Advising clients on the rapidly evolving environmental and litigation risks facing the industrial hemp and cannabis industry.
Why B&D?
The passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, together with the steady pace of state-level cannabis legalization, has rapidly increased the number of participants in the legal cannabis space. These participants find themselves facing a complex patchwork of environmental regulations, along with significant litigation risks. Relying on its 40 years of experience advising clients in the agricultural arena, Beveridge & Diamond assists cannabis-based businesses with state-level environmental compliance, project planning, environmental risk avoidance, and, where appropriate, litigation services and defense against state-level environmental enforcement actions.
B&D is at the forefront of this emerging area of law. We are closely involved with industry trade organizations, such as the National Industrial Hemp Council. In addition to publishing extensively on environmental issues facing the industry, our lawyers lead lectures, webinars, and presentations, such as one on how the cannabis industry can adapt to evolving environmental laws at the American Bar Association’s 2019 Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section meeting.
Clients
Our clients include:
- Trade organizations and other entities that seek to provide their members educational resources and/or guidance on environmental and litigation concerns facing the industry
- Growers, manufacturers, and suppliers of cannabis and cannabis products
- Ancillary businesses that support the industry, such as product packaging suppliers and manufacturers of fertilizers, pesticides, and plant nutrients
Capabilities
- Compliance advice on California’s Prop 65 requirements
- Defense of civil litigation
- Defense of environmental enforcement actions brought by local and state government
- Permitting
- Green marketing claims
- Sustainability and climate change-related issues
- Permitting for projects and preparation of environmental impact statements
- Preparation of contracts/agreements implicating environmental issues
- Preparation of environmental, health, & safety warnings and disclosures
- Product labeling
- Pesticide registration
- Waste permitting from cannabis production
- Water rights and management
Possessing, using, distributing and/or selling marijuana, as well as paraphernalia relating to marijuana, is illegal under federal law, regardless of any state law that may legalize or decriminalize such activity. Although federal enforcement policy may defer to states’ laws and not enforce conflicting federal laws, interested businesses and individuals should be aware that compliance with state law in no way assures compliance with federal law, and there is a risk that conflicting federal laws may be enforced now and in the future. This website does not provide legal advice, and no legal advice we give is intended to provide any guidance or assistance in violating federal law. Services are not available in all states; the firm’s cannabis practice is limited to those states and jurisdictions with robust cannabis regulation and legalization regimes, and advice is provided only by lawyers licensed in those jurisdictions. Please also note that we do not advise on the federal, state, or local tax consequences of engaging in any business in this industry.
