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Rep. Steve Cohen filed a bill to rewrite the federal drug schedules and take cannabis out of them, two months before he leaves Congress. Two senators from Oklahoma and North Carolina asked the Postal Service to keep Georgia’s medical cannabis out of the mail, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a cannabis labor bill on a deal to take the wage board back out. Verano says Ohio’s hemp ban is showing up in dispensary sales, Oklahoma moves THC to Schedule I on Sunday, and Michigan barred a former retailer for good. The Hybrid is out today at 3 PM ET with five states to watch for cannabis in the 2026 elections.

🗂️ Rewriting the schedules
📮 Return to sender
🧑‍🏭 Signed, with edits
📈 Can’t beat them

Rep. Steve Cohen, the Tennessee Democrat who announced his retirement in May after Republican redistricting, introduced the Public Health and Research Reforms in Controlled Substances Act on Wednesday. The 89-page bill removes cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act and replaces the five schedules with a two-axis grid, four levels of risk crossed with five classes of therapeutic value, so a drug could land at 1A or 4E. It swaps the eight-factor scheduling test for 14 factors scored by an outside advisory committee. It also moves scheduling authority and research registrations from the attorney general and DEA to HHS. Weight-based mandatory minimums would end, and the Sentencing Commission would be directed to provide for retroactivity. About 30 substances, including fentanyl, psilocybin and ibogaine, would be reviewed first. NORML, the Drug Policy Alliance, MAPS and Students for Sensible Drug Policy endorsed it, and Cohen’s office counts it as his 500th sponsored bill. “A thoughtful review of national drug policy is long overdue,” he said. This bill is dead. Filing it right before the midterms, on your way out the door, is pure politics, and it isn’t a serious policy proposal with any legs in this Congress. But hey, it got a round of press. (Cannabis Business Times; Office of Rep. Steve Cohen)

Sens. James Lankford of Oklahoma and Ted Budd of North Carolina wrote Postmaster General David Steiner on October 27th, asking the Postal Service to keep its ban on mailing cannabis now that state-licensed medical cannabis sits in Schedule III. Their target is a rule the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission voted on in August to allow delivery to patients, caregivers and care facilities by mail or by carriers like FedEx and UPS. Executive Director Andrew Turnage has pointed to patients in long-term care who can’t drive. “While Georgia does not have the authority to alter current USPS regulations, we are concerned that USPS will alter its regulations to allow for these shipments,” the senators wrote. They also argued that DEA’s “trust in state licensing schemes is not deserved,” citing Oklahoma’s peak of 9,178 licensed grows. Postal Service rules still list medical marijuana as nonmailable. Gotta love two Republican senators from Oklahoma and North Carolina thinking they should dictate, on behalf of the big bad federal government, the terms of Georgia’s goal of delivering medicine by mail. I’m old enough to remember when Republicans pounded their chests about the 10th Amendment on issues like health care. (Cannabis Business Times; Marijuana Moment)

🌽 Zach Lahn, the Republican nominee for governor of Iowa, said Wednesday that he wants to “increase access to medical marijuana across the state.” He called the current program “far too restricted” and said family members and friends benefit from it. He opposes full legalization, saying its financial benefits have been overstated. His Democratic opponent, State Auditor Rob Sand, wants cannabis taxed and treated like alcohol. A Republican coming out in favor of medical is progress compared with a few years ago, and his is a fair opinion. (Marijuana Moment)

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed Sen. Jessica Ramos’s S10643 on October 28th after reaching a deal with legislative leaders on chapter amendments. The signed law ends the requirement that licensees sign labor peace agreements with a union. Under the deal, the Cannabis Control Board could give priority to applicants that sign one voluntarily. Lawmakers agreed to strike, next session, a three-member Cannabis Wage Board with a seat for the state AFL-CIO, along with new disclosures on ownership, management agreements and pay. Until those amendments pass, the provisions stay on the books with a January 31, 2027 effective date. The bill “would create uncertainty in the industry,” Hochul wrote, and a wage board “could raise costs for licensees and drive consumers to the illicit market.” Three industry groups cited an FTI Consulting survey putting cannabis pay 19 percent above comparable jobs. This lands like governing. Industry feedback was pretty severe, and it raised fair questions. A governor declining to impose something like this on the industry suggests she listened. New York’s implementation has been rocky enough, and it could use a political win. (MJBizDaily; Marijuana Moment)

April’s order moved state-licensed medical cannabis to Schedule III and left adult-use in Schedule I. Missouri’s comprehensive licenses serve both from the same plants, staff and buildings. Drew Lammert of the Missouri Cannabis Trade Association says medical is about 10 percent of his company’s sales, and he has considered splitting upstream costs by the share of retail sales made to patients. Treasury put 280E guidance on a plan running through September 2027, alongside more than 100 other projects. “I certainly don’t have any answers on how this is going to go,” said Amy Moore, director of the Division of Cannabis Regulation. Don’t hold your breath, Missouri. The feds are in no rush to deliver, however much they promise. FDA still owes us cannabinoid information, and we’re all waiting on DEA and the D.C. Circuit. Moore is as straight a shooter as you’ll find, and her candor is no surprise. She’s right. She couldn’t know. (Missouri Independent)

🚔 Alexsandr DelCorvo, a state trooper for 12 years in the Rochester area, is suing to get his job back after the State Police fired him in October 2025 over two random tests that found THC metabolites. He told investigators he took CBD gummies at night for pain from an on-duty injury. The hearing board found no indication he used on duty and recommended discipline short of firing. Superintendent Steven James fired him anyway. It’s the first such case the troopers’ union has taken to court. A positive metabolite is not impairment, and first responders deserve access to medicine. Frankly, more cops could chill. (Times Union)

Verano CEO George Archos told investors Thursday that Ohio’s cannabis market has grown since SB 56 limited hemp THC sales to licensed dispensaries at the end of March. He called it “a notable positive trend that correlates with the start of the hemp ban.” Ohio sales reached $1.04 billion through October 3rd, against $1.09 billion for all of 2025. The second and third quarters each topped $350 million, even as average prices fell nearly 30 percent. A few hemp beverage brands remain on mainstream shelves under a court order. Curaleaf, Trulieve and Green Thumb report next week. Verano also sits on the board of the American Trade Association for Cannabis and Hemp, which has lobbied against delaying the December 11th federal date. That is basic economics, no? Can’t beat them, eliminate them? It wasn’t as if the licensed industry’s hostility to the so-called hemp loophole was a secret. Plenty of customers who would have bought at a liquor store won’t walk into a dispensary, and how many of them actually convert is a number I’d love to see. (MJBizDaily)

Three laws take effect in Oklahoma on November 1st. SB 1257 moves THC from Schedule III to Schedule I under state law, including THC derived from industrial hemp. Attorney General Gentner Drummond pushed it to close a gap that let some THC traffickers face only misdemeanors. “THC is marijuana, and it should be treated the same under the law,” he said, and his office says licensed patients and businesses aren’t affected. HB 4454 bars edibles that resemble candy, cartoons or animals and requires per-serving THC labels on product packaged from Sunday on. HB 3127 lets employers act on a positive test under a written testing policy. Oklahoma is protecting its market and clearly looking at enforcement, especially around the illicit market. The state is still corralling the Wild West. (FourStates; The Marijuana Herald)

👮 Two retired officers, Diane Goldstein, a former California police lieutenant who runs the Law Enforcement Action Partnership, and Karen Hawkes, a retired Massachusetts state trooper, made the case against Question 8 in CommonWealth Beacon. They argued that renewed enforcement would pull police time away from violent crime and human trafficking. LEAP endorsed the No on 8 campaign in September. Credit to them for coming together and lending a hand. They’re doing their part. The case for voting no is at StoptheRepealMA.com. (CommonWealth Beacon)

The Cannabis Regulatory Agency signed a consent order on October 14th that permanently bars Chad Wurtzel from working at, managing, owning or seeking a license for any Michigan cannabis business. It also requires HCM Provisioning, doing business as Elite Wellness Mount Morris, to stop operating when the order takes effect November 13th. The agency’s December 2025 nonrenewal notice cited missed financial statements, inventory tracking violations, and testing, labeling and surveillance problems across related companies, one of which surrendered a medical processor license. The CRA’s September report, out Thursday, adds more tracking, surveillance and packaging actions and nonrenewals for three Hello Farms grow licenses. Michigan is on an enforcement roll, pulling any and all levers it has. That tells me regulators know they have a problem and want to send a public message. (Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency)

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Unified Cannabis Enforcement Task Force seized or destroyed 139,293 pounds of illicit cannabis through September, which the state values at more than $230 million, and eradicated 236,846 plants. Since the task force began in 2022, the state puts the total above $1.47 billion. The third quarter produced 55,308 pounds and more than $91 million in estimated value. It also produced 14 arrests, nine firearms and $29,215 in cash across nine counties. The largest single haul was more than 19,300 pounds from indoor grows in Hayward and Oakland. The dollar figures are the state’s own estimates. California’s illicit market is a small economy unto itself. This is an effort, but how much of a dent, realistically? (Office of the Governor)

🗺️ Around the map: Jonathan Miller of the U.S. Hemp Roundtable told MJBizDaily he expects “real movement” on hemp after the election, with CBD first in line, and that “it won’t be a beverage carve-out.” Idaho voters decide Tuesday on House Joint Resolution 4, which would leave cannabis legalization to the Legislature alone. Cardinal News looks at what the Lucas indictment asks of Virginia’s licensing process, including an alleged March call to the Cannabis Control Authority, ahead of retail sales on July 1st, 2027. California’s Department of Cannabis Control is still working on rules that would let cultivators tag plants in groups in the state’s track-and-trace system. Comments closed October 2nd. In Palm Beach County, deputies made a second arrest in the Not Your Bakery case, charging co-owner Hassan Mohamed Soueid. (MJBizDaily; Local News 8; Cardinal News; Harris Sliwoski; CBS12)

A new episode of The Hybrid is out today at 3 PM ET on YouTube. Erik and I go through five states where the 2026 elections could change the cannabis map: Iowa, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, where a yes on Question 8 would end adult-use retail sales starting January 1, 2028, while the medical program continues. We also debrief the Blank Rome cannabis conference and try two new segments, Blind Ranking and Cease and Desist.

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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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