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

If watching the Indianapolis 500 is part of your Memorial Day weekend tradition, you'll see the latest example of CBD's reach into popular culture. New Mexico-based Craft 1861 is sponsoring the Carlin race team, which means the CBD products manufacturer will have its name and logo on cars zooming around the track at about 167 mph.

CBD: Can't Be Denied (publicity).

This week, the cannabis industry—and its lawyers—went to Washington, D.C., to lobby on pot issues. One attorney tells us about his view from the Capitol. Plus, marijuana companies rally to defend California rules allowing delivery statewide. And scroll down to see who got the work.

Thanks for reading! Enjoy your three-day weekend but after you're rested keep those story ideas and tips coming at [email protected]. Or you can call at 916-448-2935. Follow me on Twitter @capitalaccounts.

Marijuana Goes to Washington

Marijuana business advocates are wrapping up a three-day advocacy blitz in Washington, D.C. today as part of the National Cannabis Industry Association's ninth annual lobby days. Joseph Segilia, general counsel at Terra Tech Corp., had just finished meetings with the office of four Republican House members when I caught up with him.

"This is my third year doing this," Segilia said, "and each year the [congressional] staff members I've been meeting with seem more knowledgeable and our issues seem a little bit more on their radar screens."

>> In what Roll Call described as a political milestone, the House Cannabis Caucus and PR firm KCSA Strategic Communications held a forum Tuesday on issues facing the cannabis industry at an unusual location: inside the Capitol complex.

The big issue that more than 250 cannabis professionals in D.C. are talking to policymakers about is banking or, more specifically, the lack of banking services available to state-licensed marijuana operators. After a House committee advancedthe Safe and Fair Enforcement Banking Act in March, advocates expect to see a floor vote soon on the bill that would offer safe harbor to banks that serve marijuana-related businesses.

>> Banking groups this week asked the chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, who hasn't committed to giving the marijuana banking bill a hearing, to take up the Safe and Fair Enforcement Banking Act.

Congressional staffers seemed to "get" the banking problem, Segilia said. They were a little less receptive to ideas about fixing the tax burdens that state-legal businesses face under Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code. "It's just because the tax issues are a bit more technical than you have cash and you can't get it in the bank," Segilia said. "People get that."

The States Act, a bipartisan effort to shield marijuana-legal states from federal intervention, also came up a couple times with some Republicans' offices expressing interest in the states' rights element.

"For some people that's more important than the actual issue being cannabis," Segilia said.

>> Are Democrats allowing the legalization momentum of recent years die? Politico looks at fizzled efforts to create recreational marijuana programs in New York and New Jersey and concludes that so far, 2019 has not lived up to advocates' expectations.

Cannabis Coalition Fights for Delivery Regs

A group of 35 cannabis businesses has formed to counter, or at least counter-spin, a legal challenge by two dozen California cities to a state regulation allowing marijuana deliveries everywhere, including cities and counties where retail operations are banned.

The group calls itself Californians for Equal Access, and its members include Eaze, Caliva and Grupo Flor. In a recent letter to the League of California Cities, which backs the lawsuit, the group warns that "if the lawsuit succeeds, illegal operators will benefit."

I asked the group's spokesman, Nathan Ballard, a former spokesman for Gov. Gavin Newsom when Newsom was mayor of San Francisco, whether the companies planned to intervene in the lawsuit or file an amicus brief.

"It's premature to say what specific legal actions (if any) we are going to take," Ballard said via email. "The lawsuit is at the beginning stages. We oppose it. We are looking at a range of options for legal action if necessary."

The lawsuit, County of Santa Cruz et al v. Bureau of Cannabis Control, is pending in Fresno County Superior Court. The attorney general's office is representing the cannabis agency, and in an answer filed May 17, state lawyers argue, among other things, that the plaintiffs "are not real parties in interest and lack standing to sue."

A case management conference is scheduled for August. Meanwhile, legislation that would require California cities and counties where a majority of voters approved Proposition 64 to license retail marijuana operations is awaiting a full vote on the Assembly floor.

Who Got the Work

• Former U.S. Senate majority leader Tom Daschle(above) and Joe Crowley, a former congressman from New York, have joined the advisory board of New York cannabis investment firm with significant holdings in cannabis. Northern Swan has stakes in Colombian cannabis company Clever Leaves as and German distributor Cansativa GmbH, according to MarketWatch.
• Colorado Gov. Jared Polisnamed cannabis business consultant Ean Seeb as his special advisor on cannabis. Seeb was co-owner and manager of Denver Relief Consulting and he previously ran a dispensary, according to The Denver Post.
• Norton Rose Fulbright Canadaadvised Toronto-based The Supreme Cannabis Co. in its acquisition of Blissco Cannabis Corp. of Vancouver, British Columbia. Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang served as counsel to Blissco. The deal is valued at approximately $36 million.

In the Weeds… 

>> Want a marijuana business license in Utah? You might need a big bank account. Draft rules for the state's new medical marijuana program suggest a growers license could cost $100,000. "If you don't have those kinds of funds, you probably don't have the capacity to run this element of the business in a way that's best going to serve the patient community," Tom Paskett, executive director of the Utah Cannabis Association, told The Salt Lake Tribune. The state will make 10 growers licenses available initially. [The Salt Lake Tribune]

>> A betrayal or just business? Katie Shepherd has a great read about Oregon growers, pot DNA and pledges to fend off corporate weed that have turned into a potential class action. The details are unique but the story is a classic tale of the friction between those who want to protect and promote craft growers and the lure of venture capital and big business when marijuana becomes legal. [Willamette Week]

>> Marijuana companies played a major role in Georgia's adoption of a new medical marijuana law. They hired at least 20 lobbyists to push through the marijuana oil bill. One of the companies, Trulieve, hired the son of House Speaker David Ralston to lobby. Surterra Wellness worked with 10 registered lobbyists and gave more than $101,000 to various political candidates last year. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

>> Forget New York and New Jersey. Delaware may become the next northeastern state to legalize marijuana. Lawmakers last week introduced a bill that would authorize 50 grow sites, 10 manufacturing facilities, 15 retail stores and five testing labs. A 15 percent retail sales tax would be imposed and home-grows would be banned. Gov. John Carney says Delaware should wait to see what happens in other legalized states. [Philly.com]

>> Legalization has changed famed Humboldt County, and maybe not for the better, some say. Enormous licensing and regulatory costs are threatening the small pot farms that emerged from the back-to-the-land movement of the 1980s. Production on large-scale, commercial grows elsewhere in the state is driving down prices. And growers who have stayed in the black market face increased threats of enforcement from the county and the state. [The New Yorker]

The Calendar: Time to Mark It

May 28 - The International Cannabis Bar Association hosts a webinar on the 2018 Farm Bill and retail CBD issues across the U.S. Speakers include Courtney Moran of EARTH Law; Vicente Sederberg partner Shawn Hauser; AroMed Aromatherapy president Lauren Andrews and Frank Robison of the Robison Law Group.

May 29-June 1 - The Cannabis World Congress & Business Exposition takes place in New York City. Scheduled speakers include Alex Bernabe, assistant counsel to the governor of New York; Brent Johnson, CEO of Hoban Law Group; and Greg Ibach, undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.