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Seven testing labs in Nevada told regulators the new flower sampling rule could let contaminated product pass. Sixty-three Massachusetts legislators, led by the Speaker and the Senate President, came out against Question 8, and eight Boston clinicians wrote that the state never taught the public what cannabis can do. Colorado lawmakers open the state’s marijuana consumer safety audit this morning. Total Wine has spent $510,000 lobbying Congress on hemp drinks this year, and eight FDA information-sharing agreements with state regulators expire October 31st.
🧪 Sixty grams, unmixed
🗳️ Ten years, new side
🍷 One issue, $510,000
📚 Storage is a lesson
Trust, but verify.
Seven testing labs sent the Cannabis Compliance Board an eight-page position paper on October 13th, two days before its hearing on draft rules implementing SB 157. That law raised the largest flower lot a cultivator can submit from five pounds to 15. The labs, 374 Labs, G3 Labs, MA and Associates, ERP, NV Cann Labs, RSR Analytical and Digipath, support the proposed 60-gram sample. Their objection is to what happens next. The draft splits those 60 grams into three 20-gram portions without grinding and mixing them first, so the portion tested covers 0.29 percent of a 15-pound lot. The paper cites an analysis finding that at 3 percent Aspergillus prevalence, testing at that coverage could miss contamination 91 percent of the time. The labs also want to hold retained samples for at least 30 days, where the draft lets the cultivator decide whether the leftover 40 grams come back or get destroyed. Labs are market participants with a bottom-line interest in more testing and other business-related elements. But they’re also the referee on the field, and there isn’t a glut of standards or other labs available because of cannabis’s federal status. Crime labs and academic labs won’t touch it, because of their own capacity or fear of losing federal funding. The CCB put out a bulletin in September 2025 on flower and pre-rolls that passed initial testing and later failed for yeast, mold or Aspergillus, product it said had been misrepresented at sampling. (The Marijuana Herald)
🟢 Kentucky now has a licensed medical cannabis dispensary open in all 11 of its licensing regions, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Friday, after Sunnyside Dispensary opened in Floyd County. The state counts 26 dispensaries open, more than 500 registered practitioners and more than 28,000 patients approved to take part. The law took effect in January 2025 and the first store opened that December, so the map filled in about ten months. (Marijuana Moment)
Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka top a list of 63 state legislators the No on 8 campaign released Friday, 19 senators and 44 representatives, three of them Republicans. In Worcester, the City Council votes Tuesday night on Mayor Joseph Petty’s resolution urging residents to reject the repeal. There is some irony in the political switch over ten years. Most electeds opposed Question 4 in 2016, and now most are fighting its repeal. The same goes for the constitutional officers, Gov. Maura Healey among them, who opposed legalization as attorney general. It’s a local story, and honestly a somewhat expected one, but it’s also a Massachusetts story that is close to home. Rep. Jay Livingstone, who said voters in 2016 chose “a safe, regulated cannabis market,” backed Question 4 a decade ago, as did Sens. Pat Jehlen and Will Brownsberger, and all three are on Friday’s list. The case for voting no is at StoptheRepealMA.com. (Cannabis Business Times; Marijuana Moment; The Marijuana Herald)
📊 North Carolina adults back legal adult-use cannabis 63 to 26 in a SurveyUSA poll for WRAL and WSOC of 900 adults, fielded October 7th through 11th. Republicans came in at 52 percent and Democrats at 73, and medical use drew 74 percent overall. Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger has said a ballot bill is unlikely to move, and Gov. Josh Stein’s Advisory Council on Cannabis owes its final report by December 31st. (Marijuana Moment)
The Legislative Audit Committee takes up the State Auditor’s September performance audit this morning in the Old Supreme Court Chambers. It covers the Marijuana Enforcement Division and extends to the State Public Health Laboratory at CDPHE, which certifies the labs that test cannabis. The committee requested it in March 2025 on a 6-2 vote, and the findings stay confidential until the committee releases them. A 2023 review found 36 percent of newly licensed stores in its sample hadn’t been inspected within a year of approval. MED comes into the hearing with 84 of its 158 authorized positions filled, after four product notices in three weeks, the latest tied to an investigation into lab testing. (The Marijuana Herald)
🧾 Starting November 18th, every sales receipt and delivery recorded in Metrc in Maryland has to carry a sales tax amount, the Maryland Cannabis Administration and Metrc told licensees. A $0.00 entry is accepted only for patient and caregiver sales, and a consumer sale entered at zero comes back with an error. Point-of-sale systems have to send the figure, and the licensee still calculates and collects the tax. From that date, the tax sits on the same record as the product it was charged on. (MMJDaily)
Total Wine & More reported $140,000, $180,000 and $190,000 in federal lobbying across the first three quarters of 2026, and all three disclosures list regulation of low-dose hemp beverages as its only issue. Its lobbyists, Eric Brewer, Nathaniel McCarthy and Tyler Jesse, worked the House, the Senate and the Executive Office of the President. The retailer endorsed the Van Duyne-Landsman Beverage Regulatory Parity Act, H.R. 10079, in August. That bill would put hemp drinks under TTB, set age limits and testing, and allow up to 5 milligrams of THC per serving. The National Beer Wholesalers Association, through Eric Bunning of EB Consulting, added H.R. 10079 and the Barr-Craig Lawful Hemp Protection Act to its disclosures. It says it is neutral on the bills and wants THC drinks held to at least alcohol’s standards. Christopher Lackner of the Hemp Beverage Alliance told BevNET a federal solution could still arrive before December 11th, with a short gap possible if it doesn’t. Both bills would route the drinks through a three-tier system, manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer. (The Marijuana Herald; BevNET)
⚖️ A federal grand jury in Portland indicted La Mota CEO Rosa Cazares on eight counts, one for each quarter from March 2020 through December 2021. Prosecutors say more than $1.5 million in withheld federal payroll taxes went unpaid in those quarters. The case involves La Mota and 503 Staffing, which processed payroll for La Mota and related companies. The charges are allegations, and each count carries up to five years. (MJBizDaily; Grit Daily)
Eight Boston clinicians and researchers, among them A. Eden Evins of Mass General Brigham and Ari Cohen, chief of pediatric emergency medicine at Mass General, argue in CommonWealth Beacon that the state never paired legal sales with public education, surveillance or independent research. They cite emergency visits for young children’s exposures and for cannabis hyperemesis. They write that they aren’t there to answer Question 8, and Stop the Repeal makes the case for a no vote at StoptheRepealMA.com. I read clinician op-eds on cannabis with some skepticism, since many come from prohibitionists or from academics a long way from the practical realities. Public education is still necessary, from government or else from the industry, and it covers proper usage, proper storage and a simple “don’t be an asshole” standard for things like public consumption. At the Commission, we did public education early on, too, with an entire ad campaign, More About Marijuana, that launched in August 2018 and won awards. The General Court put $1 million toward a new public awareness campaign this year, administered by the Cannabis Control Commission. (CommonWealth Beacon)
🔬 Missouri’s first market study, done for the Department of Health and Senior Services by Mackenzie Slade’s Cannabis Public Policy Consulting, puts 93 percent of cannabis transactions in licensed stores. The figure comes from a survey of 1,200 people who had used cannabis in the past 30 days. Most of them buy flower, and monthly spending averages $161.18. The study recommends tying future dispensary licenses to demand and market concentration, and dropping the population and congressional-district limits on licensing. (Columbia Missourian)
FDA holds 20 long-term agreements under 21 CFR 20.88 that let it share nonpublic information about cannabinoid hemp products with state and territorial regulators, including confidential commercial records and some law enforcement material. Eight list October 31st, 2026, as their end date, covering regulators in California, Connecticut, Kentucky, Ohio, Oregon, Nevada, South Carolina and Vermont. The rest, including Maryland, Michigan and Colorado’s MED, run to 2031. FDA’s database doesn’t say whether the eight will be renewed. They lapse 12 days before the synthetic-cannabinoid piece of Section 781 takes effect on November 12th. (The Marijuana Herald; FDA)
📦 Oklahoma’s HB 4454 packaging rules take effect November 1st. Edible and beverage packages have to list the number of THC servings and the THC in each, and shapes like people, animals, cartoons or candy bears are out. After that date, dispensaries can’t accept noncompliant product from processors, though they can sell down what they already hold. OMMA says its inspectors are training ahead of the date for consistent, fair enforcement statewide. (KOSU)
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