On May 28, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives (House) renewed its efforts to decriminalize cannabis at the federal level by reintroducing the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2021 (MORE Act). A 2020 version of the bill passed the House in December of 2020 with…
The Indiana Supreme Court recently issued an opinion in New Nello Operating Co., LLC v. CompressAir that clarifies the elements to be met when establishing that a buyer of a business will be liable as the successor to the obligations of the target. Now, to fall under either of two exceptions to the…
On April 15, 2021, Governor Eric Holcomb signed Indiana Senate Bill 201 (the “SB 201”) into law, modifying the state’s zero tolerance per se law concerning marijuana and its metabolites codified at Indiana Code Section 9-30-5-1. SB 201 provides an affirmative defense for drivers operating a motor…
On Monday, April 19, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act of 2021 (the “Act”). The legislation was reintroduced in Congress in late March through a bipartisan effort involving members of both the U.S. House of Representatives (House) and the…
On Wednesday, February 17, 2021, the Indiana House of Representatives (“Indiana House”) approved House Bill 1224 (“HB 1224”) by a vote of 69 to 28. The bill, which now advances to the Indiana Senate, could result in a reversal of Indiana’s 2019 ban on smokable hemp. Lifting the ban would, according…
On January 28, 2021, the Indiana Supreme Court affirmed freedom of contract principles and upheld discounts of over thirty percent in the fair market valuation of shares in a dispute over the buyback provision in a shareholder agreement among all of the shareholders of a closely held company. In …
Earlier this month, the Office of the Indiana State Chemist (“OISC”) began accepting applications for licenses to commercially grow and process hemp using its new online licensing software (the “Application”). The new Application is live following approval of the Indiana State Hemp Plan (the…
Within the past two months, there has been a flurry of activity in the cannabis space, including continued litigation over Indiana’s hemp laws,1 the release of Indiana’s 2021 hemp grower/handler application by the Office of Indiana State Chemist & Seed Commissioner (“OISC”), the passage of the …
On January 1, 2021, Congress enacted the Corporate Transparency Act (the “CTA” or the “Act”) as part of the greater National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021. The CTA requires certain domestic and foreign companies to disclose beneficial ownership information to the U.S. Department of…
Congress finally agreed on a new COVID relief package, passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (the "Act") after months of intense negotiations about scope and dollars, and has sent the Act to President Trump for his signature. The President has tweeted objections about some provisions of…
On Friday, December 4th, 2020, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 3884, the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act (MORE Act) by a vote of 228 to 164. If enacted, the MORE Act would end federal prohibition of cannabis, require federal courts to expunge prior cannabis (or…
On November 18, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued Revenue Ruling 2020-27 and Revenue Procedure 2020-51, which, respectively, provided additional guidance regarding the IRS position on the non-deductibility of expenses funded with Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan proceeds and a…
