Minnesota is poised to legalize adult-use cannabis with the approval of HF 100 by the state legislature. Governor Tim Walz is expected to sign the bill soon (and may in fact have done so by the time this post goes live), making Minnesota the 23rd state (plus DC, Guam, the Marianas, and the Virgin Islands) to legalize recreational cannabis. Commencing on August 1, Minnesotans will have the right to possess, use, and cultivate cannabis for personal consumption within their homes.

Similar to other states that have recently legalized adult-use cannabis, Minnesota’s new law establishes possession limits, allowing up to two pounds of cannabis flower in private residences and two ounces in public. The bill also sets caps of 800 milligrams for edibles and eight grams for concentrates.

The new law envisions the licensing of retail establishments, but Minnesotans (and folks in neighboring states) will have to wait a bit longer before dispensaries open their doors in the Twin Cities, Rochester, and beyond. As Jen Randolph Reise explains:

The bill creates a new regulator, the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), which will be promulgating important rules and granting licenses. Currently, the Senate bill directs license applications to be available Jan. 1,

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News broke yesterday which will affect quite a few people in the Oregon cannabis industry. Chalice Brands Ltd. (CSA: CHAL) obtained a court order in Ontario, Canada (“Initial Order”) which grants the company and its affiliates protection (a “stay”) from creditors. At least temporarily. The Initial Order is here and the Chalice press release is here. Chalice also filed an Oregon Circuit Court complaint on May 22 (“Complaint”), where it sued five of its own subsidiaries (the “Subsidiaries”) to drive them into receivership locally. If you’d like a copy of the Complaint, email me here.

I’m not an insolvency lawyer, so I won’t delve into issues of how the Initial Order from a Canadian court could be binding with respect to the Subsidiaries, which are Oregon companies. My guess is the Complaint was filed to address concern that Oregon creditors won’t respect the Ontario court’s rulings– including the stay. Appointing a local receiver could also expedite the disposition of all these local creditor claims.

I will note that the Initial Order, underlying pleadings, and Complaint make for interesting reading. The Complaint for example alleges that:

the Subsidiaries owe Chalice over $35 million in intercompany debt (while admitting “these numbers

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Last week, my colleague Jesse Mondry and I spent an hour discussing the challenging state of the cannabis industry and how it’s been impacting those who are considering litigation or other dispute resolution options. If you weren’t able to attend the webinar, below are some of the key discussion points and takeaways.

We’re seeing even more breach of contract actions

This isn’t surprising. As the industry grapples with the downturn, there is just an overall inability to comply with preexisting agreements or payment terms. In particular though, breach of contract claims have been even more rampant in the purchase and sale context because people are just not paying up – so much so that California even proposed a program to deal with how extensive the problem is becoming.

We’re also seeing an uptick in LLC and partnership disputes

This isn’t new either, but as companies fail to perform as advertised several years ago, LLC member and partnership disputes have steadily increased as well. As Jesse covered, it’s important to get things documented well – he specifically mentioned he’d love to see more provisions relating to the accounting aspect of the business in operating agreements – to clarify the

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