template.

This new release details several new resources available to cannabis businesses and their host communities in Massachusetts. Kimberly Roy, the Commissioner and Chapter 180 Working Group HCA Co-Chair stated, “[t]hese guidance documents are meant to serve as compliance tools to help clarify and streamline the new processes. As we approach the one-year mark in March of the new HCA requirements, the Commission continues to exercise its statutorily given authority to review and approve Host Community Agreements to ensure these contracts are compliant with current law.”

Continue reading “MA Cannabis Commission Releases New HCA Resources”
Categories
Legislation Regulatory Compliance

Social Consumption Lounges in Massachusetts: Proposed Rules

Gustav Stickley V —

At the formal meeting of the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission (the “CCC”) on December 17, 2024, the CCC introduced proposed rules to govern cannabis consumption lounges. It has long been understood that, as the adult use cannabis market matured, the CCC would revisit the sparse regulations governing social consumption lounges and develop a licensure process. 

Below is a summary of the three proposed license types and the draft regulations, which are open for comment from stakeholders until 5 p.m. EST on Thursday, January 23, 2025. Following this initial comment period the proposed regulations will be published to solicit public comment. All capitalized terms used herein shall have the meanings given to them in the proposed Adult-Use Regulations (935 CMR 500.002), which are available here.

License Types

The following licenses will be exclusively available to Social Equity Businesses, Social Equity Program Participants, Certified Economic Empowerment Priority Applicants, Microbusinesses, and Craft Marijuana Cooperatives for an initial period of 60 months, an extension of the current exclusivity period of 36 months.

Read the full client alert on our website.

Categories
Banking and Restructuring Mergers and Acquisitions Regulatory Compliance

November 2024 Transaction Highlights: A Month of Newsworthy Successes

Marc A. Polito —

Our Cannabis Industry Group would like to thank our clients—major cannabis market leaders—for yet another successful month, trusting us to close several notable and newsworthy deals across various practice areas and industries in November 2024. Our team of dedicated attorneys provided strategic counsel on complex transactions, including banking and finance, mergers and acquisitions, workouts and receiverships, and public securities, showcasing our commitment to delivering exceptional results for our clients. These achievements underscore the strong partnerships we have with our clients, as well as our firm’s extensive experience and collaborative approach to navigating intricate legal and business landscapes while servicing major market leaders in the cannabis industry.

Continue reading “November 2024 Transaction Highlights: A Month of Newsworthy Successes”
Categories
Legislation Regulatory Compliance

Massachusetts Superior Court Holds That New HCA Law Does Not Apply Retroactively

Max M. Borg —

On June 10, 2024, Associate Justice Jeffrey Karp, of the Massachusetts Superior Court, Essex (the “Court”), issued an important—and, to many licensed cannabis businesses in Massachusetts, surprising—ruling in the case of Haverhill Stem LLC vs. James J. Fiorentini, that the new Host Community Agreement regulations (See Chapter 180 of the Acts of 2022, “An Act Relative to Equity in the Cannabis Industry” (the “New HCA Law”)) promulgated by the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission (the “CCC”) do not apply retroactively to the Host Community Agreement (the “Stem HCA”) entered into in 2018 between the City of Haverhill, Massachusetts, (the “City”) and Haverhill Stem LLC (“Stem”), a licensed cannabis dispensary.

Therefore, the Court held that the Stem HCA is governed by the language of G.L. c. 94G and 935 CMR 500 et seq. as in effect at the time of entry into the Stem HCA (the “Old HCA Law”), such that the Stem HCA is not governed by the New HCA Law.

Continue reading “Massachusetts Superior Court Holds That New HCA Law Does Not Apply Retroactively”
Categories
Regulatory Compliance

CCC’s Model HCA & Approval Process

Lauren Medeiros Forster —

In May, the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission (“CCC” or the “Commission”) released a bulletin (the “Bulletin”) regarding some administrative license extensions in response to the Commission’s new framework and processes governing host community agreements (“HCAs”) in Massachusetts.

Under the CCC’s new regulations governing HCAs, licensees, and their host communities, licensees are required to submit to the CCC a compliant HCA that is approved by the Commission before the licensee can be granted approval for their final license or an annual license renewal.

Continue reading “CCC’s Model HCA & Approval Process”
Categories
Controlled Substance Act Employment Issues Legislation Meet Blank Rome Mergers and Acquisitions Regulatory Compliance

Welcome to Cannabis Industry Insights

Frank A. Segall, Scott H. Moskol, and Max M. Borg —

Whether you are a plant-touching operator or an ancillary business, lender, or investor, Blank Rome’s Cannabis Industry Insights blog is your go-to resource for the cannabis industry.

Authored by our trailblazing Cannabis practice attorneys, the Cannabis Industry Insights blog explores the rapidly evolving legal, regulatory, and business landscape, helping those in the sector stay ahead of the curve and seize industry opportunities. Our cannabis team was one of the first in the United States to utilize its extensive corporate and finance experience to support the cannabis industry, and has received numerous accolades, including Law360’s prestigious 2023 Cannabis Practice Group of the Year.

Through our blog, we will continue to explore issues that directly impact the cannabis industry. With the announcement of the rescheduling of cannabis from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3 under the Controlled Substance Act, we are optimistic about new and expanding opportunities for industry players. In addition to interviews with industry leaders, the blog will cover such topics as the impact of rescheduling on 280E taxation; legal and regulatory compliance concerns; the landscape for mergers and acquisitions; legislative efforts; banking, insurance, and other business issues; capital markets; workouts and restructurings impacting the industry; the growing importance of e-commerce, fintech, and regtech; debt and equity financings; labor and employment issues in light of unionization efforts; data privacy and security; and employee stock ownership plans (“ESOPs”); among other areas that are relevant to the underpinnings of the industry.

Our goal is to help cannabis businesses survive and thrive in this highly regulated environment, as well as to assist new participants in entering this exciting industry. Subscribe below to receive our timely content:

Categories
Legislation Regulatory Compliance

The Future of Hemp-Derived THC

Marc A. Polito —

Recent state and federal rumblings lead us to believe we may finally have some resolution to the uncertainty surrounding the legality of hemp-derived synthetic THC products, including without limitation, delta-8 THC, as an amendment to the 2018 Farm Bill has been proposed to clarify the loophole allowing for the sale of such hemp-derived products.

When the 2018 Farm Bill was enacted in 2018, it removed hemp, defined as cannabis (Cannabis sativa L.) and derivatives of cannabis with low concentrations (no more than 0.3 percent tetrahydrocannibinol (“THC”) on a dry weight basis) of the psychoactive compound delta-9-THC, from the definition of marijuana in the Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”). Hemp comes from a cannabis plant, just like the delta-9 THC producing marijuana plant, but a hemp-cannabis plant refers to cannabis plant that contains 0.3 percent or less of delta-9 THC. Delta-9-THC is the compound generally responsible for the psychoactive effects of cannabis that is subject to the CSA. A typical marijuana-cannabis plant on the other hand, can have anywhere from 15 to 30 percent of delta-9 THC.

Continue reading “The Future of Hemp-Derived THC”
Categories
Controlled Substance Act Regulatory Compliance

Rescheduling Timeline and Exclusions

Gustav Stickley V —

Advocates of the cannabis industry are understandably excited over the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (“DEA”) recent publication of its proposed rule to reschedule marijuana as a Schedule III controlled substance under the Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”). However, the proposed rule is subject to the due process required by the federal rulemaking regime and will not be officially implemented (if at all) for at least a couple of months, possibly longer. Below we set forth the current timeline of the rulemaking process.

Further, it is helpful to understand what exactly is being rescheduled. We know there are hundreds of cannabinoids, derived from both hemp and from cannabis, and there are manufacturing processes allowing for the creation of synthetic tetrahydrocannabinol (“THC”) and other synthetic cannabinoids. So what’s being rescheduled as Schedule III? We will discuss this below.

Continue reading “Rescheduling Timeline and Exclusions”