Category Archives: Cannabis

With the opening of the East Coast’s first marijuana retailer just days away, consumers in Massachusetts may soon begin seeing advertisements promoting all manner of cannabis products, services, and establishments.  The state’s Cannabis Control Commission has drafted regulations that place restrictions on marijuana advertising, but even with those restrictions, there is still plenty of opportunity for retailers and product manufacturers to promote cannabis to consumers,… More

It may feel like the dust has yet to settle on the 2016 Election, but the first important deadlines for the 2018 Election are just around the corner.  In Massachusetts, proposed Initiative Petitions for the November 2018 ballot must be submitted to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office (AGO) on or before Wednesday, August 2, 2017.

Initiative petitions provide issue advocates with a means of passing policy proposals that may have stalled in the Legislature.  … More

On November 8, 2016, Massachusetts voters passed Initiative Petition 15-37, The Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act.  The Act: legalizes the possession of one (1) ounce or fewer of marijuana for people age twenty-one (21) and older and the personal possession of ten (10) ounces and not more than twelve (12) plants cultivated in a person’s primary residence for personal use; establishes a Cannabis Control Commission with the authority to license,… More

As we anticipated in an earlier post, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court provided clear guidance on the appropriate time to challenge ballot initiatives in two July 6 decisions. The opinions, both authored by Chief Justice Gants, strongly urge plaintiffs to bring challenges to ballot initiatives by February 1 in election years.

In Dunn v. Attorney General, the plaintiffs contested the Attorney General’s certification of a petition that would make it unlawful for farms to knowingly confine certain farm animals in a cruel manner and for businesses to knowingly sell certain products from animals that have been so confined.… More

In a departure from its typical schedule — hearing oral arguments during the first full week of every month from September through May — the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court will hear challenges to two proposed ballot initiatives on June 8, 2016. The first case, Hensley v. Attorney General, concerns Petition 15-27 which would permit those 21 and older to possess,… More

The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear a lawsuit brought by the attorneys general of Nebraska and Oklahoma challenging Colorado’s oversight of a legal marketplace for marijuana.  In a one line order released this week, the Court denied the states’ request for leave to file a complaint invoking the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction—a tool that allows the Court to hear disputes between states in the first instance. … More

On January 6, 2016, the attorneys general of Oklahoma and Nebraska fired what may be the final salvo in the first round of a battle over Colorado’s legalization of marijuana before the U.S. Supreme Court.  The aggrieved states have accused Colorado of operating “a massive criminal enterprise” that earns hundreds of millions of dollars per year by exporting marijuana to its neighbors.  Dissatisfied with the response from the U.S.… More