From Our Writers

Kentucky is set to open medical cannabis patient certifications on December 1 in preparation for launching the state’s medical cannabis program next year.

A Nebraska judge last week dropped all charges against a notary public caught up in an ongoing legal challenge against the medical cannabis ballot initiatives approved by voters earlier this month.

The state of Michigan has ended its industrial hemp program and turned oversight of its hemp farmers over to the feds with the USDA.

A new draft of the Farm Bill includes language aimed at closing intoxicating hemp loopholes, but stops short of setting per-serving or per-container limits for hemp-derived THC.

The FDA has approved a previously stalled clinical trial investigating whether smoking medical cannabis can help to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among combat veterans.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton this week filed a lawsuit against the city of Dallas over the city’s new, voter-backed cannabis decriminalization policy.

Minnesota officials this week denied about 1,200 cannabis social equity applicants, two-thirds of those who applied, for issues ranging from inadequate paperwork to “flooding” the application pool in an attempt to improve the odds of receiving a license.

The average price of cannabis flower in Michigan dropped to $74 per ounce in October, down almost $20 from September.

Data shows that millennials made about 45% of the cannabis industry’s pre-roll purchases from 2023 to mid-2024.

Massachusetts cannabis regulators last week issued the state’s first cannabis research license to a facility operated by Curaleaf Processing, a subsidiary of Curaleaf Holdings.

Georgia medical cannabis operators are opening additional dispensaries after the state program’s total patient count exceeded 25,000, a threshold set by the state’s medical cannabis policy.

An appellate judges panel in Missouri recently ruled that local governments cannot stack cannabis sales taxes, overturning a lower court’s decision from May.

Nearly one-third (32%) of medical cannabis patients cite chronic pain as their primary condition for medical cannabis use, with anxiety the second most common (26.8%) followed by insomnia (18.5%).

The Cannabis Research Institute, a collaboration between the University of Illinois and Discovery Partners Institute backed by the State of Illinois and the City of Chicago, officially launched last week.

USDA officials last week delayed the enforcement of a rule requiring consumer hemp products to be tested by labs registered with the DEA; it’s the third year in a row that officials have delayed enforcing the rule.

New Mexico lawmakers are considering giving new enforcement powers to officials with the state’s Cannabis Control Division; the proposal would establish a “Compliance Bureau” aimed at disrupting the illicit cannabis market.

Regulators with the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission this week released health and safety guidelines for the cannabis industry that dub “ground cannabis dust” a hazardous chemical that operators must evaluate and prepare for.

Colorado-based Bee’s Knees CBDs has agreed to pay the state attorney general a $225,000 settlement after an investigation found the company had misrepresented its product offerings, claimed false partnerships with nonprofits, and failed to verify customers’ ages.

New York cannabis regulators expect to see $800 million in retail cannabis taxes by the end of the year, far short of the $5 billion estimated by the state when it legalized adult-use cannabis.

The majority of women surveyed by YouGov indicated they would try cannabis products if there were perceived health benefits, with most (16%) saying they were interested in sleep quality improvements.

A study published this month in the American Journal of Public Health found that U.S. food service and accommodation industry workers have the highest rates of cannabis consumption.

The hemp technology firm Hempitecture recently received $8.42 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to support creating an industrial hemp processing and manufacturing facility in Tennessee.

Italy’s conservative leadership is planning to crack down on the country’s nascent — and already highly restricted — cannabis industry by banning products made from hemp flower, the industry’s only real source of cannabinoids.

Seven cannabis transportation companies in Illinois are suing the state Department of Agriculture claiming the agency’s licensing process favors larger, white- and male-owned companies.