What does it look like to practice cannabis law while navigating federal limitations and real business considerations at every turn? For David Ruskin, Partner at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP and President of the International Cannabis Bar Association, it looks like a career that keeps getting more interesting.
Ruskin recently sat down with Heather Allman and Tyme Ferris on Through the Oculus — a podcast dedicated to exploring cannabis from every angle, policy, culture, law, and lived experience. The hosts titled the episode "The Patchwork Problem: Cannabis Across Borders with David Ruskin," and it's an apt description. The full episode is embedded below, and if you have the time, it's worth a listen start to finish. But if you've got a motion due and only ten minutes, here's what stood out.
From Business Litigator to Cannabis Counsel
Ruskin didn't start in cannabis. He spent roughly two decades as a business litigator before a client engagement in 2016 pulled him into the space — right around the time Illinois was standing up its medical program and the Cannabis Bar Association (now INCBA) was just getting started. What drew him in wasn't just the novelty. It was the genuine legal complexity: new regulations, minimal precedent, and a professional ethics minefield around counseling clients operating legally under state law but still in violation of federal statute.
That tension — state-legal, federally illegal — has shaped every aspect of his practice since.
The Challenges That Won't Go Away
Ruskin is direct about the issues that have persisted throughout his decade in the space. Section 280E continues to distort the economics of operating cannabis businesses, though a handful of states have decoupled from it at the state level. Banking access remains a structural problem tied directly to federal illegality — and he notes that rescheduling, whenever it arrives, won't automatically fix most of these issues. It's not a light switch.
On the state level, he's seen the same regulatory mistakes repeat themselves across jurisdiction after jurisdiction. Illinois studied Washington, Colorado, and others before launching its adult-use program in 2019 — and still hit significant stumbling blocks. New York, with even more examples to learn from, has struggled considerably. The lesson isn't that states aren't trying. It's that cannabis regulation is genuinely hard, and the patchwork nature of state-by-state legalization makes it harder.
Social Equity: Well-Intentioned, Underdelivered
Asked where well-intentioned reforms have fallen short, Ruskin pointed to social equity programs without hesitation. The goals are right. The results have been inconsistent at best. The core problem: cannabis licensing is expensive, the industry is young, and the combination of capital requirements and limited operating experience creates real barriers for the communities these programs are designed to serve. He doesn't place blame — but he's clear that no state has gotten this right yet.
What the International Perspective Adds
This is where INCBA's value proposition comes into sharp focus. When Ruskin has a client eyeing northwest Montana — or Frankfurt — he's not expected to know every nuance of that jurisdiction's cannabis law. But he knows who does. The association's network of attorneys across states and countries means that local boots on the ground are a quick message away. That kind of infrastructure matters for clients. And for attorneys trying to build a practice in a field where the law varies not just state to state but municipality to municipality, it matters even more.
Advice for Smaller Operators
For cannabis businesses that can't afford the retainers the MSOs take for granted, Ruskin's advice is practical: start with the right team, prioritize compliance above everything else, and don't fall for shiny objects. That team needs a lawyer, an accountant, and someone with actual cannabis business experience — ideally someone who understands how to talk to regulators before there's a problem, not after. Some attorneys will work on reduced fees or pro bono for a period. Take the time to find them.
What's Coming
Ruskin isn't predicting dramatic new federal interventions. He's watching the dormant commerce clause litigation, Second Amendment and cannabis questions working toward the Supreme Court, and the ongoing hemp/THC definitional fight that the 2018 Farm Bill set in motion. Rescheduling will bring more capital into the industry and a meaningful federal acknowledgment of medical utility — but it's not the unlock some are expecting.
The industry, he says, is still feeling its way. That's not a criticism. It's why cannabis law remains one of the most dynamic, consequential, and frankly fascinating areas of practice for attorneys willing to do the work.
Ready to be part of the network David is talking about?
The International Cannabis Bar Association exists precisely to give cannabis attorneys what they need most: community, education, and connection across jurisdictions. Whether you're a seasoned practitioner or just beginning to explore cannabis law, INCBA has a membership tier built for where you are — including reduced rates for first- and second-year attorneys, free membership for law students, affordable options for government attorneys and law professors, multi-seat firm memberships, and Allied Partner memberships for cannabis-adjacent service providers.
Individual attorneys joining at the Annual Attorney Member level can use code RUSKIN at checkout to receive 20% off their first year of dues.
And mark your calendar: Cannabis Law Institute, INCBA's flagship annual conference, is coming up in June — the premier gathering for cannabis law professionals, and exactly the kind of room David is describing when he talks about the value of this network.
