Cannabis News of Note:
Law360: Fla. Cannabis Banking Biz Broke Law, Investor Suit Says (paywalled, full text below)
MJ Biz Daily: Marijuana MSO sues DoorDash, Total Wine to halt hemp THC sales
Oklahoma Senate: Senator Hamilton Holds Interim Study to Examine CCP Influence in Oklahoma
MJ Biz Daily: Oklahoma adult-use marijuana legalization bid fails
MJ Biz Daily: Hundreds of permits, billions in sales expected in Virginia adult-use marijuana market
Law 360: Medical Marijuana Cyberbreach Suits Consolidated (paywalled, full text below)
Cannabis Reports of Note:
Impact of elections on the cannabis market: An event study for the 2024 U.S. presidential election
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Law360: Fla. Cannabis Banking Biz Broke Law, Investor Suit Says
By Sydney Price · November 3, 2025, 6:03 PM EST
An investor in Florida-based First National Bank of Pasco hit the bank with a lawsuit alleging that its inability to manage lending to cannabis industry operators has made it prone to regulatory scrutiny and financial harm, including a recent investigation by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
The suit filed by DEF Trading LLC, a bank shareholder, on Friday alleges that First National Bank of Pasco was not equipped with leaders with sufficient relevant knowledge and experience to ensure compliance with the “complicated” cannabis-related banking regulations. As a result, First National Bank of Pasco was subject to an investigation by the OCC expected to cost the bank at least $1 million. The suit seeks $3 million in damages.
The OCC’s investigation ultimately determined that the bank was engaged in “unsafe or unsound practices,” including those relating to Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering risk management.
The operating agreement created in September by the OCC imposes “substantial and onerous” requirements upon the bank, but the plaintiff did not become aware of the agreement until more than a month later, the complaint said.
“Reading the OCC operating agreement as a whole, the OCC operating agreement essentially calls for a complete overhaul of the bank’s board of directors and management,” the suit said. “Thus, keeping the director defendants and management in their current position will not align with the spirit of the OCC operating agreement and can lead to further damages.”
In addition to First National Bank of Pasco, the suit’s defendants include its parent company Florida Bancshares Inc. and several board members, including current First National Bank of Pasco President and CEO Paula S. O’Neil. The complaint accuses O’Neil of having a “clear lack of experience and qualifications.”
The suit alleges that not a single director of the bank has any prior banking experience.
“Despite the fact that it became apparent that the bank did not have sufficiently trained officers, directors, senior managers or personnel to navigate the compliance regulations associated with providing cannabis related business, the board of Bancshares and bank did little or nothing to address the problems,” the suit said.
The board amended the bylaws in August to attempt to thwart a shareholder vote to replace the directors, the suit said.
The suit seeks an order compelling the defendants to replace O’Neil and remove the current directors for “qualified” replacements.
Representatives for the parties did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.
DEF Trading LLC is represented by John L. Dicks II and Andrew P. Gold of Akerman LLP.
Counsel information for the defendants was not immediately available Monday.
The case is DEF Trading LLC v. Florida Bancshares Inc. et al., case number 8:25-cv-02996, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
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Law360: Medical Marijuana Cyberbreach Suits Consolidated
By Sam Reisman · November 4, 2025, 5:59 PM EST
An Ohio federal judge on Tuesday ordered the consolidation of a half-dozen proposed consumer class actions stemming from an alleged cyberbreach at a company that helps people secure medical marijuana cards.
U.S. District Judge Pamela A. Barker said judicial economy would be served by consolidating six proposed class actions filed in recent months against Ohio Medical Alliance LLC, which does business as Ohio Marijuana Card.
All the suits derive from the same central allegation, that Ohio Medical Alliance employed sloppy data security standards resulting in a publicly accessible 323-gigabyte database that contained nearly 1 million sensitive records belonging to patients and others.
Judge Barker also ordered that the plaintiffs’ representation be led on an interim basis by Terence R. Coates of Cincinnati-based Markovits Stock & DeMarco LLC, who represented consumers in three of the six cyberbreach cases to be filed against Ohio Medical Alliance.
As of Tuesday, Ohio Medical Alliance has not made an appearance in any of the lawsuits.
The lawsuits generally allege that “cybersecurity researcher” Jeremiah Fowler in August uncovered a publicly accessible database of 957,434 records, including driver’s licenses, financial information, Social Security numbers, addresses, birth dates and medical documents. One complaint alleged that the exposed data included “patients’ diagnosis and the reason they were seeking to be prescribed medical marijuana.”
The consumers seek damages for a range of claims, including negligence, breach of contract, unjust enrichment, invasion of privacy and breach of fiduciary duty.
A representative for Ohio Medical Alliance and counsel for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
The interim class counsel for the plaintiffs is Terence R. Coates of Markovits Stock & DeMarco LLC.
Counsel information for Ohio Medical Alliance was not immediately available Tuesday.
The consolidated actions have been recaptioned as In re: Ohio Marijuana Card Data Breach Litigation, case number 1:25-cv-01765, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.
The cases are Doe v. Ohio Medical Alliance LLC, case number 1:25-cv-01765, Burgess v. Ohio Medical Alliance LLC, case number 1:25-cv-01802, Cooper v. Ohio Medical Alliance LLC, case number 1:25-cv-01793, Burd v. Ohio Medical Alliance LLC, case number 1:25-cv-01779 and Dennison v. Ohio Medical Alliance LLC, case number 1:25-cv-01799, Jindra v. Ohio Medical Alliance LLC, case number 1:25-cv-01837, all in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.