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A Democratic Congress doesn't change the math as much as the victory laps suggest. Any cannabis bill still needs 60 votes in the Senate, and this week brought a reported White House line on social equity and the Republican co-chair of the Cannabis Caucus steering the conversation toward banking. The states didn't wait for anyone. Texas hemp makers are staring at license fees nearly 40 times what they were, Wisconsin Democrats started counting the money that crosses into Illinois, two Michigan towns rewrote their own limits, and Missouri took four shops to court right after a federal judge let its hemp law stand. Madison built a system where no one branch gets the last word. This week, nobody did.

🖊️ Descheduling and equity
⏳ Two federal hemp dates
🧀 Wisconsin’s $40 million
🪖 Urine test, top court

Democrats will run both the House and the Senate in January, which puts federal descheduling back on the table but nowhere near the finish line. AP reports the results, and Marijuana Moment puts their Senate share at 54 to 56 seats. Looking at you, Mississippi. Any cannabis bill still needs four to six Republicans to get past a filibuster, and the fight is over what that bill carries. Rep. Jerry Nadler’s MORE Act pairs descheduling with expungement, social equity, and a federal tax, and it passed the House once without ever getting a Senate vote. Rep. David Joyce, the Ohio Republican who co-chairs the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, pointed to three bills of his own: PREPARE, STATES 2.0, and SAFE Banking. None of them deschedules anything. Asked about a clean descheduling bill with no social equity, he said only that “these legislative efforts should be part of that conversation.”

The White House has acted on paper twice, with a rescheduling executive order in December 2025 and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s final order, effective April 22nd, moving FDA-approved marijuana products and marijuana under a qualifying state medical license to Schedule III, according to the Justice Department. A separate DEA proceeding is still open, with briefing on a Government Accountability Office report closed November 5th, no date for Judge Derek Julius’s recommendation and DEA Administrator Terrance Cole making the call. One unnamed senior Trump adviser told the Marijuana Herald the president would sign a bill that only removes cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act and would likely veto anything carrying social equity provisions.

I have been hearing that White House action on this is two weeks away for months now, and I will believe it when I see it. What has been signed is a medical rescheduling order, and an open DEA case is not descheduling. Equity programs have under-delivered, and licenses alone cannot make up for the drug war. MORE’s expungement, its programs, and the federal tax that paid for them all sit on the side the adviser says draws a veto, so a clean bill drops every one. If a bill deschedules and leaves social equity out, why? The first federal market would open to whoever already has capital, with convictions still on the record. I want that answer in writing before I cheer for either version. (The Marijuana Herald; Marijuana Moment)

“Let the ban take effect, and do not further regulate or legalize intoxicating hemp” is one line among about 200 proposals in “Fighting for Illinois: Day One Agenda,” released this week by Gov. JB Pritzker, Lt. Gov. and Sen.-elect Juliana Stratton, and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, per Marijuana Moment. The federal ban, now pushed to December 11th, caps hemp products at 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container. Cannabinoids the plant cannot naturally produce fall out of the hemp definition earlier, on November 12th. Illinois has its own state restriction, separate from both.

In August Duckworth backed tabling Sen. Ted Budd’s amendment that would have removed the delay, and retiring Sen. Dick Durbin voted against tabling it. Politico (paywalled) recently reported that alcohol lobbyists urged state attorneys general to oppose reversing the ban. Plenty of brands in Illinois are throwing going-away parties, but in doing so, they continue to build brand awareness, loyalty, and support. Chicago also saw Navy Pier and United Center embrace these products. With the political powers saying no, and consumers saying yes, Illinois is worth keeping an eye on. As for those brands, plan for the ban and treat any reprieve as a pleasant surprise. (Marijuana Moment)

🥤 Hemp Beverage News asked whether the election redrew the expansion map for hemp drinks, and I told them it did, dramatically. If Iowa and Wisconsin choose to regulate rather than restrict, Illinois and Ohio will notice the customers and tax dollars crossing the line, and that is how a domino effect starts. New governors still need their legislatures, and support for marijuana is not support for hemp beverages. (Hemp Beverage News)

The Department of State Health Services raised its fee for a hemp manufacturing facility from $258 to $10,000 and for a retail registration from $155 to $5,000, the Texas Tribune reports, alongside rules in force since March 31st. The Legislature convenes January 12th under Lt. Gov.-elect Vikki Goodwin, a month after the federal cap date of December 11th. Outgoing Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s push to ban THC produced a 2025 bill that passed the Legislature before Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed it, and Rice University’s Katharine Neill Harris told the Tribune some senators still want a ban and that she sees no sign DSHS will change its rules. Shayda Torabi of RESTART CBD says, “Texans could go a while without access to some products.”

Texas can and should regulate hemp-derived intoxicants, and fees, testing, and an age floor are what that looks like. January 12th is the first chance to ask what the $10,000 actually pays for: real inspection and enforcement, or just fewer small sellers. (Texas Tribune)

🧀 Sen. Mark Spreitzer thinks Wisconsin Democrats will pass legalization (“I think we’re going to be able to get it done”), and Sen. Chris Larson says the state is “giving away $40 million across the border” and wants a framework that favors “homegrown businesses,” per Marijuana Moment. (Note: homegrown, ya say? wink wink) Gov.-elect David Crowley estimates $80 million to $170 million a year in revenue, and a legislative analysis counted more than $121 million spent by Wisconsin residents in Illinois in 2022, including $36 million in Illinois tax. Larson’s homegrown preference will need a definition, because local can mean where the owner lives, where the plants grow, or where the license sits. Bills filed this year did not advance. (Marijuana Moment)

🗳️ Bad Axe, Michigan, voted 664 to 537 to repeal its 2019 ban and allow up to two cannabis businesses, and Menominee voted 1,812 to 1,222 to raise its retail cap from nine to 13, according to the Marijuana Herald. In Michigan the town decides, and a ban from 2019 came down in one evening of counting, with roughly 55 percent of Bad Axe voters behind it. Both results are unofficial. Also, imagine living in Bad Axe, Michigan! I looked it up. Their mascot is the Hatchets, and they play in the Big Thumb Conference. Can’t make this stuff up. (The Marijuana Herald)

Rep. Dan Frankel, who chairs the House Health Committee, says members are reviewing House-passed bills that stalled in the Senate and drafting for 2027 and 2028. His release names H.B. 1200 from Rep. Rick Krajewski, adult-use legalization with expungement and reinvestment; H.B. 33, his own medical marijuana lab oversight bill with audits, quality checks, inspections, and data transparency; H.B. 2254, non-smokable medical marijuana for terminally ill patients in care facilities; and H.B. 2657, a kratom framework for adults 21 and over that bans synthetics like 7-OH.

H.B. 33 comes first for me. Sampling protocols decide what a test result actually means, and audits and open data are how the rest of us check the work. H.B. 1200 carries the expungement and reinvestment pieces that the clean-bill crowd in Washington keeps leaving out.

Pennsylvania still has negotiating to do. Democrats flipped the state Senate 26 to 24 and now hold the governor’s office and both chambers, but they haven’t settled state stores versus private dispensaries, and equity is still open. Virginia is the cautionary tale. It legalized in 2021, left sales for later, and won’t open a store until July 1, 2027, after Gov. Abigail Spanberger vetoed the sales bill over her own rewrite and a compromise got tucked into the budget. Perfect being the enemy of the good cost Virginia six years. Still, the political will is there, the way is there, and the momentum is there. And if Gov. Josh Shapiro, freshly reelected, is looking for a platform to run on, cannabis is a clear path.

The Oregon Health Authority published its 2026 statements November 5th. The Lund Report says they find moderate to strong evidence for memory and attention problems after frequent use, psychosis and suicide risk especially for young people and long-term high-potency users, cardiovascular and cancer risk, and prenatal effects. Sen. Lisa Reynolds is preparing legislation on children and adolescents. Evidence first, bill second is the right order. Youth and potency show up together in the mental health findings, so the first question for Reynolds is how her bill handles potency. (The Lund Report)

🌱 Hemp farmers in Minnesota have until April 30, 2027, to apply for or renew a 2027 grower or processor license, according to the state Department of Agriculture. The minimum license is $400, each added location costs $250, the $250 processor license fee is eliminated, and there is a 5 percent technology surcharge plus $100 for each official regulatory sample. Every lot needs a pre-harvest THC test, and indoor growers continuing past December 31, 2026, must renew before their license ends. The program covers growing and processing and leaves out making or selling hemp-derived cannabinoid products. (Minnesota Department of Agriculture)

🤝 Gov. Wes Moore has named Manny Welsh chief of staff, replacing Lester Davis, the Marijuana Herald reports. Welsh has overseen the Maryland Cannabis Administration, the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Cannabis Commission, and the Office of Social Equity since January 2024, and Moore calls him “an invaluable asset to this administration since day one.” Between Manny Welsh and friend of the newsletter Will Tilburg, who ran the Maryland Cannabis Administration and is now Moore’s Chief Legislative Officer, I’d say the popular and newly reelected governor is in good hands. So what does the future hold? Hmm… (The Marijuana Herald)

An Air Force member named Collyn Lawrence tested at 22 nanograms per milliliter of a THC metabolite in a January 2024 random urinalysis, against a 15 threshold, and was convicted, reduced in rank, and reprimanded. The Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals upheld that in May, and the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces hears United States v. Lawrence on November 19th, with no decision date, the Marijuana Herald reports. His lawyers want the court to partly overturn United States v. Ford (1987), which lets a judge infer knowing use from a positive test. The government says legalization elsewhere has not made that inference unconstitutional and cannabis stays prohibited for service members. A positive metabolite is not impairment, and per se limits should be rejected. This case sits a step earlier and asks whether the number even shows he knew what he took. Ford was decided in 1987, nine years before any state legalized medical cannabis. This feels like the right place for a “you can’t handle the truth!” reference, no? (The Marijuana Herald)

🧠 UCLA researchers gave healthy adults a placebo, a lower THC dose, and a higher dose in three blinded sessions, split by sex and by how often they use. Occasional male users reported more high, sedation, impairment, and unpleasant effects and were the only group whose heart rate rose, frequent users of both sexes responded alike, and blood THC did not explain the gap, per the UCLA release. UCLA calls the sample modest, some findings exploratory, and the doses lower than many products sold today. A small study at low doses proves little on its own, but it points the same way as the military case: a number in your blood or urine is a poor stand-in for how impaired you are. (UCLA Health)

Four shops, Herb Depot in Independence, CBD Kratom Cannabis Dispensary in Des Peres, Puffers Choice in Aurora, and Token THC Dispensary in Rock Port, are defendants in a Jackson County suit from Attorney General Catherine Hanaway seeking civil penalties, injunctions, and drug-den nuisance declarations, per KCTV5. The petition alleges products above the 0.3 percent delta-9 dry-weight hemp limit sold by shops posing as licensed dispensaries, and that Herb Depot has no license from the state health department. Herb Depot spokesperson Reed Smith says the shop complies and disputes the November 12th effective date the state cites for HB 2641, and a federal court in the Western District of Missouri dismissed a challenge to that law November 4th.

Good operators want enforcement, and a shop that hangs “dispensary” on the door without a state license is exactly who a licensed market wants in front of a judge. The petition needs to show the lab numbers behind the 0.3 percent claim, because that line is where hemp and cannabis part ways. (KCTV5)

🗺️ Around the map: Canada’s federal budget would cut the number of cannabis excise stamps from 13 to six, with provinces due to tell Finance by January 31, 2027, a unified stamp available from January 1, 2028, and the transition ending June 30, 2029, according to StratCann. Fewer stamps means fewer places for product to stall at a provincial line. (StratCann)

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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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