From Our Writers

The Social Equity Council in Connecticut engaged in “questionable business practices,” according to a recent audit by the state Comptroller’s Office, but officials were not found to have broken state laws.

With a combined $105.08 million in support and opposition funds, the Florida constitutional amendment to legalize adult-use cannabis is the most expensive legalization campaign in the U.S. since 2010.

West Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Steve Williams said he would support a voter referendum to legalize adult-use cannabis in the state.

The Illinois Supreme Court ruled last week that the odor of burnt cannabis alone is not sufficient grounds for police to conduct vehicle searches without a warrant.

The Global Hemp Innovation Center at Oregon State University recently received $5.5 million from the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service to fund research into hemp-based foods, beverages, and other industrial uses for the plant.

Missouri regulators say they will not be enforcing large parts of the governor’s recent executive order to ban the sale of intoxicating hemp products.

Senators in the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee this week passed the DOOBIE Act, which would guarantee that applicants for federal positions or security clearances are not denied due to past cannabis use.

Voters in the presidential battleground states of Arizona and Nevada strongly favored the legalization of medical and adult-use cannabis in two recent polls. Respondents also supported giving banking access to the industry.

Lawmakers in Pennsylvania filed a bipartisan bill on Monday to legalize adult-use cannabis. The bill, which calls for regulating the adult-use industry and expunging past cannabis crimes, was filed on state lawmakers’ first day back from recess.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson recently specified that non-alcoholic, hemp-derived beverages containing 0.3% or less THC are legal in the state despite a lack of legal “guardrails” for the products.

One of the companies suing the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission asked a judge to toss all three of the agency’s attempts to award integrated cannabis licenses and to declare the regulators’ appeal process void.

Having access to legal medical cannabis in all 50 U.S. states could save Americans up to $29 billion per year in reduced healthcare expenditures, according to a recent study.

Cannabis tax revenues have declined in California year-over-year for the last four years, with total taxable cannabis sales in Q2 2024 down by a third since the same time period in 2021.

The University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging released last week found that 21% of respondents aged 50 and older used THC-rich cannabis products at least once in the past year.

A former Nebraska state senator has filed a lawsuit to invalidate two medical cannabis petitions — one to legalize medical cannabis and one to regulate the industry — that were approved for November ballots earlier this month.

A recent survey by Germany-based medical cannabis company Bloomwell GmBh found that 94% of respondents who consumed cannabis said they did so for at least one medical or health reason.

Michigan cannabis retailers set a new monthly sales record of $295.4 million in August, which marked the third consecutive month of increasing sales for the state.

Former President Richard Nixon — who is credited with launching the drug war — said in a recently uncovered 1973 White House recording that cannabis was “not particularly dangerous” but that legalizing it would be “the wrong signal at this time.”

A former California cannabis official has filed a lawsuit claiming she was fired after exposing widespread lab fraud and regulatory inaction.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed a bill Thursday to temporarily end the sale of intoxicating hemp products. Next, state cannabis regulators have up to 180 days to draft rules covering the sale of hemp-derived THC products by licensed cannabis retailers.

The Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is launching a new Local Emphasis Program to investigate and identify potential workplace hazards in the Colorado cannabis industry.

California lawmakers have passed a bill to legalize cannabis consumption lounges in the state; the proposal goes next to Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who vetoed a similar measure last year over concerns about violating the state’s smoke-free workplace protections.

Missouri officials announced a new joint task force aimed at reigning in the spread of “unlicensed psychoactive cannabis products” in the state.

A Senate committee in Pakistan unanimously advanced a proposal to regulate the cultivation and production of cannabis.