NOTE 1 – BUSINESS ORGANIZATION AND NATURE OF OPERATIONS

CLS Holdings USA, Inc. (the “Company”) was originally incorporated as Adelt Design, Inc. (“Adelt”) on March 31, 2011 to manufacture and market carpet binding art. Production and marketing of carpet binding art never commenced.

On November 12, 2014, CLS Labs acquired 10,000,000 shares, or 55.6%, of the outstanding shares of common stock of Adelt from its founder, Larry Adelt. On that date, Jeffrey Binder, the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of CLS Labs, was appointed Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. On November 20, 2014, Adelt adopted amended and restated articles of incorporation, thereby changing its name to CLS Holdings USA, Inc. Effective December 10, 2014, the Company exchanged shares of the Company’s common stock which were issued to CLS Labs in exchange for the 10,000,000 shares that it owned by virtue of the above-referenced purchase from Larry Adelt.

On April 29, 2015, the Company, CLS Labs and CLS Merger Inc., a Nevada corporation and wholly owned subsidiary of CLS Holdings (“Merger Sub”), entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Merger Agreement”) and completed a merger, whereby CLS Merger Inc. merged with and into CLS Labs, with CLS Labs remaining as the surviving entity (the “Merger”). As a result of the Merger, the Company acquired the business of CLS Labs and abandoned its previous business.

The Company has been issued a U.S. patent with respect to its proprietary method of extracting cannabinoids from cannabis plants and converting the resulting cannabinoid extracts into concentrates such as oils, waxes, edibles and shatter. The Company has not commercialized its patented proprietary process or otherwise earned any revenues from it. The Company is currently exploring the sale of the patent since the product the patent produces is currently illegal in the state of Nevada.

On December 4, 2017, the Company and Alternative Solutions, entered into a Membership Interest Purchase Agreement (the “Acquisition Agreement”), as amended, for the Company to acquire the Oasis LLCs from Alternative Solutions. Pursuant to the Acquisition Agreement, the Company initially contemplated acquiring all of the membership interests in the Oasis LLCs from Alternative Solutions. Just prior to closing, the parties agreed that the Company would instead acquire all of the membership interests in Alternative Solutions, the parent of the Oasis LLCs, from its members, and the membership interests in the Oasis LLCs owned by members other than Alternative Solutions. The Company received final regulatory approval to own its interest in the Oasis LLCs through Alternative Solutions under the revised structure of the transaction on April 26, 2022.

On October 20, 2021, the Company entered into a management services agreement (the “Quinn River Joint Venture Agreement”) through its 50% owned subsidiary, Kealii Okamalu, LLC (“Kealii Okamalu”), with CSI Health MCD LLC (“CSI”) and a commission established by the authority of the Tribal Council of the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe (the “Tribe”). The purpose of the Quinn River Joint Venture Agreement is to establish a business (the “Quinn River Joint Venture”) to grow, cultivate, process and sell cannabis and related products. The Quinn River Joint Venture Agreement had a term of 10 years plus a 10-year renewal term from the date the first cannabis crop produced is harvested and sold. Pursuant to the Quinn River Joint Venture Agreement, Kealii Okamalu leased approximately 5-10 acres of the Tribe’s land located along the Quinn River at a cost of $3,500 per quarter and managed the design, finance and construction of a cannabis cultivation facility on such tribal lands (the “Cultivation Facility”). Kealii Okamalu also managed the ongoing operations of the Cultivation Facility and related business, including, but not limited to, cultivation of cannabis crops, personnel staffing, product packaging, testing, marketing and sales. Packaged products were branded as “Quinn River Farms.” The Company provided 10,000 square feet of warehouse space at its Las Vegas facility and had preferred vendor status including the right to purchase cannabis flower and the business’s cannabis trim at favorable prices. Kealii Okamalu was required to contribute $6 million towards the construction of the Cultivation Facility and the working capital for the Quinn River Joint Venture. This amount was to be repaid from a portion of the net income of the Quinn River Joint Venture otherwise payable to CSI and the Tribe at the rate of $750,000 per quarter for eight quarters. Kealii Okamalu was to receive one-third of the net profits of the Quinn River Joint Venture.

During the year ended May 31, 2023, the Company evaluated the joint venture with Kealii Okamalu, in light of its partner’s failure to make its required capital contributions. Due to the breach by its partner and the decision, therefore, by the Tribal Council to terminate the Quinn River Joint Venture Agreement, the Company believes it is in its best interest to impair the assets of Kealii Okamalu. This resulted in an impairment charge of $1,590,742 which was charged to operations during the year ended May 31, 2023.

On January 4, 2018, the former Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, rescinded the memorandum issued by former Deputy Attorney General James Cole on August 29, 2013 (as amended on February 14, 2014, the “Cole Memo”), the Cole Banking Memorandum, and all other related Obama-era DOJ cannabis enforcement guidance. While the rescission did not change federal law, as the Cole Memo and other DOJ guidance documents were not themselves laws, the rescission removed the DOJ’s formal policy that state-regulated cannabis businesses in compliance with the Cole Memo guidelines should not be a prosecutorial priority. Notably, former Attorney General Sessions’ rescission of the Cole Memo has not affected the status of the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) memorandum issued by the Department of Treasury, which remains in effect. This memorandum outlines Bank Secrecy Act-compliant pathways for financial institutions to service state-sanctioned cannabis businesses, which echoed the enforcement priorities outlined in the Cole Memo. In addition to his rescission of the Cole Memo, Attorney General Sessions issued a one-page memorandum known as the “Sessions Memorandum”. The Sessions Memorandum explains the DOJ’s rationale for rescinding all past DOJ cannabis enforcement guidance, claiming that Obama-era enforcement policies are “unnecessary” due to existing general enforcement guidance adopted in the 1980s, in chapter 9.27.230 of the U.S. Attorneys’ Manual (“USAM”). The USAM enforcement priorities, like those of the Cole Memo, are based on the use of the federal government’s limited resources and include “law enforcement priorities set by the Attorney General,” the “seriousness” of the alleged crimes, the “deterrent effect of criminal prosecution,” and “the cumulative impact of particular crimes on the community.” Although the Sessions Memorandum emphasizes that cannabis is a federally illegal Schedule I controlled substance, it does not otherwise instruct U.S. Attorneys to consider the prosecution of cannabis-related offenses a DOJ priority, and in practice, most U.S. Attorneys have not changed their prosecutorial approach to date. However, due to the lack of specific direction in the Sessions Memorandum as to the priority federal prosecutors should ascribe to such cannabis activities, there can be no assurance that the federal government will not seek to prosecute cases involving cannabis businesses that are otherwise compliant with state law.

William Barr served as United States Attorney General from February 14, 2019 to December 23, 2020. The DOJ under Mr. Barr did not take a formal position on federal enforcement of laws relating to cannabis. On March 11, 2021, United States President Biden’s nominee, Merrick Garland was sworn in as the U.S. Attorney General. During his campaign, President Biden stated a policy goal to decriminalize possession of cannabis at the federal level, but he has not publicly supported the full legalization of cannabis. It is unclear what impact, if any, the new administration will have on U.S. federal government enforcement policy on cannabis. Nonetheless, there is no guarantee that the position of the Department of Justice will not change.