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State AG Insights

Foley Hoag’s State Attorney General Investigations lawyers offer their experience, insight and skill to help your business through the considerable challenges of an AG investigation or enforcement action.

A Trap for the Unwary: Cannabis Health Claims Likely to Draw Scrutiny from Advertising Regulators
Blog November 06, 2018
With the opening of the East Coast's first marijuana retailer just days away, consumers in Massachusetts may soon begin seeing advertisements promoting all manner of cannabis products, services, and establishments.  The state's Cannabis Control Commission has drafted regulations that place restrictions on marijuana advertising, but even with those restrictions, there is still plenty of opportunity for retailers and product manufacturers to promote cannabis to consumers…
Time to Start Working on 2018 Ballot Questions
Blog March 15, 2017
It may feel like the dust has yet to settle on the 2016 Election, but the first important deadlines for the 2018 Election are just around the corner.  In Massachusetts, proposed Initiative Petitions for the November 2018 ballot must be submitted to the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office (AGO) on or before Wednesday, August 2, 2017. Initiative petitions provide issue advocates with a means of passing policy proposals that may have stalled in the Legislature…
Summary of The Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act
Blog November 22, 2016
On November 8, 2016, Massachusetts voters passed Initiative Petition 15-37, The Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act.  The Act: legalizes the possession of one (1) ounce or fewer of marijuana for people age twenty-one (21) and older and the personal possession of ten (10) ounces and not more than twelve (12) plants cultivated in a person's primary residence for personal use; establishes a Cannabis Control Commission with the authority to license…
Update: SJC Strongly Urges Plaintiffs to File Challenges to Ballot Initiatives by February 1
Blog September 19, 2016
As we anticipated in an earlier post, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court provided clear guidance on the appropriate time to challenge ballot initiatives in two July 6 decisions. The opinions, both authored by Chief Justice Gants, strongly urge plaintiffs to bring challenges to ballot initiatives by February 1 in election years. In Dunn v. Attorney General, the plaintiffs contested the Attorney General's certification of a petition that would make it unlawful for farms to knowingly……
SJC Appears Likely to Provide Guidance on Appropriate Timing for Filing Challenges to Ballot Initiatives
Blog May 24, 2016
In a departure from its typical schedule — hearing oral arguments during the first full week of every month from September through May — the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court will hear challenges to two proposed ballot initiatives on June 8, 2016. The first case, Hensley v. Attorney General, concerns Petition 15-27 which would permit those 21 and older to possess…
A Cannabis Coup: SCOTUS Rejects Challenge to Colorado's Legalization of Marijuana by Oklahoma and Nebraska AGs
Blog March 25, 2016
The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear a lawsuit brought by the attorneys general of Nebraska and Oklahoma challenging Colorado's oversight of a legal marketplace for marijuana.  In a one line order released this week, the Court denied the states' request for leave to file a complaint invoking the Supreme Court's original jurisdiction—a tool that allows the Court to hear disputes between states in the first instance…
Oklahoma and Nebraska AGs Ask SCOTUS to Kill Colorado's Rocky Mountain High
Blog January 20, 2016
On January 6, 2016, the attorneys general of Oklahoma and Nebraska fired what may be the final salvo in the first round of a battle over Colorado's legalization of marijuana before the U.S. Supreme Court.  The aggrieved states have accused Colorado of operating “a massive criminal enterprise” that earns hundreds of millions of dollars per year by exporting marijuana to its neighbors.  Dissatisfied with the response from the U.S…

ABOUT

Foley Hoag’s State Attorney General Investigations lawyers have the experience, the insight and the skill to guide your business through the considerable challenges of an AG investigation or enforcement action.

Our team knows firsthand how the AG and her line assistants approach investigations. Our legal team includes a former Massachusetts Attorney General, a former chief deputy attorney general, a former first assistant attorney general, a former deputy attorney general, a former chief of the business and labor bureau, a former deputy chief of the criminal bureau, and four partners who served as assistant United States attorneys.

Foley Hoag will work closely with you to develop and implement winning strategies to achieve your objectives and successfully resolve the investigation. And if there is no reasonable alternative but to litigate, our lawyers, including American College of Trial Lawyers fellows, have a record of substantial courtroom success. Whatever the path, we will fight to protect the reputation of your business and neutralize any adverse public relations implications arising from the AG action.