Another day, two more TCPA class actions targeting the Cannabis industry. This time both cases are in California (my backyard.)

First, in Ronny McConn v. Soar Collective, Inc. d/b/a Orange County Cannabis Club the Plaintiff asserts that a dispensary hammered him with text messages promoting their product, without consent. These texts are pretty bad– full color images of tantalizing (for some) bud and everything.

Ronny seeks to represent: “All persons in the United States who, within four years prior to the filing of this action, (1) were sent a text message by or on behalf of Defendant, (2) using an automatic telephone dialing system, (3) for the purpose of soliciting Defendant’s goods and services, (4) without prior express consent of the recipient, or with the same manner of purported consent Defendant claims to have obtained from Plaintiff, if any.”

Second, in Aram Sargsyan v. Empire Twin Palms, LLC and A1, A CA Commercial Cannabis Association, Inc. the Defendants are likewise accused of peppering a young surgical technologist with unwanted ads pushing pot. Aram seeks to represent: “All persons in the United States who (1) received a text message to their cellular phone number from Defendants, (2) within four years prior to the filing of this action, (3) which text message was sent without the recipient’s prior express consent, and (4) which text message(s) (a) advertised Defendants or (b) encouraged the recipient to make a purchase from Defendants.”

Both of these cases were just filed on Friday and continue a trend the cannabis industry must make a note of. As we’ve been reporting, the cannabis industry is under a full on assault by the TCPA plaintiff’s bar as the industry seems to be under the influence of mind-altering substances when it comes to TCPA compliance. And it hasn’t gone well for either the dispensaries or the CRM and platforms that support them to date.

We’ll continue to keep an eye on these developments but, in the meantime, let’s hope cannabis industry participants are reading this and looking to clean up their act. As the CEOs of Jornaya and Active Prospect explained in our big Unprecedented podcast interview—the TCPA represents an existential threat to the well-funded cannabis industry as the Plaintiff’s bar is looking to wake and rake–in the money, that is.

Will cannabis dispensaries (and their PE backers) be the new GREEN goose that print millions in settlement dollars for ravenous plaintiff’s lawyers? Only time (and tcpaworld.com) will tell.

But to my (really the Archduke’s) cannabis dispensary friends–is “pot dealers” too informal a term?– there ARE resources to help. Let’s chat.