By Callan Smith | Rose Law Group Reporter
The yearly CannAward sledgehammer winners have been chosen and Ryan Hurley, Rose Law Group partner and director of Medical Marijuana Department, has been awarded the Best Effort on Affecting Policy, Regulations, and Standards for his “leadership in promoting high standards and advocacy in the industry.”
Rose Law Group Reporter: Can you tell us what this award means considering the work you’ve done with Prop205 here in Arizona?
Ryan Hurley: It’s bittersweet obviously. The ultimate reward would have been passage of 205. It was solid legislation that would have made Arizona one of the best cannabis markets in the country and would have been good policy for the entire state of Arizona. Instead, we will continue to charge 15,000 otherwise law abiding and non-violent citizens with felonies every year and we will miss out on a $2.5 billion a year industry with 20,000 jobs—so shortsighted. But we faced more opposition here in Arizona than everywhere else in the country combined and we only lost by 1.2% so we will be back soon.
Rose Law Group Reporter: What types of challenges do you experience in your practice?
Ryan Hurley: The fact that this remains against Federal law is a challenge that underlies EVERYTHING we do. Keeping this in mind at all stages of planning and execution is vital. Also, most transactional lawyers have documents going back thirty years that they build on for their businesses. We had to start essentially from scratch five-years-ago.
Rose Law Group Reporter: What types of opportunities do you help Cannabis Industry businesses with?
Ryan Hurley: Any business opportunity really. Dispensaries, growers, real estate, MMJ doctors, nutrient companies, you name it.
Rose Law Group Reporter: What’s next for Cannabis in Arizona?
Ryan Hurley: Continuing to defend the medical program from short-sighted and closed-minded prohibitionists and preparing to pass a new adult-use initiative in two or four years.
