Sep 20, 2017 | California Marijuana Laws
The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration has published general information relating to sales and use tax laws, cannabis tax law, and other programs. While these are broad brushstrokes, there are copious links to rules for specific regulations, making it a comprehensive, well-presented digital document.
The Tax Guide for Cannabis Business does not address regulations contained in other state and local laws. A touch of wry humor shines through the comment “for the Federal Government’s guidance regarding marijuana enforcement, refer to the U.S. Department of Justice website” with a link provided.
The General Layout of the Guide
The main index tabs relate to filing returns, making payments, taxes & fees, forms & publications, permits & licenses, tax rates, and knowing your rights. The getting started section provides essential information concerning registration, returns filing, account maintenance, and other related topics.
There are separate sections for cultivators, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, plus a resources section that takes the reader to publications, special notices, statutory and regulatory information, web-based seminars, and access to help from customer service representatives. (more…)
Sep 18, 2017 | MMJ News
A last trump customarily refers to the final trumpet call that signals the end of an era. The Los Angeles Times is concerned the days of the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment might be drawing as abruptly to a close. That amendment to the federal spending bill prevents the Justice Department interfering with medical marijuana businesses ‘that comply with their state’s laws’, but this could fall away.
Rohrabacher-Blumenauer requires annual verification when the federal spending bill comes up for consideration. This has consistently happened since 2014. Senate already approved it this July. This approval has, however, no force unless Congress concurs too and that may not happen this time.
Congress has an instrument called the House Rules Committee, which balances in favor of the majority party. Since Congress does not have unlimited time for discussions, the Rules Committee determines the ‘rules’ governing debate over a specific measure. On September 6, the committee decided to exclude the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment from the federal spending bill debate. (more…)
Sep 13, 2017 | Marijuana Legalization
The Law of Demand states there is an inverse relationship between price and the size of the market. All things being equal, fewer people will purchase a product if the cost to them rises. The corresponding Law of Supply states suppliers will push more goods into the market the higher the price. Thus in the latter case the relationship is direct all things being the same.
Macroeconomics is a battleground on which buyers and sellers, largely unconsciously jostle the actual price in the direction that benefits them best. The jumbo Law of Supply and Demand holds that the price point will be where supply and demand curves intersect in an open market thus.
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Aug 29, 2017 | California Marijuana Laws
While folk from liberal societies could think it’s most peculiar, in California the new normal is commercial banks don’t accept marijuana deposits. A sane person might have thought this was a handy source of funds. Moreover, the IRS might find some useful information when chasing for undeclared money.
How We Came Into This Situation
Under Federal law the cultivation, transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of marijuana is a felony because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration lists it as a Schedule 1 substance with ‘no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse’. This was not always the case though until 1970.
Around 1840, doctors decided Cannabis had medical value, and pharmacies sold it freely until the passing of the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act. This taxed the product until repeal the following year. Some folk believed the Act was a countermeasure by timber farmers because cheaper marijuana bark was threatening their business interests.
Things came to another crunch in 1970 with the passing of the Controlled Substances Act. Reasons for outlawing marijuana were (a) high potential for abuse, (b) no currently accepted medical use, and (c) lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision. Unbelievably, on December 1, 1975, the Supreme Court ruled it was ‘not cruel or unusual for Ohio to sentence someone to 20 years for having or selling cannabis.’ (more…)
Aug 18, 2017 | Marijuana Legalization
Medical marijuana scored a major victory in the District Court for the Northern District of California this week. Judge Richard Gus Seeborg ordered federal prosecutors to pack their bags and stop hassling two law-abiding Humboldt County farmers. His reasoning was they were abiding by California laws, and cited two legal principles to substantiate his decision.
Were it not for these two principles, the Feds had a case as watertight as a good hookah ever was. Los Angeles Times reports they found ‘more than three hundred marijuana plants in a pair of greenhouses’ at Anthony Pisarski and Sonny Moore’s place five years ago. They also discovered ‘guns in a house on the sprawling property and about $225,000 in cash, much of it bundled in vacuum-sealed pouches, hidden in a garage and some pickup trucks’.
When they looked further, they found ‘another large stash of cash, along with bars of gold and silver’ so clearly they thought they had stumbled onto something big. Not true, Anthony Pisarski and Sonny Moore argued before the judge. We sold our palliative pot to legit collectives, and we abide with California law.
Judge Seeborg concurred with them. He ruled, “Their conduct strictly complied with all relevant conditions imposed by California law on the use, distribution, possession, and cultivation of medical marijuana.” In so doing, he relied on these two legal principles: (more…)
Jul 29, 2017 | MMJ News
A few weeks ago we posed the question whether Congress was about to change a clause in the omnibus spending bill regarding medical marijuana. This has historically shielded MMJ from federal oppression in states that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical cannabis. At the time, the situation appeared to be on a knife-edge. Thankfully, sanity has prevailed one more time.
The Huffington Post reports how Jeff Sessions, 84th Attorney General of the United States had been pressing the Senate Appropriations Committee to change the status quo. In May 2017, he wrote a personal letter to congressional leaders to repeal the Rohrabacher–Farr amendment, thereby putting persons with dread diseases at risk of arrest for taking marijuana to ease their pain.
The Attorney-General previously wrote, “I believe it would be unwise for Congress to restrict the discretion of the department to fund particular prosecutions, particularly in the midst of a historic drug epidemic and a potentially long-term uptick in violent crime.” We will pass on whether people reposing on a sick bed are capable of such things, and continue with events that unfolded in Senate on Thursday, July 28, 2017. (more…)
Jul 20, 2017 | Marijuana Legalization
The old English proverb “There’s Many a Slip ‘twixt the Cup and the Lip” alerts us to the fact we should not count our chickens before they hatch. Outcomes are never certain until they happen. Nowhere is this truer than when it comes to getting marijuana on the shelves of California, or so it seems.
Take Nevada, for example where casual cannabis came out the closet last month. The people queued out the door and down the streets according to LA Weekly. There was only one problem to mar their moment. Somebody in Carson City forgot to approve any distribution licenses.
Clearly, nobody was going to risk the Feds purloining their stuff. It took a whole two weeks before two emergency distribution licenses clicked in, and the product was back on the shelves. If we did the same with alcohol, we may as well reintroduce prohibition.
California is in an even bigger mess. Counties and cities can issue distribution licenses, but only within their jurisdictions. A load could leave San Bernardino County legally, but become contraband after it crossed over into Riverside. However, we are not even near that point yet. The MMJ Law specified independent distributors, while Proposition 64 allowed retailers to ship their own recreational product. (more…)
Jul 13, 2017 | Collective Operations
California has the largest medical marijuana industry in the world. It is evolving from a grey area niche business into the mainstream. The specific regulations are still being ironed out on how licensing is going to happen and include recreational set to start January 1, 2018.
State officials and various municipalities are currently crafting the framework for cultivation and retail sales. Public hearings on the new regulations take place throughout the state this summer, which will replace and update the MRCSA California system. The first batch of licenses is expected to be handed out in January.
There are potential revenue opportunities in learning how to open a medical marijuana dispensary. (more…)
Jul 5, 2017 | MMJ News
In 2003, Reps. Maurice Hinchey, Dana Rohrabacher, and Sam Farr produced a piece of legislation aimed at preventing the Justice Department spending money to interfere with the implementation of state medical marijuana (MMJ) programs. After failing six times, it finally became law in 2014 as part of an omnibus spending bill. The full text thus incorporated read:
“None of the funds made available in this Act to the Department of Justice may be used, with respect to the States of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin, to prevent such States from implementing their own State laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.”
The medical marijuana lobby hailed this as a victory for MMJ, and proof the battle was over finally. But, was it? The text was time-based, just like the omnibus spending bill that required refreshment every year. (more…)
Jun 23, 2017 | California Marijuana Laws
Having two systems for regulating medical and recreational marijuana in California has complicated licensing. To recap, the Medical Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act MCRSA was put in place to manage medicine. While the Control, Regulate, and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act AUMA that followed later focuses on recreational use.
This had been holding up the rules for licensing the recreational supply chain. Those problems thankfully belong to the past, now the California Senate has adopted the new hybrid Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act MAUCRSA. This repeals the MCRSA, while incorporating some of its provisions in this updated version of the AUMA.
We have more than a new acronym however to learn, since the changes are significant for California marijuana providers. In summary form: (more…)
