Cannabis Businessman Learns the Perils of the Not-So “Fine Print” – A Sobering Lesson For Us All

Not every blog post contains earth-shattering news. Count this among that group, but I encourage you not to ignore the implications and possibly the forecasting for cannabis operators in litigation going forward in this little case in Washington.

A federal judge in Seattle has ruled that a cannabis businessman cannot maintain his claim against local law enforcement even though the officers damaged his property during a seize related to charges that were ultimately dropped. Veterans of the cannabis industry are unfortunately used to court rulings that do not appear to yield “just” results because they are based on the federal illegality of marijuana. Here, though, there is a much more mundane explanation:

Levi Lyon did not read the fine print, and, even if he did, he arguably shouldn’t have understood it…