Imagine a family who has lived beyond their means for years, and, as a result, has accumulated a large debt with their bank. Imagine that the debt is so large that paying it back would be immensely painful for the… Continue Reading
mplied within the question is an acknowledgment of the inevitability of a cannabis industry in Texas and beyond. Let us not overlook the progress already being made before our very eyes. If development is inevitable, why not take the next logical leap and explore the future?
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One of the many problems created by the conflict between federal and state marijuana law is uncertainty in the enforceability of certain contracts. Judges can, and in cannabis cases often do, void contracts for violating federal policy. Investors and entrepreneurs view the risk of federal law superiority and legislative roadblocks as among the greatest challenges faced by the marijuana industry. Continue Reading
The marijuana industry has grown considerably in the last year, facing challenges from the public, legislators and federal prosecutors along the way. However, the industry has many more critical tasks it must overcome on the road to national legalization. The most important issues it must solve are in the following areas: 1) quality assurance, 2) quality control, 3) public safety, 4) public awareness, and 5) regulatory testing standards. Continue Reading
The Texas marijuana industry faces a series of challenges, which I present in four progressive categories: 1) immediate legislative, 2) short-term regulatory, 3) mid-term rollout, and 4) ongoing. Continue Reading
Last week, Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi came to the Baker Institute for a question-and-answer event with founding director Ambassador Edward Djerejian and a packed audience. Leader Pelosi covered topics from health care and foreign policy to immigration and women’s… Continue Reading
For more than a decade, parties interested in the problem of computer, information or cyber security have warned of a digital doomsday, the electronic Pearl Harbor event. The general prognostication around such event, most recently invoked at the highest levels of the U.S. government at a speech by departing defense secretary Leon Panetta last year, is that society should be concerned by mass disruption of the communications infrastructure and all of the other infrastructure pieces connected to it. If Pearl Harbor was the greatest intelligence failure in U.S. history, then allow us to offer that the Snowden leaks are the greatest intelligence failure our country has seen in the digital age. Continue Reading