Graham Abbott

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) signed the state’s adult-use legalization bill into law today, making cannabis possession and home cultivation legal starting on August 1 with retail licenses expected sometime next summer.

New York regulators announced the state will allow cannabis farmers’ markets this summer in an effort to help state cultivators offload their glut of cannabis products.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed a bill last week to implement medical psilocybin legalization and decriminalize the personal use and cultivation of other natural psychedelics; the proposal marks lawmakers’ response to last year’s successful psychedelics legalization voter initiative.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) last week signed into law the state’s budget bill which includes $5 million to investigate the medicinal efficacy of whole-mushroom psilocybin.

Lavall Chichester is the CEO of Growth Skills, an award-winning growth marketing agency based in New York City that specializes in developing custom, multifaceted strategies to accelerate audience and revenue growth for brands.

The U.S. military and many federal agencies have started to deprioritize prior cannabis use when considering new hires.

Bipartisan lawmakers in the U.S. House and Senate reintroduced the SAFE Banking Act this week, which seeks to normalize banking services for state-licensed cannabis companies.

James Yi is the founder and CEO of Leaf Trade, a wholesale cannabis platform that integrates point-of-sale, e-commerce, retail fulfillment, payment processing, and more.

Cookies CEO Berner responded to a recent lawsuit targeting himself and several other Cookies executives, calling the allegations — which accuse the company’s leadership of “pervasive self-dealing” and allege a pattern of personal benefits and kickbacks — “extremely false, harmful damaging claims.”

A bipartisan U.S. House proposal filed this week would exempt state-legal cannabis companies from the restrictions of IRS Code 280E, which has vexed modern cannabis operators for years.

Germany announced the watering down of its cannabis legalization efforts after talks with EU officials but the plan is to still legalize possession, allow limited home grows, and establish members-only “cannabis clubs.”

Another federal judge ruled last week that the federal ban on cannabis consumers possessing firearms is unconstitutional.

Katrina Skinner is the General Counsel and Chief Banking Officer for Simplifya, a cannabis regulatory and operational compliance software platform.

Oregon’s first psilocybin licensee, Satori Farms PDX, received its license to begin manufacturing psilocybin products last week.

Seven police officers who helped carry out a raid on Afroman’s house in Ohio last year are now suing the artist over his use of footage from the raid, which depicts the officers’ faces, in music videos and on social media. The rapper says he plans to countersue.

The Texas House Public Health Committee has advanced a medical cannabis proposal that would remove the state’s 1% THC cap, establish a 10 mg volumetric dose for the program, and open the program up to patients experiencing chronic pain.

Alex Rogers is an American medical cannabis business owner and founder of the International Cannabis Business Conference.