TG Branfalt

The first 15 conditional processor license applications were approved in New York this week, allowing the selected companies to begin designing, manufacturing, and packaging cannabis products.

Triton College in Illinois is now offering a cannabis cultivation course wherein students will study plants similar to cannabis in the school’s greenhouse operations certificate program and take educational tours of licensed cannabis grow facilities.

According to the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission, total adult-use cannabis sales reached $80 million during the program’s first 10 weeks.

Internal polling data from Missouri NORML shows that 62% of voters are likely to back the state’s adult-use cannabis reforms during the November elections.

Washington state officials are considering a points-based social equity licensing model that is preferential to individuals who were previously convicted of cannabis-related crimes.

Tilray CEO Irwin Simon said the growing U.S. cannabis industry will represent a $100 billion opportunity by the time widespread legalization is achieved.

Curaleaf pulled thousands of cannabis products from New York dispensary shelves after the company switched to a new and still unapproved method of product potency labeling.

Rhode Island’s November elections will see 31 municipalities voting on whether they will opt into allowing adult-use cannabis retail sales and the resulting cannabis industry tax revenues.

As part of an ongoing legal battle after Arkansas’ Board of Election Commissioners blocked a popular cannabis legalization initiative from November ballots, the state Supreme Court will conditionally allow the adult-use question to move forward.

In Maine, where 93% of municipalities have been resistant to allowing adult-use cannabis sales, cannabis regulators are now offering up to $20,000 as an incentive for cities and towns to allow cannabis businesses.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) signed a package of cannabis industry reform bills which includes provisions for tax reforms, expungement, social equity, and changes to industry fees.

Members of the Crow Tribe are looking to open the first cannabis dispensary on tribal land in Montana but approval has been delayed by the tribe and Big Horn County. 

Saint Peter’s University in New Jersey has filed a lawsuit to prohibit the opening of a dispensary and lounge near the college’s dormitories.

Arkansas medical cannabis sales reached $23.3 million last month, exceeding June’s total of $22 million.

Missouri’s cannabis legalization initiative has been cleared for November ballots.

Lawmakers in Guyana’s parliament voted this week to legalize industrial hemp plants containing 0.3% THC or less.

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell proposed legislation this week in partnership with city Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda seeking to establish city-level cannabis social equity licenses.

Advocates in Florida launched a new campaign this week to legalize adult-use cannabis in the Sunshine State. The effort is backed by Trulieve, the state’s largest medical cannabis company.

District attorneys in New Mexico have started to review prior cannabis charges for expungement, a requirement of legislation that accompanied the state’s cannabis legalization law.

A testing lab and multiple cannabis cultivators in Arkansas are being targeted by a federal lawsuit alleging deceptive trade practices; the lawsuit claims the businesses are subject to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act because cannabis remains federally outlawed.

The Canadian government spent $153 million in fiscal year 2021-2022 to reimburse medical cannabis purchases by more than 18,000 veterans.

The campaign for legalizing cannabis in Arkansas filed a lawsuit in the state Supreme Court last week after the Board of Election Commissioners rejected the initiative’s name and title, effectively blocking it from ballots.

Commissioners in Athens-Clarke County, Georgia approved an ordinance to reduce the penalty for possession of less than an ounce of cannabis to a $35 fine, the lowest in the state.

Brittney Griner was sentenced to nine years in a Russian penal colony for cannabis possession.