Robert Raich Continues to Make History in Defense of Cannabis Use and Human Rights.
Examples of how the press has been covering our results-oriented approach.
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From the Anderson Valley Advertiser
Supreme Hypocrisy
Ruth Bader Ginsburg's connection to the Hallinan saga is indirect and faint, but the AVA is a newspaper, above all, and the Supreme Court is now Action Central as Antonin Scalia's protege ascends; so here's some relevant background.
California voters legalized marijuana for medical use in November 1996. In December '96 secret meetings were held in Washington, DC, at which Clinton Administration officials assured California law enforcers and private-sector Drug Warriors that they would take action to curtail implementation of the new law.
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As reported in the Washington Post:
"Still, as Oaksterdam preaches the gospel of pot entrepreneurism, its history offers a lesson in harsh reality. Robert Raich, a lawyer who has twice argued legalization cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, makes that lesson explicit in Cannabusiness 102, where he warns students of the risk inherent in cultivating a Schedule 1 drug."
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As reporrted in the East Bay Express
"The San Francisco District Attorney’s office stated in a court memo this month that sales of medical marijuana at dispensaries are illegal. It was news to us, and news to Oakland lawyer and cannabis law expert Robert Raich, who took a cannabis case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Raich sent us this email outlining why DA’s office is off-base."
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As reported in New York Times
"The city’s public health department treats a private party at a public place as if it were in a private home, so medical cannabis at such an event would be fine, according to Nancy Sarieh, a spokeswoman for the city’s public health department; Robert Raich, a lawyer who specializes in medical-cannibas law, concurred."
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San Francisco Chronicle
“Under California law, an employer may require pre-employment drug tests and take illegal drug use into consideration in making employment decisions,” the court said. “Ross gives great discretion to employers,” said Oakland attorney Robert Raich, a medical marijuana expert. Employers can prohibit employees in California from possessing, using or being under the influence of marijuana at work, just as they can forbid them from being drunk on the job.
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As reported in the East Bay Express
"Having a good lawyer can mean the difference between a successful canna-business and a stint in county. Yet there are very few ways to order up an experienced, well-referenced attorney specialized in local cannabis business formation, intellectual property, or inter-state franchising law.
Now filling that gap is the East Bay-centric National Cannabis Bar Association, which formally launches today at CanBAR.org.
'NCBA founding president and executive director Shabnam Malek said the all-female-led group grew organically out of national networking among specialized attorneys, and aims to complement NORML’s legal directory, and the cannabis-specialty groups forming inside state bars across the country.
The NCBA will serve the marijuana industry through a national network of specialized canna-counselors. A NCBA web directory is pending, as well as a Better Business Bureau-type certification for experienced cannabis lawyers, Malek told me.
The NCBA will also be instructing fellow lawyers, and has already begun holding workshops on intellectual property law for the cannabis space. Continuing legal education credits for its seminars is also in the works.
'As more and more states decriminalize or legalize cannabis – and set up their own regulatory structures – the legal conditions cannabis industry clients and their attorneys face are likely to get even more complex before they get simpler,' stated Malek.
Membership in the NCBA is open to practicing attorneys, paralegals, law students, and retired attorneys and will host an event for new members at the National Cannabis Industry Association’s Cannabis Business Summit and Expo in Denver on June 30, 2015.
The founding Board members <http://www.canbar.org/board/> of the NCBA include:
Shabnam Malek - president and executive director, NCBA
partner, Brand & Branch LLP, California
Lara Leslie DeCaro – secretary, NCBA
partner, Leland, Parchini, Steinberg, Matzger & Melnick, LLP, California
Amanda Conley – treasurer, NCBA
partner, Brand & Branch LLP, California
Leland Berger
solo practitioner, Oregon
Josh Kappel
partner, Vicente Sederberg LLC,Colorado
David Kochman
solo practitioner, New York
Robert Raich
solo practitioner, California
Jonathan Robbins
partner, Akerman, LLP, Florida
Mary Shapiro
Mary L. Shapiro Law, PC, California
Mitzi Vaughn
managing attorney, Greenbridge, Washington"
As reported in Smell the Truth
"Yesterday the highest court in California affirmed the right of cities and counties to ban medical marijuana dispensaries if they want to, reinforcing the status quo in much of the state. Dozens of California cities and counties have regulated medical marijuana dispensaries, but even more have banned them – creating a system of ‘wet and dry’ counties in California that will boost and protect medical marijuana businesses in cities that allow them, as well as protect the markets of clandestine medical marijuana delivery services, which thrive in cities that have instituted bans. Black market pot dealers in cities with bans also stand to benefit as legal medical cannabis dispensaries cannot cut into their business. The Court’s ruling assures that the drug – which is already widely available in every neighborhood in California – won’t be subject to safety regulations or sales taxes in cities with bans.
'We essentially have wet and dry cities here,' said Oakland attorney Robert Raich – a noted specialist in marijuana law.
Cities like Oakland, Richmond, Berkeley, San Francisco, and West Hollywood have received an economic boon from the Riverside verdict, he said."
As reported in Drug Truth Network
“It’s absolute craziness. The idea that if you are a medical researcher and want to work with medical cannabis to try to find what benefits it may have for patients is practically impossible in the United States. It’s ironically harder to do medical research with cannabis – a natural plant that grows out of the ground – than it is with any number of other Schedule I Controlled Substances that might really be dangerous drugs.”
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As reported in the East Bay Express
"Oakland lawyer and noted medical marijuana figure Robert Raich writes, 'All medical cannabis supporters should unite in advocating that authority for the regulation of medical cannabis be vested within almost any agency EXCEPT the ABC.' "
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As reported in the West Coast Leaf
“The state Supreme Court will affect the future of California medical cannabis dispensaries in 2013 by ruling on whether […state law…] prevents municipalities from banning dispensaries. Thus far, answers from the various courts of appeal have been decidedly contradictory.”
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As reported in The Atlantic Wire
"The federal government’s War on Drugs has hit Montana the hardest out of any state, according to Robert Raich, lawyer who has brought two medical marijuana cases before the Supreme court. Fearing that Williams doesn’t stand a chance in these trials, Raich says, “The War on Drugs is too sacrosanct a sacred cow for the courts to weigh in favor.” As you’ll see in this New York Times mini-documentary, Williams wasn’t running just any old shady operation. He graciously showed off his digs to state legislators and Montana law enforcement officers. Last week, activists in Montana rolled out a ballot proposal to make pot legal in 2014."
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Lady Bud
“Deputy Cimino goes so far as to mislead his readers among the CNOA membership by making misrepresentations that are demonstratively and completely false. For example, Cimino declares that hash and concentrated cannabis allegedly have no protection under California’s medical cannabis laws. In fact, an opinion reluctantly issued by none other than Attorney General Dan Lungren’s office shortly after the passage of Prop. 215 confirmed that concentrated cannabis is indeed legal pursuant to the Compassionate Use Act. Attorney General Bill Lockyer’s office subsequently issued an opinion reaching the very same conclusion.
In reading the article in its entirety I was struck by many issues including the potential violations of HIPAA, as well as many errors pointed out by Robert Raich, one of the leading attorneys in landmark cannabis litigation, when asked to comment on the legal aspects.
Raich validated my opinion of some of the legal issues that may contribute to unconstitutional policing in the field which has resulted in unlawful arrests and in the violation of search and seizure provisions by stating:
'Deputy Cimino goes so far as to mislead his readers among the CNOA membership by making misrepresentations that are demonstratively and completely false. For example, Cimino declares that hash and concentrated cannabis allegedly have no protection under California’s medical cannabis laws. In fact, an opinion reluctantly issued by none other than Attorney General Dan Lungren’s office shortly after the passage of Prop. 215 confirmed that concentrated cannabis is indeed legal pursuant to the Compassionate Use Act. Attorney General Bill Lockyer’s office subsequently issued an opinion reaching the very same conclusion.' "
California is cutting cannabis taxes in hopes of saving struggling pot businesses - LA Times
Robert Raich, an Oakland-based attorney and California cannabis law expert, told The Times on Tuesday that incremental changes in the new bill are very important.
“The most visible improvement will be supporting the legal, regulated market in cannabis,” Raich said. “The problem we have had ever since 2018 when we entered this regulated and taxed paradigm in California is that the regulations are too severe, too strict, and the taxes are so high that the vast majority of the market is still the underground market.”
California eliminates cannabis cultivation tax - KRON4
“That was a huge drawback that was frankly driving plenty of people in the industry into the unregulated, underground, so-called ‘legacy’ industry,” said Medical cannabis attorney Robert Raich.
Raich said taxes like the cultivation tax resulted in loss of customers for many growers. Instead, Raich says as many as 80% of customers went to their “neighborhood drug dealers,” which sell cannabis untaxed.
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