Welcome back to Higher Law, our weekly briefing on all things cannabis. I'm Cheryl Miller, reporting for Law.com from Sacramento. Happy Valentine's Day!

My inbox has been flooded this week with Cupid-related pitches for CBD-infused snacks and drinks. But with all the confusion and crackdowns surrounding CBD food additives these days, I'll probably stick with a glass of unadulterated wine tonight. 

This week we look at Squire Patton Boggs' work with a new cannabis lobby. Plus, in a historic first, Congress looked at the struggles cannabis businesses face trying to find basic banking services. And a presidential candidate admits to not just smoking pot but inhaling, too.

Thanks as always for reading. I appreciate your feedback . Let me know what we should be covering. Drop me a line at [email protected] or you can call me at 916-448-2935. Follow me on Twitter at @capitalaccounts.

Squire Patton's New Advocacy

Squire Patton Boggs has a new client. The newly formed National Cannabis Roundtable recently announced that it had hired the firm to pursue industry friendly changes to tax laws, banking regulations and research rules on Capitol Hill.

Leading the charge for the Roundtable will be a familiar face: former House speaker and current Squire Patton strategic advisor John Boehner. Boehner, a recent convert to the idea of regulating marijuana sales, will counsel the group but he won't register to lobby.

“Every day that goes by, [congressional] members are learning more about this and learning more from their own constituents about how the federal government continues to stand in the way,” Boehner told reporters.

The National Cannabis Roundtable's membership includes Acreage Holdings—Boehner joined the corporation's board of advisors last year—Greenspoon Marderand Flow Kana.

The Liaison Group, which already lobbies for Acreage Holdings and trade groups in California and Oregon, and HDMK Public Affairs have also been retained by the National Cannabis Roundtable.

Squire Patton's announcement follows news last month that the Cannabis Trade Federation, a 501(c)(4) advocacy group whose founding members include CannaCraft, TILT Holdings and IAnthus Capital Holdings retained Steve Fox of VS Strategies and Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck to lobby on its behalf.

Marijuana Banking Goes to Washington

Did you catch history in the making yesterday? A U.S. House Financial Services subcommittee held a first-ever hearing on the challenges state-licensed cannabis businesses face trying to find basic banking services.

It was a banner day for Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colorado, who has been trying to address the issue for years, only to be rebuffed by anti-marijuana Republicans who controlled the House until this year.

“Today's hearing is a big deal,” Perlmutter said at the hearing. “It's a big deal for thousands of employees and businesses across this country who have been put at risk because they are forced to deal in piles of cash while Congress stuck its head in the sand for the last 20 years.”

The four-hours long hearing played out about as you'd expect. Democrats generally backed Perlmutter's proposal to protect financial institutions from federal sanctions if they serve state-licensed cannabis businesses. Republicans said their Democratic colleagues should focus on descheduling marijuana first. in the same way hemp was legalized in last year's farm bill.

“We have shown the blueprint of how to do this and it's an amendment to the Controlled Substances Act, which is not in the jurisdiction of this committee,” said Rep. Andy Barr, R-Kentucky.

“Are you willing to vote to delist marijuana” one of Barr's colleagues asked

“No,” Barr responded. “I'm not.”

No vote has been scheduled yet on Perlumtter's Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act.

>>> A provision in Perlmutter's bill would also protect businesses that do ancillary work for the marijuana industry — law firms, plumbers, utilities — from having their accounts closed by banks.

Entered into the record Wednesday was a letter from San Francisco attorney Henry Wykowski, who has represented marijuana dispensaries for years and has struggled to find a bank that will serve his firm. “There is something fundamentally wrong when laws and policies meant to maintain the legal integrity of our financial institutions get in the way of people seeking legitimate advice,” Wykowski wrote.

You Said It!

Who Got the Work

• Duane Morris partner Nanette Heide worked on two major cannabis transactions making news this week. Heide, who co-chairs the firm's private equity practice, represented dispensary giant Harborside in its reverse merger with Canadian operator Lineage Grow Co. Heide also counseled Devine Hunter Inc. in its acquisition by Harvest Health & Recreation Inc. That deal will give Harvest control of 16 medical marijuana licenses in Arizona.

• There's a lobbying blitz in Washington featuring the alcohol industry pouring money into cannabis advocacy, my colleague C. Ryan Barber in Washington reports at Law.com. The Distilled Spirits Council, Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of Americaand the Beer Institute were among the groups to start lobbying on marijuana over the past year.

• Weedmaps has picked up a new lobbying firm in Washington, D.C., according to recent disclosure filings. Darling, Rothschild & Scott, a lobbying and public relations shop, will advocate for California-based Weedmaps on “banking, appropriations riders and federalism in cannabis law,” the registration says. Weedmaps already works with lobbying firms Liberty Government Affairs and Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough.

In the Weeds…

>> Kamala Harris (above) wants you to know she smoked marijuana. And inhaled. “Half my family's from Jamaica,” she said in a radio interview. “Are you kidding me?” Such is the state of presidential politics heading into 2020 (at least for Democrats). Not only is it OK for a candidate to admit toking up in the past, it may make her seem … cool. Harris says she supports legalization and expunging non-violent marijuana convictions. It's an evolving position. As a candidate for California attorney general in 2010, she opposed a ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana. [CNN]

>> When coffee and cannabidiol collide, there's trademark trouble ahead. The owners of Coffee By Design, a Maine company that operates several coffee shops and sells coffee beans, say the cannabidiol craze is confusing their customers—especially when competitors offer CBD-infused coffee on the menu. Mary Allen Lindemann and Alan Spear say their trademark bars others from using “CBD” in relation to coffee products and coffee shops. A trademark fight has been put on hold, for now, after Maine regulators ordered retailers to stop selling edibles containing cannabidiol. [Bloomberg]

>> Weed in the workplace. “The laws surrounding marijuana legalization are complex and changing quickly. Employers looking to control employee use of the substance inside or outside of the workplace through drug policies and screening programs must observe both federal law and applicable state laws,” Wilson Elserattorneys Dean Rocco and Noelle Sheehan write. [SHRM]

>> RooR is a bong-maker on a mission. My colleague Jenna Greene writes that since 2018, the German manufacturer of premium water pipes and its U.S.. licensee Sream have filed more than 300 trademark infringement suits in federal courts in Florida, Texas, Louisiana and Indiana. RooR counsel Jamie Sasson from the Ticktin Law Group in Deerfield Beach says the lawsuits are necessary to combat a flood of fake bongs. Wayne Schwartz of Boca Raton's Lee & Amtzis, who last week defeated a RooR infringement suit at trial, calls the litigation an attempt “to shake down innocent retailers.” [Law.com]

>> Local moratoriums on recreational marijuana businesses are lifting across Massachusetts. But that doesn't mean retailers are rushing to open outlets.“ Practically speaking, they replaced a moratorium often times with a process that's incredibly slow, very challenging and very expensive,” Jim Smith, an attorney at Smith, Costello & Crawford, told The Republican. [MassLive]

>> A would-be firefighter has sued Bridgeport, Connecticut for discriminationafter he says the city rescinded his job offer because of his medical marijuana use. An assistant city attorney declined to comment on the case. Connecticut law prohibits employers from refusing to hire someone solely because they are a qualified medical marijuana user. A federal judge last year ruled in favor of Connecticut woman who lost a job offer at a nursing home after she tested positive for medical marijuana. [Connecticut Post]

>> The first city has stepped forward to challenge California's delivery regulations. Leaders of the Sierra foothills town of Sonora this week authorized a lawsuit against the Bureau of Cannabis Control for enacting new rules that allow marijuana deliveries in cities and counties that have banned commercial cannabis operations. City officials say those rules violate Proposition 64. [The Union Democrat]

The Calendar: All the Things

Feb. 15 – Thompson Coburn attorney Mark Levinson will be part of an online panel discussing “Financing Options for the Cannabis Industry.” The event is hosted by Expert Webcast.

Feb. 19 - BDS Analytics hosts the webinar ”Breaking Down Year 1 of California Adult-Use Sales.” Tamar Maritz, BDS Analytics' California director, will lead the discussion.

Feb. 21 - Harris Bricken attorneys Daniel Shortt, Nathalie Bougenies and Griffen Thorne will host a webinar, “West Coast Hemp CBD.”

Feb. 21 - The National Cannabis Bar Association hosts the online presentation “Insolvency in Cannabis: Access to Bankruptcy Courts, How to Prepare Your Clients, and Alternatives to the Federal System.” Patricia Heer, the co-founder of Cannabis Law Digest, will be the speaker.