With a stroke of his pen on Wednesday, Governor McKee signed the bill that dramatically changes the landscape for marijuana cultivation, possession, sale and use in Rhode Island. Many of the changes are effective immediately. There have been many failed attempts at such legislation over the past decade, but momentum has grown over the past...

After several years of fits and starts, Rhode Island is finally poised to pass a substantive cannabis legalization bill as soon as next week. An amended version of the previously-proposed cannabis bill is now on the fast track toward passage at the State House. Major developments in the amended bill include automatic expungement for past...

Rhode Island House Speaker Joe Shekarchi seems to think so. While he has been quoted in local media saying that while the legislature is “still not there” on a final product, he is at least ready to say that “we’ve worked down to almost one issue that’s left.” That specific issue, it seems, is who...

Can the President unilaterally legalize marijuana under federal law? In early November, Congressional researchers concluded that, while President Biden cannot directly remove marijuana from control under federal controlled substances laws, he could order executive agencies to consider either moving marijuana to a different schedule so that it could be legally possessed and sold or changing...

The future of nearly two dozen pre-approved companies seeking medical cannabis dispensary licenses in five of Rhode Island’s six geographic zones will be decided on Friday, October 29. The license hopefuls submitted substantial applications to the state in December of last year, but the license lottery – originally expected to occur in the first quarter...

Workers at Solar Therapeutics, a cannabis dispensary in Somerset, Massachusetts, voted last week to join the United Food and Commercial Workers (“UFCW”) union, after Solar Therapeutics’ management declined to voluntarily recognize the union. “I am so proud of my coworkers for sticking together,” said one Solar employee about the vote. “We love our jobs and...

Two recent unanimous decisions from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court confirm the supremacy of the state’s marijuana laws over local zoning restrictions. The decisions also indicate a tendency of the Supreme Judicial Court to look to the state policy of legalizing the sale of marijuana when faced with restrictive local ordinances. Both cases involve the...

Green Thumb Industries (“Green Thumb”) has announced that it has closed a deal to acquire one of only three existing medical cannabis dispensaries in Rhode Island, further expanding the Chicago-based company’s substantial footprint in the legal marijuana industry nationwide. Green Thumb is acquiring CanWell Processing and Mobley Pain Management and Wellness Center, each of which...

The federal Food & Drug Administration (“FDA”) has refused to consider an application by Charlotte’s Web Holdings, Inc. (“Charlotte’s Web”) for a CBD product to be sold as a dietary ingredient. Instead of clarifying the uncertain legal environment around of the sale of CBD products intended for human and animal ingestion, the FDA’s inaction maintains...

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court denied review of a case out of Colorado dealing with a medical marijuana dispensary’s challenge to a tax code provision. After denying review, Justice Thomas—one of the Court’s most conservative members and one not known for offering unsolicited political or legal opinions—issued a statement indicating that, with an increasing...