In the ever-changing world of cannabis and regulation, it’s worth taking a step back after a busy year of action in order to see where claims and litigation trends are headed in 2020 and beyond.

While we are tempted to plot the 2019 passage of the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act (SAFE) by the House as this year’s defining moment in cannabis history, and while it is a promising needle-move, it remains just that—promising.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the significant actions and developments affecting our industry this past year.

In August 2019, state health departments, the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists Vaping Associated Pulmonary Injury (VAPI) Epidemiology Task Force, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed data-collection tools to monitor and track what the health care community is calling an outbreak, and what the rest of us are calling a crisis. (Both are accurate.)