Welcome back to Higher Law, our weekly briefing on all things cannabis. I'm Cheryl Miller, reporting for Law.com from Sacramento. Does anyone know what the marijuana laws are in Greenland? Asking for a president.

This week we're looking at:

• The cannabis law scene in Florida • Marijuana guidance for credit unions • Licensing news from Weedmaps • Pot zoning and California environmental laws • Calendar: 9th Circuit set to hear hemp case

Thanks as always for reading, Higher Lawyers. Keep those tips and feedback coming at [email protected]. You can also reach me at 916.448.2935. Follow me on Twitter @capitalaccounts.

Akerman Q&A: Florida, Marijuana Litigation and Credit Unions

This week the National Credit Union Administration issued interim guidelines spelling out how credit unions can legally serve hemp businesses. I called Jonathan Robbins, Fort Lauderdale-based chair of Akerman's cannabis practice for his take on the guidance. We also talked about the cannabis law scene in Florida because, well, it's Florida and there's always something fascinating going on

Here are a few snippets of our conversation, edited for length and clarity.

Higher Law: Akerman is leading litigation challenging state rules requiring marijuana companies to be vertically integrated and capping the number of licenses. What's the latest?

Robbins: The Department of Health took it up to the First District Court of Appeal and the court agreed with us, and now the Department of Health has filed a petition, asking the Florida Supreme Court to take up the issue.

So the problem is, that has sort of handcuffed the Department of Health and they have not moved forward to accept any applications or give out any new licenses, except for the ones that were given out by way of settlements or other litigation. So you've got about 400 applicants down here who have spent millions of dollars to acquire property, to do joint ventures to be able to apply to get licenses down here and nobody is even able to apply. And then at the same time you have the limited number of licensees who still exist down here who obviously have an economic interest in keeping a small closed vertically integrated market. This must be creating a lot of transactional work for lawyers. And litigation.

For better or for worse, there has been a deluge of litigation down here. And transactional work has been booming. We have some clients that are multi-state operators that are on an acquisition binge right now. That's certainly been keeping our M&A guys and women busy.

And on the real estate side, a lot of land use and zoning and real estate development and leasing. Each licensee can open, I believe, 35 stores and some can open more by litigation. So there has been a mad rush to open dispensaries and storefronts. So we do have over 100 down here now so it's certainly getting better in terms of patient access.

What's the hemp and CBD scene like in Florida?

We have a hemp statute. Obviously we're waiting on USDA rules before anything really kicks into gear. And then we're also waiting on the passage of some draft rules that have been making their way through the Department of Agriculture down here in terms of the registration of cultivators, extractors, sellers and transporters.

We have many clients that are lining up, who really want to get ready to sell CBD in Florida now that the Farm Bill was amended in 2018. And again they're just waiting by the sidelines, waiting for the USDA and of course the FDA to come out with some guidance in terms of what they can and can't do.

What do you make of the interim guidance from the NCUA?

I almost look at it like we look at the 2014 FinCEN guidance, which is still in force and effect. Unlike the Cole Memo it hasn't been rescinded. But notwithstanding the FinCen guidance, federally chartered banks have still been very, very reluctant to bank marijuana as distinguished from hemp.

I feel like this is sort of the same. It's not law. It doesn't give credit unions any rights that they didn't have before. And candidly it sort of raises the bar because if you look at the guidance, it makes very, very clear that the Bank Secrecy Act anti-money laundering policies and procedures are as important or more important than ever. So credit unions are still going to have to fill out the suspicious activity reports and they're still going to have to heavily vet their customers.

In the short term what is it going to mean? I suspect it may be business as usual at least until we see rules come out from the FDA.

Weedmaps Says OK to License Numbers

It was easy to miss but Weedmaps made a big announcement this week. Starting later this year, the online cannabis dispensary locator will require advertisers on its platform to display a state license number.

"The company is also restricting the use of its point of sale, online orders, delivery logistics, and wholesale exchange software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms to licensed operators exclusively," the Irvine, California company announced in a press release." In addition, Weedmaps will explore ways to make it easier for patients and adult-use consumers to identify the license number on advertised listings."

The news was tucked in below an announcement about support services Weedmaps says it will now offer low-income and minority-owned cannabis startups.

Why the new policy? Weedmaps and other platforms have faced criticism from regulators and licensed businesses for allowing non-permitted outlets to appear on their sites. California's 2018-2020 budget includes language beefing up fines for violations of its regulations. Another pending bill would specifically bar platforms from displaying ads that don't contain a state license number.

"From day one we've made it clear we want to support the legal market," Nicole Elliott, California Gov. Gavin Newsom's senior advisor for cannabis, said in an email. "This includes ensuring everyone is abiding by the law. Advertisers are no exception. While this is a signal that Weedmaps seems to be taking our priority of compliance to heart, like anything, the devil is in the details."

California Supreme Court Orders a New Look at San Diego's Pot Law

Figuring out California's local marijuana laws can be tough. Understanding them in the context of California's notoriously strict environmental laws can be even tougher.

This week the California Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye(above) told the city of San Diego to reconsider its initial environmental review of a 2014 medical marijuana ordinance. The ruling in Union of Medical Marijuana Patients Inc. v. City of San Diego has more to do with the California Environmental Quality Act than dispensaries. But it does offer some guidance for cities and counties considering new rules governing where marijuana retailers locate and how they operate.

"I think it's really helpful," Jeffrey Dunn, a Best Best & Krieger partner who counsels local governments on licensed marijuana facilities, told me. "If you are looking to enact an ordinance to allow cannabis businesses you have to consider under CEQA the potential for environmental impacts."

You can read my story in The Recorder here.

Who Got the Work

• Lauren Linder, associate general counsel at The Weather Channel, has joined Atlanta-based Surterra Wellness as deputy general counsel. Linder told my colleague Jonathan Ringel at the Daily Report that she expects to be involved "in deals, intellectual property and litigation management" at the vertically integrated cannabis company. Linder will report to general counsel Sarah Loya, who joined Surterra last year.

• Rezwan Khan has been elected president of the Global Alliance for Cannabis Commerce, an industry organization whose members include Alternative Herbal Health Services and Urbn Leaf. Khan is the vice president of global corporate development for DNA Genetics and co-founder of cannabis marketing firm seedleSs.

In the Weeds

>> Keep an eye on hemp in New York. Recreational-use legislation may have fizzled, but the Legislature sent Gov. Andrew Cuomo "one of the most comprehensive regulatory frameworks for hemp and hemp extracts in the country," according to Harris Beach attorneys Mitchell Pawluk and Meaghan Lambert.[Law.com]

>> A Florida lawyer will have to pay for his bad marijuana advice. A federal court in Jacksonville ordered Ian Christensen to pay two former clients $370,000 for erroneously telling them they could grow medical marijuana in their home, even before the state legalized medical use. The clients were arrested and were sentenced to three years of probation and fined $15,000. One client lost her nursing license as a result of the arrest. [The Florida Times-Union]

>> A researcher is suing the feds over bad bud. Dr. Sue Sisley, a scientist with the Scottsdale Research Institute, has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to allow her and other researchers to obtain cannabis for studies from sources other than the University of Mississippi, the only federally approved grow site. Sisley said the Ole Miss product is "suboptimal … green powder that is just cannabis ground up" along with sticks and seeds. "Simply put, this cannabis is sub-par," Sisley's attorney. Yetter Coleman LLP associate Shane Pennington, said in the complaint. [Arizona Capitol Times]

>> Harvesting regulatory scrutiny. Harvest Health & Recreation affiliates will give up two medical marijuana dispensary permits in Pennsylvania as part of a settlement with the Department of Health. Arizona-based Harvest Health boasted in a press release earlier this year that it held permits to operate 21 dispensaries in Pennsylvania—six more than any marijuana company is allowed to under state law. Harvest had amassed more permits by registering limited liability corporations under different names. [The Philadelphia Inquirer]

>> A hemp deliveryman is facing serious prison time in South Dakota after he was charged with marijuana possession with intent to distribute. Colorado resident Robert Hertzberg said he was moving 300 pounds of hemp valued at $23,000 from an organic farm in his home state to a CBD processor in Minnesota when a state trooper pulled him over for speeding. A spokesman for the South Dakota Highway Patrol said industrial hemp and its derivatives are illegal in the state. [Rapid City Journal]

Calendar: What's Next

Aug. 23-24 - CannaCon Northeast takes place in Springfield, Massachusetts. Listed speakers include Spaeth & Doyle partner Kyle England.

Aug. 28 - Oral arguments are scheduled in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Big Sky Scientific v. Bennetts. That's the case involving a truck-trailer full of hemp seized as illegal contraband by the state of Idaho.

Aug. 29-30 - CannaBiz Invest Asia takes place in Bangkok, Thailand. Scheduled speakers include Atthachai Homhuan, manager of regulatory affairs at Tilleke & Gibbins.