{"id":8184,"date":"2018-04-05T22:14:22","date_gmt":"2018-04-05T22:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/?p=15337"},"modified":"2018-04-05T22:14:22","modified_gmt":"2018-04-05T22:14:22","slug":"vt-industry-experts-host-states-first-ever-cannabis-centric-continuing-legal-education-seminar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/vt-industry-experts-host-states-first-ever-cannabis-centric-continuing-legal-education-seminar\/","title":{"rendered":"VT: Industry Experts Host State\u2019s First-Ever Cannabis-Centric Continuing Legal Education Seminar"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/vt-industry-experts-host-states-first-ever-cannabis-centric-continuing-legal-education-seminar\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>Last week, some of Vermont\u2019s leading cannabis industry experts held the state\u2019s first Continuing Legal Education seminar to help interested attorneys prepare for cannabis legalization. The six-and-a-half hour seminar covered federal policies; banking, financing, and taxation; Vermont\u2019s legislative-approved law; best practices; and ethics.<\/p>\n<p>The seminar was sponsored by the National Business Institute and conducted by Timothy Fair, of Blodgett, Watts &amp; Volk PC, Tripp Murray, managing partner for Virentium Advisors \u2013 a cannabis consulting firm \u2013 and state Rep. Janssen Willhoit (R-Caledonia), who earned a law degree from Vermont Law School and serves on the House Committee on Judiciary.<\/p>\n<p>Willhoit recently sponsored a bill that would allow municipalities the ability to pass \u201cpublic nuisance\u201d ordinances for cannabis odor, which is currently in the Government Operations Committee. Willhoit voted in favor of the legalization measure.<\/p>\n<p>Fair, who also founded consultant firm Vermont Cannabis Solutions, said when he was initially approached by NBI to develop and present at the seminar he had one immediate condition: remove any references to \u201cmarijuana\u201d and replace them with \u201ccannabis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey were amazingly cool about doing that,\u201d Fair said in an interview with Heady Vermont. \u201cAnd once they agreed to that I was willing to work with their framework.\u201d He added that the team did have to \u201cmake some modifications\u201d because the NBI framework assumed a tax-and-regulate model \u2013 which is not included in the state law.<\/p>\n<p>However, Fair notes that a taxed and regulated system is a forgone conclusion, and part of the framework was geared toward that eventuality, using information from the experience in mature markets, such as Colorado, Washington, and Oregon.<\/p>\n<p>Fair explained that legal professionals have \u201cdifferent levels of understanding\u201d when it comes to cannabis and during experience at Vermont Law School he was surprised at the knowledge gap. He said those most well-informed on the issue are those most interested in it.<\/p>\n<p>The seminar \u2013 which drew 29 legal professionals, after pre-registering 17 \u2013 covered some of the more nuanced aspects of the industry, including what Fair referred to as \u201cthe bane of the cannabis industry balance sheet\u201d: Internal Revenue Code 280E.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo deduction or credit shall be allowed for any amount paid or incurred during the taxable year in carrying on any trade or business if such trade or business (or the activities which comprise such trade or business) consists of trafficking in controlled substances (within the meaning of Schedule I and II of the Controlled Substances Act) which is prohibited by Federal law or the law of any State in which such trade or business is conducted,\u201d the statute reads.<\/p>\n<p>In layman\u2019s terms: cannabis businesses cannot make the same business-related federal deductions as traditional businesses. So, industry operators cannot deduct inventory, salaries, or other common business-related deductions, although they can deduct the cost of goods sold. Fair said that the most engaged attendees were from the financial and banking sectors \u2013 which would have particular interest in understanding 280E.<\/p>\n<p>In his presentation, Fair points out that one strategy employed by canna-businesses to help them navigate the 280E issue is for form separate \u201cmanagement companies\u201d which could lease ordinary goods and services, including real estate, to the main company at a \u201cpremium\u201d price, allowing the management company \u2013 which does not touch the plant \u2013 to make normal business deductions.<\/p>\n<p>But 280E is just the tip of the iceberg for a nascent legalization scheme in which a host of other issues might need to be addressed; and entrepreneurs and traditional professionals seeking to enter the space will need to connect with ahead-of-the-curve experts in order to get that first-mover advantage so important to cannabis space success.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLawyers, accountants, and professionals are starting to take this industry seriously,\u201d Fair explained. \u201cIt\u2019s not a \u2018joke\u2019 anymore, whereas a year ago the reaction was \u2018Oh, you\u2019re gonna go hang out with the stoners, man?\u2019 People are starting to understand this is an industry that more than just about \u2018out getting high\u2019 and this turnout demonstrated how far cannabis has made it into the professional realm.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/420-news\/international-cannabis-news\/vt-industry-experts-host-states-first-ever-cannabis-centric-continuing-legal-education-seminar\/\">VT: Industry Experts Host State\u2019s First-Ever Cannabis-Centric Continuing Legal Education Seminar<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\">420 MAGAZINE \u00ae<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, some of Vermont\u2019s leading cannabis industry experts held the state\u2019s first Continuing Legal Education seminar to help interested&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/420-news\/international-cannabis-news\/vt-industry-experts-host-states-first-ever-cannabis-centric-continuing-legal-education-seminar\/\" class=\"read-more\">[Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\/420-news\/international-cannabis-news\/vt-industry-experts-host-states-first-ever-cannabis-centric-continuing-legal-education-seminar\/\">VT: Industry Experts Host State\u2019s First-Ever Cannabis-Centric Continuing Legal Education Seminar<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.420magazine.com\">420 MAGAZINE \u00ae<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1616,9,1,3],"tags":[4184],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8184"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8184\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}