From Our Writers

South Dakota voters have chosen to legalize cannabis for both adult and medical use. It will be the first time a state has jumped straight from prohibition to full legalization.

Montana voters have approved adult-use cannabis legalization via two voter initiatives that set the legal consumption age at 21 and will establish a legal and regulated cannabis marketplace in the state.

Voters in Washington, D.C. have overwhelmingly approved Initiative 81 to decriminalize psychedelic plants.

Ohio regulators are now accepting petitions for adding new qualifying conditions to the state’s medical cannabis program.

Mississippi voters have overwhelmingly approved Amendment 65, an advocate-led ballot initiative to legalize medical cannabis.

Across the U.S. today, voters from Montana to New Jersey will consider a series of ballot initiatives that could represent yet another dramatic shift for the country away from our archaic cannabis and drug policies.

A combination of stricter regulations, the coronavirus pandemic, and industry consolidation has resulted in a dramatic 31% decrease in the number of hemp licenses in New Mexico this year.

The UK’s National Health Service has only issued three prescriptions for medical cannabis oil since it was legalized two years ago, according to medical cannabis advocacy group End Our Pain.

Under a Michigan Court of Appeals ruling, individuals cannot make butane cannabis extractions and the practice — when done without a license — constitutes the manufacturing of a controlled substance.

The New York Health Department has released draft rules for the state’s hemp industry that would ban CBD flower products and require licensing for all segments of the hemp and CBD supply chain.

Lawmakers in the New Jersey Assembly Appropriations Committee have advanced a bill requiring workers’ comp and personal injury protection auto insurance to cover medical cannabis under certain circumstances.

Gwyneth Paltrow of Goop has invested in the microdose-focused cannabis beverage company Cann, which currently operates in California and Nevada.

Canadian researchers found that 43.5 percent of patients who started using medical cannabis to mitigate harmful alcohol consumption were able to reduce the frequency of their alcohol use.

New Zealand voters appear to have rejected a voter referendum to legalize adult-use cannabis by a 53 to 46 percent margin.

The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that the majority of workers at a cannabis cultivation/processing facility are considered “agriculture laborers” under federal law — in some states, such as Massachusetts, this opens up cannabis workers to unionizing under state law.

A recent study by Washington State University researchers found that teenage boys are easily influenced by social media and advertising into believing that cannabis will improve their sex lives.

A coordinated law enforcement raid in Washington state last week brought down a large cannabis smuggling operation based out of 27 homes in Skyway, Renton, Kent, Maple Valley, SeaTac, and other Puget Sound communities.

MedMen has filed suit against the city of Pasadena, California in an effort to block the city’s cannabis business licensing process after the company was removed from consideration following a major ownership/management shift.

A lawsuit against Missouri’s medical cannabis system claims the state-imposed license caps violate Missourians’ constitutional right to farm.

The Massachusetts Supreme Court has ruled that employees who use medical cannabis to treat a work-related injury cannot rely on workers comp insurance to cover it.

The family of late Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia has unveiled the new cannabis line Garcia Hand Picked.

The USDA has approved Indiana’s hemp plan, allowing the state to move forward with its transition into a full-scale commercial system.

Jay-Z’s new cannabis brand Monogram has launched a billboard advertising campaign at the borders between states with disparate cannabis laws.

Recent polling shows 65 percent of Ukraine voters support legalizing medical cannabis access for severely ill patients.