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.

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.

Aug 7, 2026

🐑 Budd's ban finds a Democrat

Gillibrand crosses the aisle as Vance brokers and Thune warns of a wreck. Plus Newton repays $2.4 million in impact fees, the CCC reopens its testing file, and a court tells California to read its own track-and-trace data.

Aug 6, 2026

🏛️ Trump called Budd. It didn't take.

Nine cosponsors on the amendment, Cotton calling it gas-station candy, and a White House liaison promising no more delays. Plus Oklahoma's ghost-licensing case reaches the attorney who drew up the paperwork, Michigan pulls a fourth license in three weeks, and Beacon Hill mostly hasn't answered.

Aug 5, 2026

🧨 One amendment from the cliff

Budd moves to strip the hemp delay, 35 attorneys general back the November date, and marijuana's top trade group amplifies them. Plus North Carolina punts its hemp vote, and 280E goes to Tax Court.

Aug 4, 2026

⏳ Hemp's reprieve is pegged to the CR

Senate appropriators narrow the November hemp ban to synthetics until December 11, the day their own funding expires. Plus Texas goes federal, a $17M Rochester bust, and Missouri's second union contract.

Aug 3, 2026

🏛️ Hemp gets to December, maybe

Senate appropriators move the cliff to December 11th, and the House bill is silent. Plus Verano sues New Jersey, Virginia counts its inventory, and Trulieve's neighbors go to the county.

Jul 31, 2026

🏦 Ma turns on Prop 64

California's treasurer wants Prop 64 replaced outright. Plus Virginia stands up an intoxicants unit, North Carolina nears its unamendable hemp vote, and Texas's line lands today.

Jul 30, 2026

📊 Daily cannabis use just passed cigarettes and alcohol

The 2025 federal survey counts 21.4 million daily cannabis consumers. Plus Comer's conditional delay, Total Wine's shelf fight, and the Eighth Circuit tests Hemani.

Jul 29, 2026

👃 The smell memo Charlotte had

A federal suit says Charlotte police were warned in 2021 that odor alone wasn't probable cause. Plus SNDL forecloses into the world's largest store count, and hemp's wholesale map fractures.

Jul 28, 2026

🚨 The sheriffs want the hemp bill

North Carolina's law enforcement associations are pushing the House to regulate hemp before November. Plus Texas can enforce its THCA rule, and Vireo pays for Planet 13 in stock.

Jul 27, 2026

🔎 Indiana's cannabis money, under oath

Marion County heard testimony on unlawful cannabis lobbying at the Statehouse. Plus Massachusetts clears $1B as a repeal vote looms, and Iowa makes its case at a recovery center.

Jul 24, 2026

🧪 The lab report Virginia didn't run

An accredited lab pulled Virginia shelf flower and found illegal THC, microbials, and a pesticide that becomes cyanide when smoked. Plus the White House backing Barr describes, Minnesota's plan to regulate a Schedule I product, and 89 percent.

Jul 23, 2026

🌾 Barr and Craig move on November 12th

Their bill repeals the November ban outright instead of delaying it, and the White House is behind it. Plus North Carolina writes the ban into its own code, and Tennessee farmers stop waiting.

Jul 22, 2026

🥊 Question 8 is real

The State Ballot Law Commission puts repeal on the November ballot. Plus Blanche commits to medical only, in writing, and the hemp cliff reaches the bar.

Jul 21, 2026

🔁 Vireo buys the wind-down

Cannabist's five-state liquidation becomes Vireo's 230-store map. Plus Oklahoma's reference lab races its own market, Nebraska prices entry before patients exist, and Menominee's ninth license turns scarce.

Jul 20, 2026

🏦 $11.5 million, one treasurer.

Trulieve, Curaleaf, Verano, and Green Thumb wire $11.5M to a Trump-linked ag PAC. Plus Oklahoma seals a shop over tags, Michigan closes a case with Massachusetts, and Europe flunks its own lab test.

Jul 19, 2026

🗂️ Rescheduling rests its case. Now, the file.

Two and a half weeks in a sealed room built one thing: a record. What the government proved, where the opposition undercut itself, and the 412,500 people the file never met. Plus, the 1988 precedent.

Jul 17, 2026

📜 Booker's answer to Schedule III

Descheduling filed one day after the record closed. Plus: New Jersey revokes one license and extends Curaleaf's, Missouri hemp sues in federal court, and hemp drinks finally have a dataset.

Jul 16, 2026

🧾 Hemp's rescue, priced by the milligram

Sheehy's draft trades the November ban for a 1% crop line, age limits, and a nickel-per-milligram tax. Plus the War Department's rescheduling memo, and thirteen Massachusetts delivery pauses.

Jul 15, 2026

🏁 Rescheduling rests its case. The DEA argued against itself.

Three weeks end in Arlington with the agency's own scientist on the opposition's witness list. Plus Albany's wage board reaches Hochul, and Maryland's equity stores finally open.

Jul 14, 2026

⚖️ Ohio's hemp ban falls in federal court; one operator pitches a fix

Judge Helmick's injunction reaches past the ten plaintiffs to anyone selling their products. Plus Morgan Tweet's federal framework, Pennsylvania's budget shuts the door again, and Curaleaf takes Spain's first two numbers.

Jul 13, 2026

🛡️ The hemp ban gets a China sales pitch

Chad Wolf reframes the November hemp restriction as national security. Plus: Massachusetts repeal makes the ballot by 122 signatures, and DOJ builds a False Claims Act case from PPP paperwork.

Jul 3, 2026

🎆 Two hemp bills, one deadline, a country turning 250

The Senate splits over who regulates hemp, the DOJ names the money behind Schedule I, and a nation founded on the federal-versus-state fight spends its 250th still having it.

Jul 2, 2026

🧪 The government defends its record, twice

The DEA hands opponents the floor as DOJ's stay answer comes due, then breaks for the holiday. Plus Pillen signs Nebraska's rules, Delaware overrides its own governor on zoning, and the alcohol lobby moves on hemp drinks.