A group of Texas hemp businesses and a smoke shop operator have filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Allen, law enforcement agencies and officials, claiming they initiated an illegal raid on hemp stores and unlawful arrests.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday by the Hemp Industry Leaders of Texas (HILT) and Sabihe Kahn in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, alleges the municipality and police agencies violated the plaintiffs’ Fourth, Fifth, Eighth and 14th Amendment rights in raiding a legal hemp business.

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According to court documents, the plaintiffs claim legal hemp products were seized through an “overbroad search warrant” and that a testing lab failed to use updated testing methodologies that altered the concentrates of legal THCA into illegal delta-9, rendering

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In a letter to the U.S. Department of Treasury and the IRS, the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) is trying to provide guidance aimed at cannabis businesses and tax professionals ahead of potential marijuana rescheduling.

“Since the beginning of decriminalization and legalization of marijuana across a growing number of states, cannabis businesses and their CPAs have struggled to walk the tightrope of an industry that is locally legal but federally illegal,” Melanie Lauridsen, vice president of tax policy and advocacy for the AICPA, wrote in the letter.

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“It’s imperative that the federal government’s tax administration bodies provide guidance to these profitable businesses and their advisers in advance of the rescheduling of marijuana to help ensure a clear understanding of their federal tax

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An Arizona judge has declined to revoke and reassign an adult-use marijuana social equity permit that a lawsuit claimed was stolen from a qualifying applicant via predatory means, court records show.

Allegations have swirled for years in Arizona that out-of-state moneyed interests hijacked the licensing process for the 26 so-called social equity stores that state officials permitted in line with the adult-use legalization law voters approved in 2020.

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Proposed legislation that would have “reset” the contested process failed in the state Legislature earlier this year, so aggrieved social equity applicants have resorted to the courts.

Case in point

In one such case, Arizona resident Anavel Vasquez claimed she had been approached by investors to file an application for one of the social equity

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