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Both sides in the DEA marijuana hearing have filed what are expected to be their final briefs, and the one open question is how much weight the judge gives a Government Accountability Office report. Around it, Texas canceled a December 8th court argument over hemp rules, Illinois hemp groups sued to block the state law before it starts, and Massachusetts voters learned how much the Question 8 campaign spent to lose. New Hampshire has a Democrat drafting a new adult-use bill, Washington has an initiative filing on home grows, and South Dakota doubled its medical edible serving limit.

📑 Final briefs, DEA
🤠 Texas court cancels
🗳️ Question 8’s $3.7 million
🏙️ Illinois hemp suit

The reply briefs we flagged as due last week went in Thursday, November 5th, and the fight comes down to one question: how much weight Judge Derek Julius, DEA’s chief administrative law judge, should give the Government Accountability Office report that has hung over the hearing since October. DEA says none. It calls the report “simply not probative on issues known to the parties prior to the Report’s publication” and argues that if the report undermines the current recommendation to move marijuana to Schedule III, it undermines the 2016 review that kept marijuana in Schedule I just as much.

The National Drug & Alcohol Screening Association, DUID Victim Voices, and Kenneth Finn say GAO found the government devised procedures ad hoc for this proceeding and replaced a five-part test for accepted medical use with a two-part one without explaining why. They concede that DEA and FDA appear to have used the same written guidelines in 2016 and 2023. Julius let the report into the record last month, refused to reopen the hearing for new testimony or discovery, and has given no date for his recommendation to DEA Administrator Cole, who makes the final call. Separate challenges to rescheduling are consolidated in the D.C. Circuit, which declined to block it while they go forward.

Both sides are arguing about process, and process is what a reviewing court reads. By admitting the GAO report and allowing both sides to brief it, Julius is protecting his recommendation and the Administrator’s eventual decision on appeal. Leaving it out could have given a reviewing court a reason to send the case back. (Marijuana Moment)

🎤 Congressional Cannabis Caucus co-chair Dina Titus was asked last week whether she would back a descheduling bill without social equity provisions, and she did not say. Her answer to the Marijuana Herald was “I am committed to finding a bipartisan solution with my colleagues in Congress and with the current Administration.” On October 29th she told the same outlet she backs Rep. Steve Cohen’s bill. Titus got the question we raised Friday and answered with a goal. That is a fair place for a new Congress to start, and the question is still waiting on a yes or a no. (The Marijuana Herald)

The December 8th oral argument in the hemp industry’s challenge to Department of State Health Services rules is off, and the 15th Court of Appeals will reset it “at a later date,” the Texas Tribune reports. Justice Scott Field told Bloomberg Law the outgoing court cannot issue opinions on cases argued before year’s end and did not want to waste the lawyers’ time. Voters ousted all three of the court’s Republican justices, and three Democrats take office in early January. A Travis County judge blocked the rules April 10th. They raised the fee for a hemp manufacturing facility from $258 to $10,000 and for a retail registration from $155 to $5,000. Texas can and should regulate hemp-derived intoxicants. The rules stay blocked for now, and the judges who finally hear the case will be ones voters picked on November 3rd. (Texas Tribune)

The Law Enforcement Action Partnership says the campaign to repeal adult-use cannabis in Massachusetts spent more than $3.7 million, nearly all of it from SAM Action, Kevin Sabet’s shadowy, grumpy 501(c)(4) that does not have to name its donors. That is more than the full-year public safety budgets of 124 of the 346 towns that filed, LEAP says, with the caveat that some towns get public safety money through regional arrangements. Question 8 would have ended adult-use sales and the adult-use tax on January 1, 2028, and it lost about 76 to 24 in unofficial returns, per MMJDaily, which put last year’s sales above $1.65 billion and fiscal year 2025 adult-use tax receipts near $280 million for the state and $50 million for cities and towns. Sabet told MG Magazine, “We are not backing down. Maine and other states will be next.”

SAM spent $3.7 million to lose by 52 points, and it is already pointing at Maine. The vote answered whether adult-use sales continue in Massachusetts, and the oversight questions, including youth use, remain with the legislature, and with the Cannabis Control Commission. (The Marijuana Herald; MMJDaily; MG Magazine)

🤝 Gretchen Gailey, president of Project Champion, a collective of former pro athletes working on cannabis and hemp reform, argues in a Marijuana Moment op-ed that the industry works in silos while opponents organize around a single goal, and that it has to stay united for the next repeal fight. Gailey also argues that the Schedule III medical registration route is not descheduling and raises fairness questions for everyone outside it, and that a Democratic Congress should not be assumed to deliver, citing SAFE Banking's stall under earlier Democratic control. On the federal order itself, the Justice Department's April action covers FDA-approved marijuana products and marijuana under a qualifying state medical license, not every state-licensed operator by default. A descheduling bill that faces a Senate filibuster still needs cloture, which takes 60 votes, before it can advance to passage under ordinary rules. It was certainly all hands on deck, and we're grateful for the friends we made along the way. (Marijuana Moment; Justice Department)

Several hemp businesses, backed by industry groups, have gone to federal court asking a judge to temporarily block Illinois’s hemp THC law, which is set to take effect this week, according to CBS News Chicago. They say it puts thousands of businesses and jobs at risk. Craig Kats of the Illinois Healthy Alternatives Association says “the large majority of the products that are sold in our stores are what you call low potency products.” State leaders say the law protects children from unregulated products with misleading labels and packaging. The state law runs on its own track, separate from the federal ban, now pushed to December 11th, which caps hemp products at 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container.

Each side has its own description of these products, and a federal judge is now being asked to rule on the law before it starts. Retailers should keep planning for the law’s start. (CBS News Chicago)

🍁 In New Hampshire, Jared Sullivan, the Democrat who sponsored the adult-use bill that passed the House in January, is drafting a new one, the Marijuana Herald reports. The Senate tabled that bill 15 to 9 in March. Democrats are projected to hold 292 of 400 House seats and 15 of 24 Senate seats, and a veto override takes two-thirds of each chamber, which with all 24 senators voting leaves Democrats needing one Republican vote. Gov. Kelly Ayotte, a Republican who won reelection, opposes adult-use. Sullivan says “there’s obviously room for negotiation if there’s something that can make this bipartisan.” The route to adult-use in New Hampshire runs through Ayotte’s desk, so talking with her office early is the practical move. (The Marijuana Herald)

About a quarter of the 49 inhalable products the Los Angeles Times had tested showed previously unseen chemicals hazardous to human health, the paper reported, while the same sample was mostly clean of the 66 pesticides the state already monitors. Five Green Vibe products carried high pymetrozine against limits California will not start screening for until April 2028, and one KushCompany flower sample had the soil fungicide etridiazole at 125 times the federal tobacco residue trigger the Times used where the state has no cannabis limit.

The Times bought the products from dispensaries and delivery services, sent them to three state-licensed labs for a combined screen of 376 pesticides, and notes some brands were chosen because they failed in 2024 while others were picked at random. The sample is a tiny slice of the market and does not show how common any residue is across licensed products. (Methods; Los Angeles Times)

Operators who voluntarily test to standards that meet and exceed what the state requires can set themselves apart on quality and shrink the gaps a fixed mandatory list still leaves. That is not a guarantee every product is safe.

🌲 Washington Initiative IL27-432, the “Marijuana Insurance Act,” filed October 15th by Regis Costello of Tukwila, would prohibit growing marijuana or hemp in residential zones and require business licenses and specified insurance for certain operations, according to the Marijuana Herald. The Attorney General’s office issued the ballot title and summary November 4th. Backers need 308,911 valid signatures by December 31st to send it to the Legislature, and it has not qualified. The summary does not address how it would square with existing medical home grows. I have never liked ballot questions as a way to write law, and a measure that reaches into medical home grows is a good example of why the details matter. (The Marijuana Herald)

The Massachusetts Senate passed its amended supplemental budget 35 to 4 on Thursday, and the version lets veterans register as medical patients with VA documentation of a qualifying diagnosis and no clinician certification, per Marijuana Moment. This time the language names the Cannabis Control Commission, and the list of qualifying conditions adds PTSD, opioid use disorder, and a condition that produces chronic pain. Gov. Maura Healey’s original filing did not include opioid use disorder. VA providers would still be barred from completing recommendation forms. The House, which moved its veterans language in October, has to reconcile the two texts before the bill goes to Healey. (Marijuana Moment)

🦬 South Dakota doubled the THC cap on a medical edible serving from 50 to 100 milligrams when new rules took effect November 5th, according to the Marijuana Herald. The package limit stayed at 500 milligrams, and tinctures, oils, and capsules sit outside the serving cap. The change is one of 35 sections amended in a package filed October 16th. A 100 milligram serving in a 500 milligram package works out to five servings at most. (The Marijuana Herald)

At its annual convention in October the National Congress of American Indians adopted a resolution asking the Justice Department to begin tribal consultation and either amend the April rescheduling order or issue a separate rule covering tribally licensed cannabis, per Marijuana Moment. The order moved marijuana under a state medical license to Schedule III, and NCAI says it does not mention tribes. A map from the Indigenous Cannabis Industry Association and Vicente LLP found more than a fourth of Indigenous communities in the continental US involved in marijuana or hemp programs. The April order was written around state medical licenses, and a tribal license is not one. NCAI is asking DOJ to say in writing where tribes fit. (Marijuana Moment)

🗺️ Around the map: Michigan’s Cannabis Regulatory Agency opened $1 million in FY2027 Social Equity Grant applications, due November 30th, and applicants need an adult-use license, majority ownership by Social Equity Program participants, and Social Equity All-Star certification, per MMJDaily. The United Kingdom’s revised bill would put 12 cannabinoids, including THCA and HHC, in Class B with an exemption up to one milligram per package, and the Cannabis Trades Association warns of effects on hemp and CBD businesses, according to MMJDaily. Guam’s Cannabis Control Board is working on delivery rules after a licensee’s petition, the Pacific Daily News reports. (MMJDaily; Pacific Daily News)

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Policy, Decoded is compiled and edited by Shawn Collins of THC Group. AI tools help with research and source checks; the judgments are his.
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