Jeffrey O'Brien

3 weeks ago | orlandosentinel.com | Jeffrey O'Brien

The start of April brings together two seemingly disparate events: the conclusion of the NCAA basketball tournaments and the beginning of Sexual Assault Awareness Month. One celebrates excellence in sport, and the other calls attention to the fact that sexual violence is widespread and has broad impact throughout the country. How are they connected?

1 month ago | jdsupra.com | Hilary Bricken |Jeffrey O'Brien

Like many others, we were caught up in filing a slew of Minnesota adult use cannabis applications for our clients by March 14 (which, if you were paying attention, that deadline was extended to March 15 by midnight because of a crash with the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) website). Every time a licensing window opens in a state with a new adult use cannabis program, there are lessons to be learned for clients, attorneys, and regulators, alike.

Nov 20, 2024 | jdsupra.com | Hilary Bricken |Jeffrey O'Brien

The Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management (“OCM”) has begun issuing final denials to the overwhelming majority of previously qualified social equity applicants (“SEA”s) ahead of its first statewide cannabis lottery on December 2 for 280 available “preapproval” cannabis licenses.

Oct 22, 2024 | cannabisbusinessexecutive.com | Jeffrey O'Brien

By Jeffrey C. O’Brien, Husch Blackwell LLPCalifornia Governor Gavin Newsom recently vetoed a proposal from the Assembly which would have created a “small producer event sales license”, which would have allowed cannabis producers to sell their products at state temporary events for up to 32days per calendar year, with the requirement that all products be cultivated by the licensee.

Oct 16, 2024 | jdsupra.com | Hilary Bricken |Jeffrey O'Brien

America’s Dairyland does not currently have any form of either medical or adult-use cannabis. The state has tried and failed at least a couple of times on convening medical cannabis legislation (see here on the latest attempt earlier this year). At the same time, Wisconsin is surrounded by three states that have both medical and adult-use cannabis programs (Minnesota, Illinois, and Michigan), with Canada to the north, which legalized cannabis in 2018.