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Audio transcript (~2 min read)
This is the New Realm Compliance Brief, Volume One, Edition Twenty-Eight, for Friday, September Eleventh.
Our top story: the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California announced that Southern Glazer's Wine and Spirits, the nation's largest alcohol distributor, agreed to pay twelve and a half million dollars to resolve a federal investigation into years of improper payments — cash, gift cards, flights, golf trips and resort stays — made to alcohol-retailer employees to promote placement of certain products, concealed through false invoices and third-party vendors. The company admitted responsibility. The case was investigated by I R S Criminal Investigation and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, whose assistant administrator said the case is a reminder that industry members are accountable for actions taken on their behalf by third parties.
On the federal side, an updated Census Bureau report says states collected three point five five billion dollars in cannabis tax revenue between July of twenty twenty-five and June of twenty twenty-six, and more than fifteen point eight billion since late twenty twenty-one.
Around the states: in Connecticut, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by hemp growers challenging the state's restrictions on high-THC hemp products, ruling the plaintiffs failed to establish standing. And Illinois approved thirty-seven recreational dispensaries to also serve medical patients — the state's biggest medical-market expansion in a decade — under a law that also recriminalizes hemp-derived THC products above four tenths of a milligram of THC per container.
On the radar: December eleventh remains the effective date for most new federal hemp restrictions. Implementation of the marijuana rescheduling order continues after the D.C. Circuit declined to block it. And in November, Massachusetts voters decide a rollback of adult-use sales, with U.S. House action on hemp regulation expected the same month.
Full details and source links are in today's email. This update is for general information only — it is not legal advice.