Cannabis Legal & Compliance
Guidance
Guidance
The Cannabis Industry is expected to be worth $50 billion by 2026. California’s medical marijuana laws can be confusing and is important to have an experienced cannabis lawyer that understands the cannabis industry and relevant law.
Our medical marijuana lawyers represent a wide variety of individuals seeking advice and representation in the area of medicinal marijuana. Clients and stakeholders include:
- Cannabis cooperatives
- Cannabis cultivators
- Cannabis distributors
- Cannabis manufacturers
- Cannabis retailers
- Investors in cannabis ventures
- Medical Marijuana dispensaries
- Physicians who recommend medical marijuana or cannabis
- Testing labs
Throughout, we provide both regulatory and corporate and transactional legal advice to clients in this ever-evolving industry.
Practice Areas Involving Medical Marijuana & Cannabis Law
Our practice areas include:
- Counseling on corporate formation of companies offering cannabis products
- Corporation formation of MSOs pioneering cannabis clinics in ventures that will involve clinicians
- Drafting M&A documents for acquisition and sale of cannabis ventures
- Licensing of intellectual property (IP) involving cannabis
- Other contract drafting, review, and negotiation in the MMJ industry
- Real estate issues, including land use and zoning, and permits
Complying with the complex laws and regulations governing the cannabis industry is a basic pre-requisite for any business looking to operate in this sector.
Locally, California’s dual licensing system for cannabis operators means there is a lot of bureaucracy to navigate. California’s 540 cities and counties maintains different requirements for security, ownership, criminal history, hiring, odor control, water use, energy use, vertical integration, and many other areas of compliance.
To run your cannabis business, you must ensure that you can run your operation at a particular location. Our attorneys provide in-depth legal counsel to operators in the cannabis industry, from cultivators and manufacturers to transporters, distributors, testing labs and retailers.
We will guide you through the complex land-use and zoning considerations involved so that business owners can apply for permittable sites for their facilities.
Telehealth and Cannabis Recommendations
In California, the medical board states that the use of telehealth for medical marijuana cannabis patients is permitted, so long as the telehealth practice is in compliance with Business & Professions Code, Section 2290.5 and used in a manner consistent with the standard of care. Section 2290.5(e) defines “telehealth” as the mode of delivering health care services and public health via information and communication technologies to facilitate the diagnosis, consultation, treatment, education, care management, and self-management of a patient’s health care while the patient is at the originating site and the health care provider is at the distant site.
On its webpage regarding telehealth, the Medical Board of California emphasizes the following:
- Physicians using telehealth technologies to provide care to patients located in California must be licensed in California.
- Physicians need not reside in California, as long as they have a valid, current California license.
- Physicians are held to the same standard of care, and retain the same responsibilities of providing informed consent, ensuring the privacy of medical information, and any other duties associated with practicing medicine regardless of whether they are practicing via telehealth or face-to-face, in-person visits.
- Information consultations between practitioners, telephone conversation, email or instant messaging (IM), or fax, are not telemedicine in California.
However, every state has its own laws concerning telehealth practices.
In many (if not most) states—with some exceptions—the physician must also be licensed in the state in which the patient is located. Thus, it is not sufficient that the physician is licensed in California, if the patient is located in another state. As well, some states may require that the physician—or a suitable licensed designee, such as (for example) an NP or PA—conduct an in-person exam of the patient.
Moreover, each state may have different laws, regulations, and policies, concerning therapeutic recommendations involving cannabis. As well, there is some legal ambiguity regarding the legality of telehealth as it applies to cannabis practices. California law, as noted, has a liberal policy toward telehealth so long as the practice comports with standard of care (and other legal requirements are met); however, California law is much stricter with regard to prescription via telehealth, and favors use of an in-person exam, conducted by the attending physician.
Further, although California’s Compassionate Use Act allows the use of cannabis for medical purposes, there is potential for enforcement in (or from) other states (e.g., the patient’s state) where cannabis is prohibited, or based on the potential for enforcement under Federal law.
And, the prospect of federal enforcement remains, as federal policy and enforcement priorities around cannabis use continually shift.
This is one example of how a cannabis company must take into account the laws that exist in every relevant market, and have a synergistic, detailed legal review of the many facets of law that can inform and guide a foundational business decision.
Call us at 310-844-3173 if you’re in need of a cannabis & medical marijuana lawyer!
FAQ
Great! Let us know and we’ll do a conflicts check and then send you an engagement letter. Typically we want to know if we are going to represent you as an individual, or your entity (corporation or LLC); we’ll also want to know your website and some basic contact information.
Review our legal services to see some of the areas we like to work in; check our testimonials, client roster, and experience; read some of our blog posts; check out our Linked In community; or just call or email us to explore. Put simply, we represent health and wellness products, technologies, practices and ventures that accelerate health and healing.
We are very comfortable working with clients via phone and email. You can sign, scan and email the engagement letter, and submit the advance by check or online.
The answer depends on the complexity of the project. Each client’s situation is different. We want every client to receive the best possible advice, and so we want to be in a position to devote as much time as is required to do that. Look to our testimonials, client roster, and experience. We work with our clients effectively and efficiently and build long-term relationships based on mutual trust. We bill hourly and do not offer project or flat fees. Lawyering is an art, not a science – we’re intuitive as well as skilled lawyers.
Yes, like most law firms, we require an advance against fees and costs. Our typical advance ranges from $3,500 – $10,000. We offer our expertise and savvy and work hand-in-hand with you toward your goals. Occasionally, we will offer you a one-hour consult as a way to jump-start our work together, and give you an overview of critical issues, with guidance on the critical business cross-roads you’re facing. We do not take equity or deferred compensation.
Our Firm doesn’t quite “quotes” or answer “how much does it cost.” Through long experience, we’ve found that the answer is pretty much meaningless. Some lawyers and law firms give quotes, but if you read the accompanying disclaimer, you’ll see that the disclaimer basically says that you can’t depend on the quote for anything. In our long experience, “how much it costs” depends on a lot of variables, including:
- What the client is asking for
- What the client really needs
- What the client doesn’t know they don’t know
- What we discover as we dive into the legal research and analysis
- How complicated the problem really turns out to be
- How much client will want to do on their own
- Whether we can find some elegantly simple solutions to sub-parts of the puzzle
- What decisions we make together, and separately, as we explore the puzzle and put solutions and strategies together
In many cases, we might think a project is very complex but then as dig in, we can make executive decisions and recommendations that save the client dozens of hours of lawyer time and tens of thousands of dollars. This happens a lot with our clients. In other cases, the client might think the problem is simple but as we start to review it, the puzzle is much larger; sometimes the client throws in extra facts and complications at the last minute, and that will increase the expense and work; sometimes we’ll give the client “homework” so they can DIY a piece, taking it outside the need for lawyer time.
One thing we do is get our clients frequently on the phone. We find that the Legal Strategy Session often cuts through the fog. Where we need to do a chunk of written legal work, we’ll do so and let you know that’s what we think is needed. Where we can be more efficient with a call, we’ll tell you that as well.
Many clients come us after having wasted tens of thousands of dollars with other lawyers. Read our testimonials. We’re here to provide a lot more value than the retainer—our business model and Firm policy is to provide at least 3-5 times the value back to you. That’s our model and we’re sticking to it. We’re not trying to sell you on a “cheap retainer” or promise of discounts. We’re here to solve a big hairy problem and get you where you need to go, as efficiently and productively as we can.
Typically, assessing feasibility involves legal and strategic advice, which we provide in the 45-minute consult, in a way that is appropriate to the time we have together there.
The only way to know is to jump into the process. If you want to know more about us and how we work, browse our testimonials, look at our client rolodex, or review our experience on our website.
Work with us and find out how efficient and engaged we are with your business. We like to work with clients for life. It is a deep and trusting relationship.
Michael’s bio is online here. He has written books on healthcare law and policy, taught healthcarelaw as a faculty member at Harvard Medical School, garnered NIH and other medical research grants, and published over 100 articles in legal and medical journals. Michael speaks all over the world on healthcare topics.
