Shawn Collins | THC Group | Policy, Decoded

Shawn Collins | THC Group

Shawn Collins was the inaugural Executive Director of the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission. Before that: the State Senate and the Treasurer's office. Now he advises operators, investors, and regulators on cannabis, alcohol, health care, and AI policy. He writes Policy, Decoded — weekday mornings plus a Sunday editorial.

Sep 9, 2026

🏦 A thousand banks and not one penalty

Washington finally counted who will take cannabis money, and the barrier turned out to be the paperwork. Plus $600 from Massachusetts, and a commissioner who wants to stop regulating by the square foot.

Sep 8, 2026

🧩 Every ally costs a product

The December hemp coalition gets assembled product by product, and every ally arrives with a condition. Plus Maryland's rules go final with six days of runway, New Mexico operators itemize the cutover, and Switzerland's pharmacy pilot reports in.

Sep 7, 2026

⚖️ The signatures stand in Nebraska

Nebraska's high court rejects the last challenge to the 2024 medical cannabis petitions. Plus a federal judge enjoins Ohio's hemp ban, a Colorado liver-injury story that was never about cannabis, and Texas gets an October date.

Sep 4, 2026

🖊️ Signed. The hemp clock now runs to December 11th

Trump signs the four-week hemp reprieve while synthetics keep their November date. Plus the Eleventh Circuit revives Georgia's licensing fight, a sheriff's transcript that cuts both ways, and Sonoma's drones meet a warrant.

Sep 3, 2026

🥊 Two lobbies, one molecule, and 99 days to December 11th

Not guilty twice in Boston, in three and a half hours. Plus the two lobbies name their December terms, Aurora's answer to Curaleaf, and New York starts paying for the tags.

Sep 2, 2026

🏛️ 370 votes buy hemp a month, and December sets the terms

The ban moves to December 11th, into a lame duck. Plus the Tompkins defense rests on Cabral, Newsom signs California's packaging bill, and ten states carry 60 percent of cannabis arrests.

Sep 1, 2026

🏛️ Andy Harris can't amend the hemp delay, so he's voting against the rule

The hemp delay is on suspension tonight, so Andy Harris is voting no on the rule that carries the rest of the week. Plus DEA's 26 questions for Colorado dispensaries, the Sand Springs affidavit, and Perullo on cross.

Aug 31, 2026

⚖️ Texas never defined "trace." A judge noticed.

Travis County sent the hemp plaintiffs back to narrow their own order while DSHS keeps detaining product under a word its rules never define. Plus the House votes the hemp delay under suspension, and Sand Springs had a stop order.

Aug 28, 2026

🧾 Florida's $10 million against Amendment 3 came from sick kids

A sealed grand jury report traces Medicaid settlement money into the campaign that beat legalization. Plus SAM's appeal calendar, Virginia's hemp hearing request, and Alaska's tax by the pound.

Aug 27, 2026

🌉 California killed the two cannabis bills aimed at its own regulator

Sacramento has until Monday, and DCC already got what it wanted. Plus Georgia arrests a licensed hemp dealer before the lab report, North Carolina counts its 175 drug recognition experts, and Oregon marks down nine years of cannabis revenue.

Aug 26, 2026

👮 200,960 cannabis arrests in 2025, and the number went up

The FBI counted more possession arrests last year than the year before, in a country half-legal. Plus the closed rescheduling record, the Tompkins trial, and Massachusetts reopens testing.

Aug 25, 2026

🧭 Hemp's one-month delay meets Andy Harris

The Senate bought hemp until December 11th and the House may take it back. Plus FDA's missing definitions, California's packaging test, and Tennessee's 99 percent.

Aug 24, 2026

🧾 294 corrections, in red ink

Julius orders 294 corrections to the rescheduling transcript before he recommends. Plus O'Brien sues the treasurer, New Mexico flips its tracking switch, and Minnesota's hemp count falls to 46.

Aug 21, 2026

📊 Massachusetts voters reject repeal 55 to 33, and Kevin Sabet rejects the poll

The first general-electorate number on Question 8 lands the day the repeal's funder makes his case on GBH. Plus Booker and Trump's two federal tracks, Texas hemp's third lawsuit, and Tennessee's $54 million hemp tax hole.

Aug 20, 2026

📜 DEA rests its case with the other side's witnesses

DEA's closing brief turns the opposition's own experts into government exhibits. Plus Aurora's mid-siege shopping trip, Germany's two-week reversal, and New Hampshire's override.

Aug 19, 2026

🏛️ DEA asks its own judge to hurry Schedule III

Justice restores gun rights to cannabis consumers, Connecticut closes a store for good and follows the money, and 79 percent of Massachusetts Democrats say keep the law.

Aug 18, 2026

📮 Georgia asks the mail to carry medical cannabis

The state's medical commission votes September 30th on USPS and FedEx delivery to patients. Plus Yale's $111 billion estimate, DEA's seventeen-hour turnaround, and Virginia's special session push.

Aug 17, 2026

📏 Virginia's hemp cap is law, and the judge explains why he let it land

Judge Robert Ballou lets the two-milligram line land at midnight. Plus the CCC potency audit's harder questions, kratom goes Schedule I, and Stop the Repeal's chair joins The Hybrid.

Aug 16, 2026

📷 We required the cameras. We never asked where the footage goes.

Four plate readers on the drive to a dispensary. Only one of them exists because a government demanded it, and it is the one pointed at people buying something legal.

Aug 14, 2026

⚖️ Union mandates, struck from cannabis licenses

Hawaii's hemp crackdown came with a paper trail, Ohio's customers still drive to Michigan, and the Rogers family bought Levia back. Virginia's shelves wait on a judge in Roanoke.

Aug 13, 2026

🏢 Rent is deductible. Landlords noticed.

Medical operators can deduct rent again, and their landlords aren't volunteering anything. Plus Fall River's $4.6 million fee bill, Ballou rules by Friday, and Budd names his price.

Aug 12, 2026

🏢 Curaleaf goes hostile, and Aurora forms a committee

A $272 million unsolicited bid meets a special committee. Plus the alcohol industry endorses the hemp beverage bill, and Virginia defends its cap in Roanoke.

Aug 11, 2026

🥤 Five milligrams, eight cents, three tiers

Van Duyne and Landsman give hemp THC drinks an alcohol-style framework. Plus Houston counts signatures, Texas keeps enforcing, and Michigan's tax closes five stores.

Aug 10, 2026

🗓️ December 11th. Now the House.

Sixty-one votes moved the federal hemp ban to December 11, and the House inherits the date. Square tells merchants to clear hemp by October 15 anyway, Rhode Island reopens retail licensing with the sunk costs unpaid, and a THC test can now open a child-welfare file.

Aug 9, 2026

🪑 The Power of Presence: What a Policymaker Remembers

Not the association's binder. The grower with the fifteen-day problem. Inside the week an entire market learned civics, and the free guide that makes the lesson stick.