From Our Writers

Kentucky voters across the state overwhelmingly passed ballot measures allowing medical cannabis operations at the local level.

Voters in the Texas cities of Dallas, Bastrop, and Lockhart voted this week to decriminalize low-level cannabis possession.

Oregon voted to secure cannabis workers’ right to join unions with the state’s Measure 119 drawing 55% voter support on Tuesday.

Massachusetts voters rejected the state’s medical psychedelics legalization ballot initiative with 57% opposed and 43% in favor. The proposal sought to legalize the medical use of psilocybin, psilocin, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), ibogaine, and mescaline for patients aged 21+.

South Dakota voters on Tuesday rejected the state’s adult-use cannabis legalization initiative.

Voters in North Dakota rejected adult-use cannabis reforms in the state for the third time in six years, with 53% opposed and 47% in favor.

Nebraska’s two medical cannabis initiatives — one seeking to legalize medical cannabis and another to establish a regulated medical cannabis marketplace — were approved on Tuesday with 71% and 67% voter support, respectively. There remains a legal challenge to the initiatives, however, that could stymie the results.

Florida’s Amendment 3, which sought to legalize adult-use cannabis by writing the reforms into the State Constitution, on Tuesday failed to garner the 60% supermajority support required of such amendments.

A recent Gallup poll found that 15% of Americans said they smoke cannabis, a slight increase from the 14% average found by the pollster in 2021-2022.

Licensed adult-use cannabis retailers in Ohio have sold nearly $132 million worth of cannabis products, according to recent data from the Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Cannabis Control.

Virginia regulators have tabbed Metrc to be the official seed-to-sale tracking software for the state’s medical cannabis industry.

Adult-use cannabis dispensaries can legally provide home delivery services under new state regulations that took effect on Friday.

Nebraska officials will count votes for and against the state’s medical cannabis legalization bid this week and will publish the results despite an ongoing legal challenge disputing the campaign’s petition signature-gathering process.

A chief administrative law judge ruled Thursday to delay the DEA’s hearing for expert testimony on the rescheduling of cannabis under federal law until likely January or February 2025.

The owner of a Texas smoke shop was awarded a settlement of $80,000 from the Garza County Sheriff’s Office and the city of Post following an “illegal” raid in February that seized more than $20,000 worth of legal hemp products.

A lawsuit filed on behalf of eight licensed New Mexico cannabis operators alleges that federal agents with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Customs & Border Protection unlawfully seized state-legal cannabis products and cash, violating the companies’ Fifth Amendment right to due process.

Canadian authorities said they took down an organized crime group on Vancouver Island in British Columbia that is believed to have produced tens of thousands of counterfeit candy bars containing cannabis and psilocybin.

The trial over Nebraska’s two medical cannabis ballot initiatives began Tuesday after state officials challenged the proposals’ signature-gathering process. The initiatives, which together seek to legalize medical cannabis, will remain on state ballots but, depending on the trial, could be invalidated even if approved by voters.

A Queens County Superior Court judge has ruled that the New York City law enabling local law enforcement to crack down on unlicensed cannabis sales is unconstitutional because it violates the shop owners’ right to due process.

Multi-state cannabis operator Green Dragon, which operates cultivation and dispensary sites in Colorado and Florida, is shutting down. The company is a subsidiary of Eaze Technologies, Inc., a California cannabis tech firm that is also closing by the year’s end.

The Office of the Washington State Auditor said in a recent report the state’s seed-to-sale tracking system for cannabis products has “failed” and is unlikely to satisfy its stated goals until 2031, nearly 20 years after legalization.

The National Hemp Association was awarded $19.6 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to monitor the impact of hemp cultivation in the Chesapeake Bay. The grant was awarded as part of the USDA’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program.

The New York Office of Cannabis Management issued a stop-production order over the summer for caffeine-infused cannabis pills manufactured by Hudson Cannabis for the cannabis brand 1906.

Kentucky is conducting the state’s first lottery for medical cannabis business licenses today. The first round of lottery-based licensing will cover medical cannabis cultivators and processors.