From Our Writers

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.

Hemp building materials like hempcrete, hemp blocks, and hemp-based insulation will be showcased on the National Mall in Washington D.C. as part of the annual Innovative Housing Showcase in June.

Weill Cornell Medicine researchers have received a five-year, $11.6 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to investigate the effects of cannabis on the brains of people who are living with HIV.

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.

A pair of Ohio state representatives have introduced a bipartisan proposal to legalize the cultivation, purchasing, and possession of cannabis by Ohioans aged 21+. The bill also contains language for the expungement of prior cultivation and possession offenses.

About 90% of cannabis plants in the California industry are reportedly infected with hop-latent viroid (HLVd), a pathogen that cripples growth and can reduce THC levels in a plant by as much as half.

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) signed a bill this week to extend the state’s moratorium on new cannabis business licenses for another two years.

The Michigan Civil Service Commission recently proposed a rule change that would drop pre-employment cannabis drug testing for most state government positions.

A federal grand jury in California has indicted Mark Roy Anderson — a previously convicted conman who served 11 years in prison for an oil investment scam — of defrauding $9 million from investors for a nonexistent hemp farm.

Delaware lawmakers voted in committee on Tuesday to set a $4.1 million initial budget for rolling out the state’s adult-use cannabis industry.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said this week it has shut down a multi-year, $60 million cannabis industry “Ponzi-like scheme” by WeedGenics and its owners.

A recent report by New Frontier Data found that slightly more than half – 52% – of cannabis consumers in adult-use markets get their cannabis primarily from dispensaries.

California’s total cannabis tax revenues for Q1 2023 topped out at $216 million, down about $32 million from the fourth quarter of last year.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) appears to support considering synthetic cannabinoids that contain THC — including hemp-derived delta-8 THC — as controlled substances under federal law, according to a recent agency conference presentation.

For the first time since states started to pass cannabis legalization reforms, tax revenue from adult-use sales declined slightly in the U.S. from 2021 to 2022 (from $3.867 billion to $3.775 billion).

Despite having served fewer warrants, California’s United Cannabis Enforcement Taskforce seized more cannabis and cannabis products — and eradicated more cannabis plants — during the first quarter of 2023 than the previous quarter.

Minnesota is set to become the next U.S. state to legalize adult-use cannabis after the state Senate passed a House-approved legalization proposal on Saturday, sending the bill to the governor who intends to sign it into law.

Cannabis advocates in Nebraska have filed the paperwork for a petition drive seeking to put a medical cannabis legalization question on the state’s 2024 ballot.

A proposal introduced last week in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives seeks to protect the state’s medical cannabis patients from getting DUIs for simply testing positive for cannabis consumption.

The Minnesota House voted 73-57 this week to legalize adult-use cannabis; the proposal is a compromise between two respective legalization bills already passed by the House and Senate.

A recent study by Quest Diagnostics found that post-accident workforce drug tests returned more positive tests for cannabis in 2022 than at any point in the previous 25 years.

The New Hampshire Senate voted to create a commission to study implementing an adult-use cannabis legalization process that would put dispensaries under state control.

A U.S. magistrate judge has tossed the class action lawsuit brought by several Humboldt County landowners who claimed they were wrongfully fined by the county for growing cannabis without a permit.