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 24, 2026

🏛️ 84 for 84, and no manual

GAO says DEA followed HHS on every final scheduling rule it checked, with almost nothing written down about how. Plus: Missouri's missing scorer notes, Curaleaf's full-page ask to Hochul, and Delaware's new THC drink aisle.

Sep 23, 2026

🧮 Michigan's ounce costs $60.33 or $160

The state average and the shelf price are counting different transactions, and only one of them tells you what happened to the wholesale tax. Plus a receiver holds PharmaCann's Maryland licenses, a cannabis super PAC's $11.8 million in cash, and the wage board bill still on Hochul's desk.

Sep 22, 2026

🧾 $4.6M rides on whether a THC lemonade is hemp

Dogtown Pioneers shareholders take 280E to the Tax Court. Plus Michigan's reference lab that can't hold a sample, Nevada's 60-gram rule and Germany's 300 tons.

Sep 21, 2026

🏛️ Five months, no DEA guidance

California's top regulator says DEA has sent no formal Schedule III guidance, and Congress's deadline is September 30th. Plus Alabama lets the change through, North Carolina sketches state-run stores, and the Globe's own teen-use data undercuts its headline.

Sep 20, 2026

🥃 Cannabis costs $15 in one state and $52 in another. Bourbon doesn't.

Four states that have never traded a gram with each other all charge about $18. Everywhere else, the difference is a decision somebody made, and patients are paying for it.

Sep 18, 2026

🍬 A delta-8 label can get you arrested in Austin

Austin police say the package is probable cause and the lab comes later. Plus New York's $3.89 million in unpaid invoices and a Massachusetts rewrite

Sep 17, 2026

⚖️ Residency gets its day at the Court

Kenneth Gay was turned away in Washington and Sacramento for living in Michigan, and now the justices get the question. Plus a $2 million Michigan fine three years in the making, the store counts behind what an eighth costs, and Tyler's Law clears the House.

Sep 16, 2026

🌴 Florida overrules its judge, keeps its 22

The health department licensed the same 22 treatment centers despite a recommended rescore, and the appeal clock is running. Plus Minnesota's medical program doubled through its first adult-use year, North Dakota lawmakers push back on a fee hike, and Nebraska slides into 2027.

Sep 15, 2026

🧾 Rhode Island tells hemp licensees to empty the shelves by December 11

The Cannabis Office set the date, closed the exit into the licensed market, and offered to come watch the destruction. Plus twelve charged in Pennsylvania, cannabis money buying ads that never say cannabis, and a million square feet nobody inspected

Sep 14, 2026

⚖️ A jury said $31.8 million. The Sixth Circuit says no court can collect it

Hello Farms delivered the harvest, went unpaid, and won $31.8 million from a jury. A federal appeals court now says no court can make Curaleaf's subsidiaries pay a dollar of it. Plus the DEA rule asking a Mississippi owner to fire two good employees, Nebraska's preemption case ending before it starts, 37 new medical dispensaries in Illinois, and Ricky Williams on The Hybrid

Sep 11, 2026

🍁 Vermont's lieutenant governor pays $2,500 and calls it steep

John Rodgers settled with the Cannabis Control Board over roughly 100 seedlings in an unapproved greenhouse. Plus eleven new taxing states and almost no new money, Michigan's wholesale tax finds a candidate, and a fake email from a regulator.

Sep 10, 2026

⚖️ Schedule III holds, and the operators stay outside

The D.C. Circuit denied the stay and kept two operators out of the caption. Plus a third of Pennsylvania's inspection files gone, ten billion in Massachusetts, and Virginia's first rulebook.

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.