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More Americans say using marijuana is morally acceptable—or not a moral issue at all—than those who say the same about gambling, watching pornography, having an abortion, being gay and more, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center. The survey also shows that people with lower levels of education are more likely to have moral concerns about cannabis. The poll, which assessed public opinion around questions of morality across the globe, additionally revealed that the U.S. is something of an outlier, as the majority (52 percent) of people polled in the 25 countries said using cannabis was immoral. Of the nine policy issues that respondents were asked about, the only other where an international majority described it as morally unacceptable (77 percent) was having an affair while married. But in the U.S., where nearly all states have enacted some form of cannabis legalization for either medical or recreational purposes and where federal rescheduling may be imminent, adults involved in the survey strongly signaled that they didn’t view marijuana use as a moral shortcoming. In fact, 76 percent of Americans said using cannabis is either morally acceptable (24 percent) or not a moral issue (52 percent), compared to 23 percent who called the activity morally unacceptable. Other issues that Americans found morally acceptable (or not a moral concern) but at equal or lower levels than marijuana use were divorce (76 percent), gambling (70 percent), homosexuality (60 percent), abortion (52 percent). Respondents in the U.S. were more likely to call it morally acceptable (or a non-issue) to use birth control (91 percent) or drink alcohol (84 percent). Meanwhile, a minority said the same about viewing porn (47 percent) or having an affair while married (9 percent). The alcohol finding isn’t particularly surprising, as more Americans report drinking alcohol than use cannabis—and alcohol’s status as a widely available legal substance for adults in all 50 states may contribute to perceptions of morality—but it also comes amid a broader shift in public opinion that’s been detailed in prior polling. For example, a survey released last year found that a majority of Americans believe marijuana represents a “healthier option” than alcohol—and most also expect cannabis to be legal nationwide within the next five years. A demographic breakdown of the latest Pew poll also found that U.S. adults with more education were more likely to say marijuana use is either morally acceptable or a non-issue (79 percent) compared to those with less education (74 percent). The divide is more pronounced on the global level, however. “On nearly all the behaviors we asked about, adults with less education are more likely than those with more education to say each behavior is morally unacceptable,” Pew’s analysis says. “This pattern is readily apparent when considering the numbers who say using marijuana is wrong. In Mexico, for example, 70 percent of adults with less than a secondary education view marijuana use as morally wrong, compared with 39 percent of Mexican adults who have at least a secondary education. Even in places where relatively few adults say that using marijuana is wrong—like Canada, Germany and the U.S.—those with lower levels of education consistently express more moral objections.” The Pew survey analyzed data from 12,542 U.S. adults who participated in two prior nationally representative surveys in March and May of last year—as well as 28,333 adults across 24 other countries from January 8, 2025 to April 26, 2025. Outside of the U.S., the survey involved interviews with adults in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Poland, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, back in 2018, Gallup also asked U.S. adults about the morality of various issues. It found that Americans view cannabis consumption as more moral than the death penalty, medical testing on animals, physician assisted suicide, abortion, pornography, cloning animals, polygamy and extramarital affairs. Pew released a poll last year that showed an overwhelming majority of Americans—nearly nine in 10—support legalizing marijuana in some form. An earlier Pew survey from 2024 separately highlighted views on the societal impacts of recreational legalization, and a majority (52 percent) said the reform is “good” for local economies. A 42 percent plurality additionally agreed that legalization would make the criminal justice system “more fair.” Photo courtesy of Max Jackson. The post Using Marijuana Is More Morally Acceptable Than Gambling And Abortion, Americans Say In New Poll appeared first on Marijuana Moment. View the live link on MarijuanaMoment.net

“Massachusetts businesses are thrilled that we might be delaying or limiting the number of licenses we’re about to hand out.” By Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Currant Cannabis cultivators and prospective store owners implored the panel responsible for regulating Rhode Island’s cannabis market to avoid any further delays in awarding 20 new retail licenses on Friday. The two remaining members of the state’s Cannabis Control Commission were scheduled to potentially vote on staggering the release of the licenses, along with extending the deadline for license applicants to secure local zoning approvals. At last month’s meeting on February 13, commissioners first considered the idea of staggering the distribution of retail licenses. Commissioners opted to punt their decision on how the license lottery will proceed in order to absorb testimony provided by 23 industry representatives who gave public comment, along with other written correspondence provided to the panel. “We definitely hear you and hope to move forward in the best way,” Commissioner Layi Oduyingbo told the industry leaders who packed the conference room at the Public Utilities Commission in Warwick. Applicants will not get any extension to get their local zoning approval. Oduyingbo and Commissioner Robert Jacquard voted against. Applicants had through March 2 to get local approvals submitted to the commission. Twelve applicants had requested extensions, Rhode Island Cannabis Administrator Michelle Reddish told commissioners. Under a timeline adopted last fall, regulators aimed to begin issuing licenses as early as May. The rules set by the commission governing the retail market don’t specify how many would be awarded at one time. State law allows the commission to issue up to 24 retail licenses spread across six geographic zones. The state’s regulations adopted last year set a maximum of four retailers per zone, with at least one license designated for a social equity applicant, and one for a worker-owned cooperative. But two zones had no applications from worker cooperatives and general retailers, which left regulators to instead issue a maximum of 20 licenses across the state. A total of 97 applications were submitted to regulators by the commission’s December 29, 2025, deadline. At the February 13 meeting, Jacquard said “a lot of stakeholders” voiced objections to awarding licenses all at once, fearing it could oversaturate Rhode Island’s budding market and drastically lower product prices leading to a “race to the bottom.” Publicly, that alarm has only been raised by executives from some of the eight existing medical dispensaries, who have been allowed to sell recreational cannabis under hybrid licenses following retail legalization in 2022. “Maintaining the right balance between supply, retail capacity and consumer demand is essential to preserving a safe cannabis industry,” Kevin Rouleau, chief operating officer for the Portsmouth-based Newport Cannabis Company, told the commission Friday. Rouleau was the only medical dispensary representative to speak during the February 13 meeting. He had some backup this time. Jonathan Leighton, chief operating officer for Mother Earth Wellness in Pawtucket, said he’s worried regulators could wind up approving shops in heavily concentrated areas and damage what is a “fragile market.” He would know, formerly running Heal Cannabis in Provincetown, Massachusetts, located within 1 square mile of three other retailers. “Heal Cannabis is no longer in business,” Leighton said. “Unplanned increase in retail and recreational access does not necessarily mean more sales.” But retail license applicants and cultivators warn continued delay is what will hurt the market. “Massachusetts businesses are thrilled that we might be delaying or limiting the number of licenses we’re about to hand out,” Matthew Belair, an applicant for a license in Zones 2 and 3, told the commission. “It’s not a mistake that there are so many along the border.” Attorney Lisa Holley, who represents cultivators and retail license applicants, told the commission that Rhode Island is “significantly underlicensed.” She mentioned a recent cultivator-commissioned analysis from economist Beau Whitney showing the state can support even up to 40 retail licenses without harming existing operators. “Issuing the proposed 24 licenses, now down to 20, will not oversaturate the market and will instead increase legal participation, tax revenue and employment in the state” Holley said. “Why would we slow roll?” Reddish told the commission that she and other staffers are still going over the report’s findings. Commissioners did not say when they intend to make a final decision on how they intend to hold the license lottery. “There’s no reason to do it right now that I know of,” Jacquard told Rhode Island Current after the meeting. This story was first published by Rhode Island Currant. The post Rhode Island Marijuana Regulators Delay Decision On Lottery To Award New Dispensary Licenses appeared first on Marijuana Moment. View the live link on MarijuanaMoment.net

Legalizing marijuana for adult use is linked to gradual reductions in violent crime—while medical cannabis legalization is associated with lower rates of property crime—according to a new study. As more states move to enact legalization, researchers at Jack Welch College of Business and Technology, Barnard College, National Chengchi University and Longwood University set out to investigate the relationship between different versions of the reform and crime trends. The study, published in the journal Economic Modelling, identified a unique divide when looking at the impact of legalizing cannabis for recreational as compared to medical purposes, with analytic models revealing how different forms of regulated access seem to be associated with different patterns in criminal activity. “Novel policies may generate unintended spillovers, particularly when legalizing one activity alters incentives for other forms of crime,” the study authors wrote. “Marijuana legalization provides a useful setting to examine such effects, given the staggered adoption of medical and recreational laws across all 50 U.S. states.” “We find that medical legalization reduces property crime, while recreational legalization reduces violent crime.” While initial analyses signaled that adult-use legalization might increase property crime, once state-specific time trends where incorporated into the researchers’ models with synthetic specification, “the effect becomes negative and statistically insignificant.” “Overall, the findings indicate that estimated crime effects are highly sensitive to identification assumptions and do not provide robust evidence of an increase in property crime following legalization, underscoring the importance of careful empirical design in policy evaluation,” the study says. Notably, the researchers found that the impact of cannabis reform on crime is gradual, with the effects manifesting “powerfully after several years.” For advocates pushing for legalization, the authors said, that means they should exercise caution in how they frame the issue, as crime rate declines don’t appear to happen overnight. “What emerges from our multi-step analysis is a birds-eye view of legalization: medical and recreational legalization have different impacts and operate through diverse channels, with significant lag effects,” they said. “The overarching result from our main synthetic difference in differences model is that medical legalization reduces property crime, while recreational legalization reduces violent crime.” “Such effects support the Becker hypothesis that legalization drives out crime. Building up to the synthetic difference in difference model, we discovered that there may also be important lag effects. The diverse and potentially time-varying impacts of medical and recreational legalization raise a cautionary note to policymakers: those considering legalization should wait a few years before pronouncing on the cost–benefit impact, focus on the specific type of legalization, and study closely the outcomes from similar states.” It’s not immediately clear from the research why medical and recreational marijuana legalization would lead to diverging crime trends, but the broader impact of the reform on crime has been studied before. Last year, for example, a study looking at Atlanta’s move to decriminalize marijuana concluded that, contrary to warnings from some critics, the policy change in fact led to a decrease in violent crime as police turned their attention to more urgent matters. A 2024 analysis of violence between intimate partners separately found that legalizing marijuana for adult use “results in a substantial decrease in rates of intimate partner violence.” A 2021 study, meanwhile, found that reductions of crime generally after marijuana legalization was being significantly understated because the FBI data is inconsistent and comes from voluntary participation by local agencies. In 2020, researchers looked at how adult-use marijuana legalization in Washington and Colorado affected crime rates in neighboring states, and the resulting study determined that passage of recreational cannabis laws may have actually reduced certain major crimes in nearby jurisdictions. The previous year, a federally funded study found that legalizing marijuana has little to no impact on rates of violent or property crime. The policy change did seem connected to a long-term decline in burglaries in one state, however. A 2018 study from the think tank RAND said county-level data from California suggested that there was “no relationship between county laws that legally permit dispensaries and reported violent crime,” the researchers wrote. What’s more, there was a “negative and significant relationship between dispensary allowances and property crime rates,” though it’s possible that’s the product of “pre-existing trends.” That same year, researchers at Victoria University of Wellington and Harvard University found that medical marijuana laws essentially have a null effect of crime rates, with one big exception: A nearly 20 percent reduction in violent and property crimes in California following the legalization of medical cannabis there. The post Legalizing Marijuana For Recreational Or Medical Use Leads To Reductions In Different Types Of Crime, Study Finds appeared first on Marijuana Moment. View the live link on MarijuanaMoment.net

The governor of New Mexico has signed a budget bill that provides nearly $800,000 in funding to support the state’s therapeutic psilocybin research efforts, including financial assistance to help low-income residents access treatment with the psychedelic. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) gave final approval to the budget legislation on Wednesday that stipulates that $150,000 will go toward medical psilocybin treatment equity fund “to support medical psilocybin efforts.” Another $480,000 is generally earmarked for the psychedelic access equity fund. Additionally, the legislation allocates $150,000 to the University of New Mexico for a psilocybin-assisted therapy research program. Another section of the budget bill the governor signed states that the time period for a $1 million appropriation to the Department of Health to administer the psilocybin program is being extended through the end of the 2027 fiscal year. Last year, the department separately announced that the program would be launching on an expedited timeline, potentially starting as early as this December. Lujan Grisham signed the underlying medical psilocybin bill last year, It’s meant to allow patients with certain qualifying conditions to access the psychedelic and use it under the guidance of a licensed healthcare provider. The law states the purpose “is to allow the beneficial use of psilocybin in a regulated system for alleviating qualified medical conditions,” including major treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, substance use disorders and end-of-life care. The Department of Health would be able to approve additional conditions. Psilocybin therapy will consist of a preparation session, an administration session and a follow-up integration session. The health department will be responsible for establishing guidelines around training for clinicians and producers, including dosage, approved settings for administration, production and storage protocols and other best practices. State officials will also license producers to grow mushrooms and process psilocybin. Synthetic psilocybin and synthetic analogs of the substance will not be allowed under the law. A nine-member advisory board, which was recently convened, will recommend additional qualifying conditions as well as rules around preparation and dosage. The board will also review outside petitions for additional qualifying conditions. — Marijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments. Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access. — In 2023, the House Health and Human Services Committee also passed a bill that called for the creation of a state body to study the possibility of launching a psilocybin therapy program for certain patients. That measure did not advance further in the 2023 session, however. New Mexico lawmakers passed, and the governor endorsed, a resolution in 2024 requesting that state officials research the therapeutic potential of psilocybin and explore the creation of a regulatory framework to provide access to the psychedelic. Meanwhile, a group of New Mexico marijuana businesses last year urged a federal judge not to dismiss its lawsuit against U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) over the agency’s alleged overreach in seizing state-legal cannabis products and detaining industry workers. But the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico did ultimately dismiss the case last month. Photo courtesy of Dick Culbert. The post New Mexico Governor Signs Budget Bill With Funds To Provide Psychedelic Therapy Access For Low-Income People appeared first on Marijuana Moment. View the live link on MarijuanaMoment.net

With marijuana rescheduling still left unfulfilled months after President Donald Trump ordered the process to be completed, there are no plans to update federal workplace drug policy around cannabis, according to a new filing from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In a noticed published in the Federal Register on Friday, HHS and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) advised that they’ve “made no revisions to the current drug testing panels for both urine and oral fluid and current required nomenclature” for labs and medical review officer reports. Because marijuana remains a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), drug testing standards for the substance are not changing for federal workers, at least for now. “The current authorized drug testing panels and required report nomenclature remain in effect,” the notice says. The relevant rule is meant to identify the “analytes and cutoffs for federal agency workplace drug testing specimens” and lay out “the nomenclature (i.e., analyte names and abbreviations) that must be used to report federal workplace drug test results.” Statute dictates that HHS must periodically provide updates on the rule, even if it’s not being revised as in this case. Because the list of drugs that the rules apply to are listed in either Schedule I or Schedule II, the policy for marijuana testing could theoretically change if its moved to Schedule III, as proposed by HHS under the Biden administration following a scientific review. Trump in December directed Attorney General Pam Bondi do expeditiously finalize the rescheduling rule, but there haven’t been any updates in the weeks since the executive order was signed. Last year, HHS did announce that it was updating its terminology in the federal worker drug testing policy to reflect a more nuanced understanding of cannabis. Previously, HHS referred to delta-9 THC merely as “THC,” with no further specification. That failed to distinguish between delta-9 THC—which is found in marijuana—and delta-8 THC, an increasingly prominent psychoactive cannabinoid that can be produced from federally legal hemp. The agency also previously used “THCA” to refer to a marijuana metabolite, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid. That conflicts with the more common meaning of “THCA” within the cannabis space, where it typically refers to delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinolic acid—a non-psychoactive that can be converted to delta-9 THC through heating. Now delta-9 THC is referred to as such. And HHS now refers to the THC metabolite as delta-9 THCC rather than THCA. To align with the HHS update, the Department of Transportation (DOT) last year proposed a rule to update its own drug testing guidelines, revising terminology around cannabis in a way that provides more specificity related to THC. DOT subsequently advised in December that all safety-sensitive workers must still comply with federal drug testing requirements, even after the president directed the attorney general to complete the cannabis rescheduling process. For what it’s worth, former DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in 2014 that moving cannabis to Schedule III wouldn’t affect drug testing policies for commercial truckers, noting that the department specifically lists marijuana as substance to screen for, separate from the HHS and SAMHSA rule. Drug testing policy is just one issue that rescheduling could impact. Stakeholders and advocates are eagerly awaiting final action for other reasons, as the reform is also expected to help expand research opportunities and allow marijuana businesses to take federal tax deductions they’re barred from under an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) code known as 280E, for example. To that end, IRS recently weighed in on a relevant U.S. Tax Court case involving state-licensed cannabis businesses, reiterating its position that the industry must still comply with 280E as rescheduling sits pending—and it does not intend to retroactively extend relief to the sector even if marijuana is ultimately moved to Schedule III. Meanwhile, a new academic paper says that while marijuana rescheduling would represent a historic policy change with major implications for cannabis research and industry, it should be viewed as a “transitional” step that must be followed up with comprehensive reform to better align state and federal law while promoting equity. — Marijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments. Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access. — Meanwhile, the first-ever White House drug czar recently said that while he loves Trump and “almost everything he does,” that affection doesn’t extend to the pending proposal to federally reschedule marijuana, which he described as a “gateway drug” that’s harming youth. A White House spokesperson defended the administration’s rescheduling push in an earlier interview with Fox News Digital, stating that it’s part of his “pledge to expand medical research into applications of marijuana and cannabidiols.” “The president’s historic action paved the way for the development of promising new treatments for American patients, especially veterans—and the presence of several leaders from law enforcement and veterans groups at the Oval Office signing is indicative of how President Trump continues to push the envelope to support our nation’s heroes,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said. The rescheduling plan has been met with mixed reactions on Capitol Hill. For example, prohibitionist Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) half-jokingly told Marijuana Moment last month that he felt the Justice Department should “take about 20 years” to finish the rescheduling process. In December, Harris separately said Trump doesn’t have the authority to unilaterally reschedule marijuana via executive order. But while lawmakers could overrule any administrative move to enact the reform, it would be a “heavy lift” in the Republican-controlled Congress, he acknowledged. Another GOP lawmaker on the other side of the debate, Congressional Cannabis Caucus co-chair Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH), recently told Marijuana Moment that while marijuana rescheduling might not be at the top of the agenda for the Justice Department or White House amid competing interests, he and bipartisan colleagues will be ready when “opportunity does present itself.” Joyce separately said in January that he doesn’t think the attorney general would seek to undermine the president’s executive order to move marijuana to Schedule III despite any personal reservations she may have about the policy change. Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Trump’s first pick for attorney general this term who ultimately withdrew his nomination, raised eyebrows after posting on X that he’s been told the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is actively drafting a rescheduling rule and intended to issue it “ASAP.” There’s some confusion around that point, however, as a rule is already pending before the Justice Department—and a new rule would presumably be subject to additional administrative review and public comment. A Democratic senator told Marijuana Moment in January that it’s “too early to tell” what the implications of Trump’s cannabis order would be—saying that while there are “things that look promising” about it, he is “very concerned about where the DOJ will land.” “The ability of the Trump administration to speak out of both sides of their mouth is staggering,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said. “So I’m just going to wait and see right now. Obviously, there’s things that look promising—to end generations of injustice. I really want to wait and see.” In January, two GOP senators filed an amendment to block the Trump administration from rescheduling cannabis, but it was not considered on the floor. Meanwhile, DEA recently said the cannabis rescheduling appeal process “remains pending” despite Trump’s executive order. Bondi, the attorney general, separately missed a congressionally mandated deadline in January to issue guidelines for easing barriers to research on Schedule I substances such as marijuana and psychedelics. The post With Marijuana Rescheduling Still Pending, Federal Workplace Drug Testing Rules Aren’t Changing, Health Agency Says appeared first on Marijuana Moment. View the live link on MarijuanaMoment.net

MA marijuana report; Federal rescheduling analysis; NH legalization & psychedelics bills blocked; DE medical cannabis in hospitals Subscribe to receive Marijuana Moment’s newsletter in your inbox every weekday morning. It’s the best way to make sure you know which cannabis stories are shaping the day. Get our daily newsletter. Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human: Your support makes Marijuana Moment possible… Hold on, just one second before you read today’s news. Have you thought about giving some financial support to Marijuana Moment? If so, today would be a great day to contribute. We’re planning our reporting for the coming months and it would really help to know what kind of support we can count on. Check us out on Patreon and sign up to give $25/month today: https://www.patreon.com/marijuanamoment / TOP THINGS TO KNOW Virginia lawmakers sent Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) a bill to legalize recreational marijuana sales—with the market scheduled for launch on January 1, 2027. Reps. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-FL) and Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA) filed a bill to repeal a law that allows housing discrimination against people who have been convicted of manufacturing or distributing marijuana or other illegal drugs. The Delaware Senate unanimously passed a bill to allow terminally ill patients to use medical cannabis in hospitals, including with an amendment to clarify its scope crafted with help from the Medical Society of Delaware and Delaware Healthcare Association. The New Hampshire House of Representatives allowed key drug policy reform bills to die without floor votes—including measures to put marijuana legalization on the ballot and allow the therapeutic use of psilocybin. The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission published a new report showing that marijuana consumers are “overwhelmingly turning away from unregulated sources”—a finding that comes as an initiative to roll back legalization approaches the November ballot. A new academic analysis says that rescheduling marijuana would be a “transitional” step that should be followed by broader “banking, interstate commerce, and durable criminal justice and equity reforms.” The Georgia House of Representatives passed a bill to expand medical cannabis access by allowing vaping, adding new qualifying conditions and increasing THC potency limits. The Oklahoma House of Representatives rejected a bill that would have given employers more leeway to fire workers for medical cannabis use that is legal under state law. Texas officials could launch increased raids against hemp businesses under new state rules, industry advocates fear. Alabama medical cannabis dispensaries are preparing to finally launch sales to patients following years of delays stemming from contentious litigation over regulators’ licensing processes. / FEDERAL The Congressional Research Service noted Congress’s interference in Washington, D.C. marijuana laws in a report. The House bill to delay the federal recriminalization of hemp THC products got two new cosponsors for a total of 32. / STATES California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) authored an op-ed criticizing the Trump administration’s approach to drug policy, including its efforts to roll back support for harm reduction. An Ohio senator defended the legislature’s move to pass a bill restricting marijuana and hemp products. A Washington, D.C. councilmember tweeted, “VA and MD moving forward on smart cannabis regulation. Meanwhile, DC still has a legacy congressional appropriations rider preventing us from doing the same.” Michigan regulators published updated guidance on cannabis company compliance best practices. Virginia regulators launched an ad campaign about the dangers of cannabis-impaired driving. Colorado officials are accepting applications to serve on the Hemp Advisory Committee. Missouri regulators posted the latest episode of their marijuana podcast. — Marijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments. Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access. — / LOCAL The Boston, Massachusetts Cannabis Board will meet on Wednesday. / INTERNATIONAL UNAIDS and the United Nations Development Programme published guidance on decriminalizing drug use in the context of HIV. / SCIENCE & HEALTH A study of rats found that “CBD effectively attenuates both acute and inflammatory pain,” highlighting its “potential as a non-opioid supplementary therapy for managing pain in individuals with opioid dependence.” A study found that “cannabigerol-dominant C. sativa effectively mitigates obesity by suppressing adipogenesis and lipogenesis while concurrently stimulating lipolysis and white adipose tissue browning.” / ADVOCACY, OPINION & ANALYSIS The South Carolina Republican Party issued a statement opposing efforts to allow THC-infused drinks and other products. / BUSINESS TerrAscend Corp. reported quarterly net revenue of $66.1 million and a net from continuing operations of $0.5 million. WM Technology, Inc. reported quarterly revenue of $43.1 million and a net loss of $5 million. Verano Holdings Corp. closed a $195 million senior secured term loan. / CULTURE Carl’s Jr. tweeted, “‘you need to touch grass.’ no, i need to smoke grass and then mobile order.” Make sure to subscribe to get Marijuana Moment’s daily dispatch in your inbox. Get our daily newsletter. Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human: Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images. The post Virginia cannabis sales legalization bill heads to governor (Newsletter: March 16, 2026) appeared first on Marijuana Moment. View the live link on MarijuanaMoment.net

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“There’s a part of me that my heart’s dancing because we are so much closer. So there’s more gratitude right now than anything.” By Anna Barrett, Alabama Reflector The Montgomery location of Callie’s Apothecary does not look like much. But standing on the concrete floors and surrounded by metal beams, owner Vince Schilleci described how the “pharmacy-adjacent” storefront will look. And when Callie’s opens—which Schilleci thinks could happen as early as April—it will likely be the first place in Alabama one can purchase legal medical cannabis. “We’ll have someone come and check in, scan the card to make sure you are an actual patient that’s been recommended medical cannabis,” he said. “For privacy, you have to wait out here until you can come on to the sales floor. Our goal is to get people in and out as quick as possible, because it’s a safety thing. We don’t want people loitering.” The opening could be milestone, nearly five years after the Legislature passed a law authorizing medical cannabis and following years of litigation and thwarted licensing processes. Amanda Taylor, a medical cannabis patient advocate, has been a part of the commission’s process since 2021. She has multiple sclerosis with 45 lesions on her brain and one on her spine. She welcomes the openings, but said in an interview Thursday that the delays took a toll. “There’s a part of me that my heart’s dancing because we are so much closer. So there’s more gratitude right now than anything,” Taylor said. “The suffering, the undue suffering that the patients had to endure because of the lawsuits, that kept this away from the patients.” Licenses The Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC) has awarded three dispensary licenses, and Schilleci’s store, doing business as CCS of Alabama, is expected to be the first to open, according to AMCC General Counsel Justin Aday. “I don’t think that anybody’s dragging their feet. There’s a lot of balls in the air with different stakeholders at work,” Aday said. CCS; GP6 Wellness, based in Birmingham, and Montgomery-based RJK Holdings received licenses in December. A fourth dispensary license is yet to be distributed, but is likely to go to Yellowhammer Dispensaries, according to Aday. The commission delayed issuing Yellowhammer’s license in December due to litigation, but Aday said the commission requested an expedited decision, and hopes it will resolve soon. Once it does, there will be 12 dispensaries in the state. Schilleci said two other Callie’s Apothecary locations will open in a few months: one in Talladega, and one in Bessemer following a last minute location change from Cullman. Schilleci said in an interview last month that the company was able to take more business risks because it was not challenged during the licensing process. “We invested in a lot of equipment so we would be ready to go once we had the license in hand rather than ordering them,” Schilleci said. “We kind of gambled a little bit by spending money before we had the license in hand, but we felt good about things.” A dispensary is not a pharmacy, so the employees there will not be able to give medical advice, Schilleci said. But the dispensary will have a consultation room in case patients have questions about the products they have been recommended by board-certified physicians, a prerequisite for getting medical cannabis. As of last Friday, there were 20 physicians certified to recommend medical cannabis to patients in Alabama, according to the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners. Aday said in an interview Wednesday that about nine of the certified physicians registered through the commission’s patient registry. “I think it would be odd for them to go through the process with the board of medical examiners to not then use that certification,” Aday said. Physicians will not prescribe medical cannabis. Instead, they will recommend a product they believe will work for a patient with a qualifying condition, including cancer, depression, Parkinson’s Disease, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), sickle-cell anemia, chronic pain and terminal diseases. The approved product forms are restricted to tablets, tinctures, patches, oils and gummies (only peach flavor), with raw plant material and smokable forms remaining prohibited. Each qualifying patient will have to register with the commission in order to get a recommendation from a physician and to receive a cannabis product from a dispensary. “We want them to be confident that not only we’re going to be professional and serve our customers, we’re also being compassionate, because these are people with ailments that are tough,” Schilleci said. “This isn’t a retail business. Yes, it’s retail, but it’s something more. It’s a call to serve at the end of the day.” Litigation has held up access to medical cannabis. Some firms sued the commission for not being awarded a license, citing a discriminatory process. Another case involved five parents that sued the commission over delays in access to cannabis, which was dismissed in August. Who will participate? As of last Friday, there were fewer than 10 patients registered for medical cannabis, and Aday said that it is hard to estimate how many patients will benefit from the program. Schilleci knew the process of getting product in patients’ hands would take a while, but said he was thankful it is ending soon. “For the patients, they’ve been waiting too long, it’s time for us to get this product to them,” Schilleci said. “I can’t get over it. It’s amazing how many folks are calling already saying, ‘Hey, when are you open? We’re ready for this.’” Taylor said in an interview that through her work as a patient advocate she has received over 700 emails from Alabamians, but patients will contact her through text, phone calls and social media, too. “It can be overwhelming, but at the same time, if there are days with my illness that I can’t really get around a lot, so I can devote time because I can’t really do anything else,” she said. Even though the nearly five year journey to get medical cannabis is nearing an end, Taylor said it has been exhausting. “I just want to say that no matter how you look at it, it’s a victory for the patients,” she said. “I can’t wait to celebrate for the patients.” Dispensary Locations: CCS of Alabama, LLC Montgomery, Bessemer and Talladega GP6 Wellness, LLC Birmingham, Athens and Attalla RJK Holdings, LLC Oxford, Daphne and Mobile Yellowhammer Medical Dispensary, LLC *pending license approval Birmingham, Owens Cross Roads and Demopolis This story was first published by Alabama Reflector. The post Alabama Medical Marijuana Sales Near Launch After Years Of Delay appeared first on Marijuana Moment. View the live link on MarijuanaMoment.net

“People don’t know what the rules are. They don’t know what is in effect at a certain time… There is overall confusion around regulations, and that is the biggest issue.” By Stephen Simpson, The Texas Tribune Dallas attorney Chelsie Spencer specializes in making sure Texas businesses that sell hemp-derived THC products know how to stay in compliance with state and federal rules and regulations, an area that can be very confusing. She offers them a monthly service where her law firm rigorously vets distributors and helps to independently test their products to ensure they are safe and legal to sell in her clients’ stores. “They pay us a phenomenal amount to stay compliant,” Spencer said. That is why when Spencer learned that one of her North Texas clients had been raided by local police and the Drug Enforcement Administration, and his home surrounded, like he was a major narcotics dealer, she was shocked. “They took everything from my client…his children’s cellphones, every computer in the house, took all the vehicles, seized all assets, and froze all cash,” Spencer said of the raid that occurred in July. Since August 2024, local and federal law enforcement agencies have raided more than 15 businesses across the state that were accused of selling consumable hemp products that had illegal levels of THC, according to attorneys for these cannabis retailers. During these raids, law enforcement officials seized products and cash that businesses have still not recovered, and customers were scared away. Many of those retailers have not yet been found guilty of any crime, according to their attorneys. “You always see the headlines about the raids, but you never see these huge headlines about charges and indictments,” said Andrea Steel, a Houston attorney for several THC businesses. Even though they have affected a small fraction of 8,000 hemp retailers registered in Texas, these raids by law enforcement agencies have ramped up over the last two years to help some lawmakers build public support for banning hemp-derived THC products, Steel said. Over the summer, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) vetoed a bill the Legislature passed to ban hemp-derived THC and told state agencies to better regulate those THC products instead. But, she said her clients fear these types of raids will continue because the new regulations being considered could create THC limits that will be nearly impossible to meet, shuttering THC businesses and deterring businesses from selling THC products. “The same number of raids are occurring after the veto as before. In fact, there will likely be an increase in raids once the new rules and regulations are finalized because one of them is an increase in licensing fees for enforcement; they are going to need to justify that,” she said. Law enforcement agencies deny that these raids were politically motivated. They have said these raids were based on concerns that these retailers were selling dangerous products, especially to children, and engaging in other unscrupulous activities such as money laundering, according to a news conference from Allen police, as well as a joint one between Temple and Belton police departments. Allen Police Chief Steve Dyes, whose department raided at least a dozen businesses and warehouses since 2024, was a fixture at the Texas Capitol during the legislative session, warning lawmakers that the hemp industry was corrupt and couldn’t be trusted. “You have to have a trustworthy industry partner to regulate to know when they put something in a package, it matches the label. We just don’t have that with the THC consumables industry,” Dye said in September after Abbott vetoed the hemp ban and made an executive order for rules and regulations. Sammy Rippamonti, spokesperson for the Allen Police Department, said the investigation associated with the raids is still ongoing, and couldn’t provide further details. Dye did not respond to a request for comment. “The Temple Police Department does not conduct enforcement actions based on political developments or media narratives,” said Sydney McBride, spokesperson for the Temple Police Department, which raided seven businesses in June. “Our operations are driven by facts, evidence, and current applicable law. Our focus remains to work in partnership with the community to prevent, reduce, and solve crimes.” Multiple retailers have sued law enforcement agencies after these raids, alleging they are using a faulty testing method in their crime labs that artificially inflates the amount of THC in their products. Law enforcement agencies have defended their results. Data provided from the Texas Poison Center Network confirms a sharp increase in cannabis-related poisoning calls starting in 2019, a year after hemp-derived THC was legalized by the federal government, from 923 to a 10-year high of 2,592 in 2024, although those calls dropped last year to 1,485. The majority of these calls involve suspected poisoning of children under the age of five and teenagers. The Texas Department of State Health Services recently published a set of proposed rules to tighten regulations on consumable hemp products, including new testing requirements that industry members say will eliminate the use of hemp flowers, which is used in many THC products. Hemp businesses worry that this new requirement will be used as another reason to raid them. That, coupled with a proposal to hike licensing fees by more than 13,000 percent, will force many of them out of business, essentially fulfilling the desires of those who wanted to ban them, businesses say. “People don’t know what the rules are. They don’t know what is in effect at a certain time. I can’t tell you how many people thought that hemp got outlawed several months ago,” said Steel, who spoke recently at the Texas Cannabis Policy Conference, where increased police raids became a focus of discussion. “There is overall confusion around regulations, and that is the biggest issue.” Caught in political storm Spencer said last year’s raid saddled her client with crippling legal fees, disrupted revenue, and damaged his reputation. “We heard a lot of posturing saying we know what these people are doing, they’re sending money back to the Middle East. The district attorney is giving all these threats, saying these guys are going to jail, then 60 days in, we get a call saying come get all your stuff, take it back. We’re not moving forward,” she said. “We spent over $100,000 to get there.” In August 2024, Allen police and partnering agencies raided nine hemp shops, prompting the Hemp Industry Leaders of Texas to sue, alleging that those law enforcement agencies illegally seized lawful inventory. The organization accused law enforcement in the lawsuit of aggressively harassing and intimidating retailers, including being told that the city was going to rezone certain areas in a manner that would prohibit hemp-related businesses. Although the lawsuit is still tied up in federal court, the Allen Police Department, supported by the DEA, in July raided three warehouses, seizing more than 75,000 pounds of THC products and an estimated $7 million in cash and assets. When asked by CBS News Texas, which Dye invited to cover the raid, if these raids were timed to pressure Abbott to allow the bill creating a ban to go into effect, Dye denied any connection. However, the news organization noted Dye headed straight to Austin after the raid to meet with Abbott’s staff about the ban. The DEA department in Dallas told The Texas Tribune law enforcement agencies are still investigating their case against the businesses involved in the August 2024 and July 2025 raids, and no charges have been filed yet. Many of the raids over the last two years have resulted in lawsuits, and the hemp industry has had some success in obtaining some relief for businesses. Garza County Sheriff’s Office and the city of Post agreed to pay an $80,000 settlement to a Texas smoke shop in October 2024, after the owners accused law enforcement of conducting a “warrantless search.” The city and county insisted the settlement wasn’t an admission of wrongdoing, but rather to avoid the cost of litigation. State Rep. Drew Darby, a San Angelo Republican who once opposed hemp-derived THC but now supports it, told a room full of hemp businesses during the Texas Cannabis Policy Conference that he understands why politicians have a fear of THC products. He shared a story about a family friend whose grandchild became addicted to THC products. He also said rumors were circulating that these products were controlled by foreign enemies that seek to “infiltrate our country.” However, he knows that THC products can help elderly people with pain, children with epilepsy and seizures, and veterans with PTSD. He said lawmakers should focus on keeping these products legal and making them safer. “So we have to keep diffusing that talk and focus on the real issues,” he said. Testing and waiting Seven vape and smoke shops in Temple and Belton were also raided in mid-June 2025, with authorities seizing products they claimed were falsely labeled as legal hemp. Documents provided by the Temple Police Department state that the multi-agency investigation into these vape shops involved purchasing and testing items from these stores, where the “flower” product, such as joints, tested above the legal limit for THC. Six of the shop owners were charged with manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance, and one shop owner was charged with manufacture, delivery, and possession of marijuana, five to 50 pounds. Temple police say these charges have not been adjudicated yet. Multiple lawsuits by hemp businesses allege these raids are based on faulty testing methods that the Texas Forensic Science Commission cautioned against in 2022. The commission says the method actually produces more THC than is in the product. “In other words, a plant or liquid item of evidence containing CBD can arrive at the laboratory with a certain amount of (Delta 9 THC), and that amount can be increased by high heat used in the testing process,” the commission stated in the report. These faulty testing methods have been used in private and public crime labs across the state, including those used by the Texas Department of Public Safety, according to the HILT lawsuit. McBride said that for its forensic analysis, the Temple Police Department utilizes laboratories operated by the Texas Department of Public Safety and laboratories approved by DPS. “We stand behind the laboratory results provided by DPS and its approved affiliate laboratories,” she said. “ Enforcement decisions are made based on the totality of the evidence, including verified forensic findings.” Peter Stout, president and chief executive officer for the Houston Forensic Science Center, agrees that many crimes labs across the state don’t have a good method right now to test THC levels, but they also don’t have enough funding for training on how to do proper testing and more importantly, they don’t have the time to test cannabis, which is often associated with lower level crimes. “I can’t with a straight face justify all the costs associated with standing up the capacity to test everything that law enforcement might seize from a dude on the street corner with something green in his pocket. So, no, I am not going to test that. I am equipped with one analyst and one piece of equipment. We deal with it for the large felony kinds of cases,” he said at the cannabis conference. Stout said the counties that want to prosecute low level THC cases most likely will need to use independent laboratory testers, which can cost $10,000 for each test. However, many local prosecutors don’t have access to that kind of funding, and they send their evidence to the Texas Department of Public Safety crime lab, which is so backlogged that it can take months for the results to return. Some of those products that were raided get held up in crime lab testing, becoming inventory that these businesses can’t sell, which hurts their bottom line, Steel said. “I had a client whose business was raided; they seized a substantial portion of their inventory, disrupting their business, based on an outdated test,” she said. Preparing for the future When the state health department recently entered Martha Velez’s hemp retail store in Dallas to conduct an inspection, her staff was prepared. She had a binder prepared for everything the agency might be looking for that included certifications, compliance documents, and more and once they found nothing, the agency left. Her store has been visited multiple times by state agencies over the past two years, and each time it passed due to a level of preparation necessary in an industry under intense scrutiny of local law enforcement and state lawmakers. Velez said she feels a responsibility to ensure she protects her customers by going above and beyond normal business practices. “The raids in Dallas were hard for us. We decided to keep that mini binder that had excerpts highlighted, like what is the law in regards to flower? What is the law regarding the .3 percent?,” she said at the Texas Cannabis Policy Conference, referring to the legal amount of THC allowed in consumable hemp products. “Just to be prepared.” One of the inadvertent side effects of these raids has been the hemp industry starting to self police as they wait for new state regulations to be adopted. At the Texas Cannabis Policy Conference, there were panels on how to have documents ready for law enforcement, conduct background checks on products, protect oneself in court, and more. Steel expects that once the state finalizes regulations, there will be another spike in raids on hemp stores. She encouraged businesses to mitigate risk from future raids and regulatory changes by keeping inventory small. “Don’t keep something you can’t get rid of on short notice because there are just too many things changing rapidly,” she said. “You have to be ready to pivot.” Velez said that while the raids have been rough on the industry, there still seems to be an appetite among law enforcement and the hemp industry to understand each other, and if that can be accomplished, then the industry can thrive. “Funny thing was, we had this one big event, and there were like four officers there who talked to us the entire time, wanting to get educated,” she said. This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune. Photo courtesy of Max Jackson. The post Texas Could See A Spike In Raids On Hemp Businesses Under New Rules, Industry Advocates Fear appeared first on Marijuana Moment. View the live link on MarijuanaMoment.net

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The sponsor filed a motion to potentially revive the legislation for future reconsideration. By Barbara Hoberock, Oklahoma Voice Oklahoma House lawmakers on Thursday defeated a measure that would give employers more leeway to fire individuals for using medical marijuana. Rep. Kevin West, R-Moore, the author, said House Bill 3127 would not force employers to do anything, but would give them discretion to classify additional jobs as “safety-sensitive” beyond what is in law. State law allows businesses to prohibit employees from using marijuana who work in “safety-sensitive” jobs based on drug testing. Existing law classifies “safety-sensitive jobs” as those that require operating vehicles, machines and power tools, carrying a firearm and providing direct care to patients or children, among other duties. West said nothing in the bill says that if a person tests positive, they are out of a job. He said he would be shocked if employers began listing all jobs as “safety-sensitive.” If every business implemented classified every job as “safety-sensitive,” they would not be able to find individuals to hire, West said. Over 315,000 Oklahomans hold medical marijuana licenses, state records show. Critics cited concerns about the legality and the potential impact on employees who have a doctor’s prescription to legally use the drug. They argued existing law already has broad categories for “safety-sensitive” jobs and questioned the necessity of expanding it. Rep. Chris Kannady, R-Oklahoma City, said marijuana can stay in a person’s system for weeks. Rep. Erick Harris, R-Edmond, said that under the measure, he could fire his assistant for using medical marijuana. West said the assistant could not be fired for just having a medical marijuana card, but could be terminated if the employer classified the position as “safety-sensitive” and the employee in that job tested positive for marijuana Although the measure failed, West served notice that on some future legislative day he may bring the measure back up for another vote. This story was first published by Oklahoma Voice. Photo courtesy of Brian Shamblen. The post Oklahoma Lawmakers Reject Bill To Let Employers Fire More Workers For Using Medical Marijuana appeared first on Marijuana Moment. View the live link on MarijuanaMoment.net

“For the patients that this program is designed to serve, it’s not always worked well enough. This bill is an effort to make sure that for the patients, this program works better.” By Maya Homan, Georgia Recorder A bill aimed at modernizing Georgia’s medical cannabis program passed the House with broad bipartisan support, marking another step in lawmakers’ years-long effort to incrementally increase patients’ access to the program. Senate Bill 220, introduced by Newnan Republican Sen. Matt Brass, would expand the conditions eligible to receive a medical cannabis card, change the limits on the amount of cannabis that someone can possess and enable patients to vape the product. It passed the House in a 138-21 vote. The changes made to the bill incorporate feedback from a House study committee that met last year to examine the issue, according to Rep. Mark Newton, an Augusta Republican who sponsored the bill in the House. In a speech shortly before Wednesday’s vote, he said updates to the program were needed to ensure that patients and providers can successfully navigate the program. “For the patients that this program is designed to serve, it’s not always worked well enough,” Newton said. “This bill is an effort to make sure that for the patients, this program works better.” Tetrahydrocannabinol, generally abbreviated to “THC,” is the psychoactive compound in marijuana that is currently classified as a Schedule I drug at the federal level, though the Trump administration is looking to loosen federal restrictions on marijuana to gain a better understanding of its potential medical benefits. Some studies have shown that THC’s non-psychoactive counterpart cannabidiol, also known as CBD and derived from the hemp plant, may be effective in treating health conditions like epilepsy, chronic pain and anxiety. Both compounds fall under the umbrella of medical cannabis, according to the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission, which administers the state’s program. Georgia law currently mandates that medical cannabis products must not contain more than 5 percent THC. The version of the bill that passed the Senate would have raised that cap to 50 percent, but House lawmakers ultimately decided to switch from a percentage cap to a 12,000 milligram limit, which Newton said is aimed at ensuring Georgia’s regulations better reflect doctors’ prescribing practices. “There are other delivery methods, other ways of delivering this medical cannabis, that are more aligned with the way we practice medicine in every other field,” Newton, who is an emergency medicine doctor, said. The bill also adds a provision allowing patients over the age of 21 to vape medical cannabis, which was not previously allowed under Georgia law. Advocates had argued that patients with seizures and other conditions needed greater access to inhalable forms of medical cannabis, which can offer relief faster than alternate forms of the drug. “The oral forms were taking one to two hours, sometimes four hours, to have an effect,” Newton said. “Some people’s conditions, we heard from patients, need some relief more rapidly than that, and so the inhalation version takes care of that.” Smoking and public consumption of cannabis will still be outlawed under the bill, he added, as will products like candy and edibles. The bill also expands the list of qualifying health conditions, adding Lupus, severe arthritis and severe insomnia, and removing the requirement that certain diagnoses like cancer or Parkinson’s disease be “severe or end stage.” Rep. Alan Powell, a Hartwell Republican, also applauded the bill in a speech on the House floor. “This is a natural product,” he said. “I have said this from this well before, and I continue to tell you that something that God lets grow naturally is better than anything made in a pharmaceutical laboratory.” Newton said he hopes to see more medical research on cannabis develop in the coming years if marijuana becomes a Schedule III drug at the federal level. Though no lawmakers spoke against the bill on the floor, some voiced concerns about the lack of current medical evidence to support expanding the program. “I’m for it, I just think that we need to do a little more [research] about it,” said Rep. Jason Ridley, a Chatsworth Republican who voted against the bill. “I’d just like to see a little more parameters put around that exactly what we’re dealing with.” Bills related to medical cannabis and hemp beverages became a focal point during the 2025 session, which also marked the 10-year anniversary of Haleigh’s Hope Act. The law created the licensing commission, legalized possession of low-THC oil for the first time in Georgia and created a new research program dedicated to studying the drug’s impact. Subsequent legislation enabled companies to produce and sell the oil in-state, but advocates have argued that Georgia’s current laws do not go far enough to help patients access medical cannabis in the forms that they need. The bill now heads back to the Senate for another vote. The session is set to end April 2. This story was first published by Georgia Recorder. The post Georgia Lawmakers Pass Bill To Expand Medical Marijuana Access appeared first on Marijuana Moment. View the live link on MarijuanaMoment.net

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Virginia House and Senate lawmakers have reached a deal on a final bill to legalize recreational marijuana sales in the commonwealth. While both chambers approved companion versions of the cannabis legislation this session, with amendments adopted along the way that more closely aligned them, there were still key outstanding differences to resolve after the latest votes earlier this month. Among the key areas of dispute were the start date for adult-use sales, the proposed tax rate on marijuana and what agency would be responsible for regulating the market. Following bicameral negotiations in a conference committee, lawmakers arrived at a consensus and released the final bill on Friday. Shortly thereafter, the Senate voted 21-18 to approve the deal. The House of Delegates is expected to vote to send it to Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) by the scheduled end of the session on Saturday. “This conference report reflects months of collaboration and negotiation among legislators, regulators, industry representatives, advocates and public safety stakeholders,” Sen. Lashrecse Aird (D), the bill’s Senate sponsor, said on the floor. “Many parties did not get everything they asked for, but everyone got what they needed to legally and safely operate a marketplace. This is the hallmark of a good compromise, and this legislation represents a balanced path forward to responsibly regulate Virginia’s cannabis market.” Under the new agreement, members landed on January 1, 2027 for the launch date of adult-use marijuana sales, as included in the Senate bill. The House had previously proposed starting sales on November 1, 2026. Cannabis would be subject to an excise tax of 6 percent as well as a 5.3 percent retail sales and use tax, while allowing municipalities to set a local tax of up to 3.5 percent, which is what the House had passed as compared to a higher overall rate proposed by the Senate. With respect to regulatory control, the existing Cannabis Control Authority (CCA) would be tasked with overseeing the program, facilitating licensing and more. The Senate had suggested merging CCA with the Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority into a new agency called the Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Control Authority (ABC), but the bicameral agreement simply mandates a study into the idea of giving ABC a role in marijuana regulation. One new item in the final agreement that wasn’t contemplated in either the House or Senate legislation concerns hemp, with lawmakers agreeing to have authority for its regulation transferred to CCA from the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Both chambers’ original marijuana sales proposals, sponsored by Aird and Del. Paul Krizek (D), aimed to give adults a legal means of buying cannabis, the possession and home cultivation of which was legalized in the state in 2021. Here are the key details of the Virginia marijuana sales legalization legislation, SB 542 and HB 642: Adults would be able to purchase up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana in a single transaction, or up to an equivalent amount of other cannabis products as determined by regulators. Legal sales could begin on January 1, 2027. There would be an excise tax of 6 percent on cannabis sales as well as a 5.3 percent retail sales and use tax, and municipalities could set an additional local tax of up to 3.5 percent. The Virginia Cannabis Control Authority would oversee licensing and regulation of the new industry, and would also take on oversight of hemp, which is currently under the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Revenue would be distributed to the Cannabis Equity Reinvestment Fund (30 percent), early childhood education (40 percent), the Department of Behavioral & Developmental Health Services (25 percent) and public health initiatives (5 percent). Local governments could not opt out of allowing marijuana businesses to operate in their area. Delivery services would be allowed. Serving sizes would be capped at 10 milligrams THC, with no more than 100 mg THC per package. Existing medical cannabis operators could enter the adult-use market if they pay a licensing conversion fee that is set at $10 million. Cannabis businesses would have to establish labor peace agreements with workers. A legislative commission would be directed to study adding on-site consumption licenses and microbusiness cannabis event permits that would allow licensees to conduct sales at venues like farmers markets or pop-up locations. It would also investigate the possibility of the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority becoming involved in marijuana regulations and enforcement. Prior to the Senate’s passage of its version of the marijuana sales bill, members clashed in committee about amendments that would have added new penalties for illegal cannabis activity. The proposed changes at issue from the Courts of Justice Committee included penalties for consumers who buy from unlicensed sources, the recriminalization of cannabis possession by people under 21 and making sales a class 1 misdemeanor for a first offense and a crime punishable by mandatory jail time for a second offense. As revised, the bill would have also raised the penalty for unlicensed cultivation to a felony punishable by up to five years in jail and made it a felony to transport with intent to distribute cannabis across state lines. But the Finance and Appropriations Committee reversed the amendments last month amid pressure from a coalition of advocacy groups that sent a letter to senators saying they undermined the “intent” of the legislation and the “will of the people” by adding criminal penalties for certain cannabis-related activity. Overall, both chambers’ commercial sales bills have largely aligned with recommendations released in December by the legislature’s Joint Commission to Oversee the Transition of the Commonwealth into a Cannabis Retail Market. — Marijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments. Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access. — Meanwhile, certain GOP members have found themselves ideologically aligned with their Democratic colleagues throughout this legislative process, breaking with the majority of their caucus in support of creating a regulated marketplace for adults to purchase cannabis. Since legalizing cannabis possession and home cultivation in 2021, Virginia lawmakers have worked to establish a commercial marijuana market—only to have those efforts consistently stalled under former Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who twice vetoed measures to enact it that were sent to his desk by the legislature. Spanberger, for her part, supports legalizing adult-use marijuana sales. Meanwhile, Virginia lawmakers last week passed a bill to protect the rights of parents who use marijuana in compliance with state law, sending it to the governor’s desk. Legislators have additionally sent the governor a measure to provide a pathway to resentencing for people with prior marijuana convictions. Legislation to allow patients to access medical cannabis in hospitals is also set for Spanberger’s action. Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan. The post Virginia Lawmakers Reach Deal On Final Bill To Legalize Recreational Marijuana Sales appeared first on Marijuana Moment. View the live link on MarijuanaMoment.net