From Our Writers

Lawmakers in two Hawaii House committees have advanced a bill to legalize cannabis and establish a regulated adult-use marketplace.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) included the legalization of adult-use cannabis in his 2025-2026 budget proposal.

A new proposal in the Tennessee Legislature seeks to legalize cannabis for adults aged 21+, set a 15% excise tax on sales, and allow for the home cultivation of up to 12 plants.

Both chambers of the Virginia Legislature have passed bills this session to legalize adult-use cannabis sales. The governor, however, has said he will veto any legislation containing regulations for a cannabis marketplace — as he did last year.

Cannabis regulators in Massachusetts warned that some products sold in the state may have exceeded state-mandated levels of yeast, mold, and coliforms.

An Ohio proposal seeks to change the state’s adult-use cannabis policy, including reducing the amount of cannabis that can be grown at home, lowering the THC caps on cannabis concentrate products, raising the excise tax on the industry from 10% to 15%, and redirecting the state’s cannabis tax revenues.

Missouri courts have expunged more than 140,000 cannabis criminal cases under the state’s 2022 constitutional amendment to legalize adult-use cannabis.

The Tacoma, Washington City Council has unanimously passed a resolution to make prosecutions for entheogenic psychedelics the lowest priority for law enforcement.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the president’s nominee to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said last week that if he is confirmed to the role, he would defer to the DEA on the issue of cannabis rescheduling.

Cannabis prices in Oregon are at an all-time low as the state continues to set new cannabis harvest records each year.

Kentucky officials have awarded the state’s first medical cannabis patient IDs, with about 2,200 applications approved.

A Maine proposal would require medical cannabis products to undergo rigorous testing for potency and contaminants, like in the state’s adult-use system.

New legislation introduced in Hawaii seeks to legalize adult-use cannabis and establish the Hawaii Cannabis and Hemp Office, which would oversee the state’s medical cannabis and hemp businesses alongside its future adult-use industry.

Officials with the New Mexico Cannabis Control Division are pushing elected officials to pass legislation creating a task force under the agency dedicated to stamping out illicit cannabis activity.

Indiana House Republicans have rejected a proposal to remove cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug under state law.

A class action lawsuit in Illinois claims that some state-licensed cannabis companies mislabeled cannabis-infused products as concentrates so they could exceed the legal THC limit for certain products.

An Iowa proposal to allow vaporization as a consumption method under the state’s medical cannabis program has advanced from a House subcommittee.

In a letter to Elon Musk, the chairman of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) called for an end to raids by the DEA and CBP on state-legal cannabis businesses.

A U.S. appeals court upheld the Virginia law regulating the sale of hemp products based on total THC amount, regardless of whether the THC they contain is delta-9, delta-8, or any other form of THC.

An explosion and fire at a PharmaCann facility in Stevensville, Maryland injured two workers last week. The accident’s cause is still being investigated.

Massachusetts cannabis retailers set a new annual sales record in 2024 with $1.64 billion in combined adult-use and medical cannabis sales.

Lawmakers in a Virginia Senate committee have advanced a bill funding clinical trials to investigate federally recognized “breakthrough therapies” for veterans’ mental health issues, including psychedelic substances like MDMA and psilocybin.

Canada-based Aurora Cannabis has announced the launch of IndiMed, its first line of medical cannabis products grown and manufactured in Germany, which is the latest EU member state to adopt cannabis legalization policies.

Nebraska state lawmakers are beginning to plan for the medical cannabis program approved by voters last November.