Editor's Note from Pot to Privacy to Plastics

• Publication year: 2021

Welcome to the Journal of Emerging Issues in Litigation. Litigation is one of the more fascinating, creative, rigorous, sometimes abused, and often controversial systems of resolving disputes civilly, from the relatively simple to the intensely complex. Striving for something close to fairness, it gives us a way—sometimes in reality, sometimes in theory—to level the playing field. When it operates perfectly, it gives us a way to right wrongs. When not executed so perfectly or when parties abuse the system, it fails us. It also is a way our society deals with conflict as shifts occur in technology, public policy, human behavior, and social norms, or when our world is shaken by natural catastrophes, from diseases to hurricanes, or man-made calamities, from economic tailspins to nefarious schemes to simple negligence. It can also be weapon-ized by individuals or companies to trounce other individuals or companies.

Cannabis Competition

Whenever there is a boom industry there is full-contact competition. And when there is intense competition companies sometimes throw elbows. Antitrust laws exist to nurture free and fair markets, but the cannabis industry continues to face black-market competition and regulatory challenges: the product remains a federally controlled substance and cannot cross state lines. How can legitimate companies use private antitrust litigation to protect their enterprises? To address this issue and others we turned to Ausra O. Deluard with Dentons U.S. LLP and Jennifer M. Oliver of MoginRubin LLP, nationally recognized anticompetition law and M&A practitioners, who wrote "Clearing the Haze: State Laws and Private Plaintiffs Critical to Preserve Competition in Cannabis," an excellent analysis of important issues facing an exploding industry.

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Cannabis Privacy

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is by far the nation's most comprehensive data protection statute. It creates new private rights of action for Californians that will impact companies regardless of their jurisdiction. The cannabis industry is particularly susceptible to privacy claims; it requires the collection and storage of personal information, but regulations impose little in the way of data protection requirements. Griffen Thorne of Harris Bricken calls this a perfect storm. He writes about the issue in "Empowering Consumers, California Privacy Laws Could Spell Trouble for Cannabis Companies," drawing on his litigation and transactional experience, and his...