🧃 Ohio hemp drinks need a license again; Q8 trails 71 to 24

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A Sixth Circuit panel told Ohio it can make out-of-state hemp drink companies get a license but can't turn them away for where they're from, and the federal hemp line arriving December 11th may settle most of it anyway. A new poll has Massachusetts voters rejecting Question 8 by 71 to 24. CANNRA says DEA headquarters still hasn't sat down with the states its Schedule III order depends on. Connecticut is paying its own agricultural scientists to check private labs, and Maryland is about to pull flower off retail shelves and send it to four labs at once.

🧃 Licensed, with the border open
🗳️ 71 to 24
🏛️ The states are waiting by the phone
🔬 Checking the checkers

A Sixth Circuit panel on Friday partly stayed the preliminary injunction Judge Jeffrey Helmick granted in July to ten hemp companies in Titan Logistics v. Tischler. Bloomberg Law reports the companies can no longer sell in Ohio without approval from the state's marijuana regulators. The panel kept Helmick's dormant Commerce Clause holding, though, so Ohio can't deny that approval because of where a company is based. The order rules on a stay motion with the appeal still to be argued, and it reaches only the Titan plaintiffs. The fourteen companies in Delta Beverages v. Canepa hold a separate injunction, and Ohio can be expected to cite Friday's order against it. Neither the reporting nor the state has said what an approval looks like for a seltzer filled out of state, since Ohio's rules generally require product to move through other Ohio licensees.

December 11th may decide more than either appeal. Both injunctions protect products only while they qualify as hemp under federal law. That day, Section 781 sets the federal ceiling at 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container, the same line SB 56 draws. Most of the drinks at issue stop being federal hemp in 74 days (the date is on our Deadlines, Decoded tracker), and the merits panel will mostly be writing for the next state that tries to build a licensing wall. (Bloomberg Law; Forbes; Titan Logistics Group LLC v. Tischler, No. 26-3648 (6th Cir.))

🥤 Jacob Virgil, president of Charlotte's NoDa Brewing, wrote in the Charleston City Paper that Happy Bird, the hemp THC seltzer the brewery launched in March 2025, now brings in about 11 percent of its revenue across North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. He's asking South Carolina lawmakers for alcohol-style regulation and taxation in place of a ban. He cites 3,000 jobs and $1.5 billion in activity at stake, without a source for either. He sends readers to the Hemp Beverage Alliance's action center to write their legislators. Section 781 reaches his cans in 74 days whatever Columbia does, which is why the Alliance is also working H.R. 10079 in Washington. (Charleston City Paper)

🔔 Pennsylvania heard two cannabis arguments on Friday, from opposite sides of the Senate aisle. Sen. Dawn Keefer, a Republican, circulated a co-sponsorship memo for a Pennsylvania Hemp and Cannabinoid Act. It would require sellers to register with the Department of Agriculture, test and label their products, check IDs for buyers 21 and older, and drop candy-style packaging. Her memo says the bill would not legalize adult-use cannabis. It cites Attorney General Dave Sunday's case against twelve people accused of moving high-potency THC products through stores statewide. That afternoon, Oren Gur of the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office told the Senate Democratic Policy Committee that nearly $5 billion in adult-use sales went to Pennsylvania's neighbors in 2025, a figure he didn't break down. The last legalization vehicle, HB 1200, passed the House 102 to 101 in May 2025 and died in the Senate Law and Justice Committee. Keefer's bill has no number yet, and an age-gated hemp law from a Republican may be the cannabis bill this Senate can actually pass. (The Marijuana Herald; Pennsylvania Senate Democratic Policy Committee)

A University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll of 564 likely Massachusetts voters, taken September 17th through 21st, found 71 percent opposed to Question 8, 24 percent in favor and 5 percent unsure, with a margin of error of 4.1 points. Opposition crosses party lines: 68 to 21 among Democrats and 62 to 29 among Republicans. Seventy-eight percent said they understand the measure very or somewhat well, which leaves the Yes side few voters to win over by explaining it. August's UMass Amherst/WCVB poll had it 55 to 33 among registered voters, a different electorate, so the two results aren't a trend line.

Question 8 would end licensed adult-use retail and home cultivation while keeping possession legal and the medical program intact. Marijuana Moment reports SAM Action is funding most of the Yes campaign. The margin matters beyond Massachusetts, since the Marijuana Policy Project has warned that even a close No would invite copycat initiatives. I would put money on No clearing 60 percent on November 3rd. Learn more at StoptheRepealMA.com. (Marijuana Moment; University of New Hampshire Survey Center)

📊 High Times ran NORML deputy director Paul Armentano's essay Friday under the headline "90% of Americans Want Legal Weed." Pew's January survey splits that figure into 55 percent for medical and adult use and 33 percent for medical only. Gallup put general support at 64 percent in 2025, down from 70 in 2023. The headline counts the medical-only third toward adult use, and Armentano's case doesn't need the help. Republican officials in South Dakota, Nebraska and Ohio have worked to override or narrow voter-approved measures. Democratic legislatures in Michigan, Maryland and Minnesota have raised cannabis taxes, and he's right that consumers pay for both. (High Times; Pew Research Center; Gallup)

🏷️ The Cannabis Control Commission issued an enforcement bulletin Friday after some licensees refused to take down flagged advertising, arguing that Chapter 65 changed the rules. Chapter 65 lets the commission allow limited advertising of sales, discounts and loyalty programs inside stores and through opt-in email lists. According to the bulletin, the statute didn't authorize discounts on public websites by itself, and a reduced or promotional price on an online menu still counts as advertising. "Sale," "Discount," "Special," strike-through prices and buy-one-get-one offers can all draw citations, and renaming the promotion won't help. Stores can still change prices, post them online and offer bundles. Medical operators can still advertise patient discounts, labeled as medical-only in co-located stores. Until the commission writes the new authority into 935 CMR, inspectors will keep enforcing the old rule. (The Marijuana Herald; Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission)

Gillian Schauer, executive director-extraordinaire of the Cannabis Regulators Association, wrote in Marijuana Moment on Friday that DEA headquarters has acknowledged CANNRA's offers to help implement April's Schedule III order. It hasn't met with the association or convened the states whose licensing systems the order relies on. Some DEA field divisions are working well with state regulators, she writes, while others haven't called. The answers vary by region on whether dual medical and adult-use licensees, or owners with past convictions, can register. The order also conflicts with state law in places. It requires patient documents to name the recommending practitioner, which few states require. It also requires a federal warning against transferring the drug to anyone but the patient, in states that let caregivers buy and grow on a patient's behalf.

I helped start CANNRA, so weigh my view with that in mind, and I think she's right. The people at headquarters deserve some patience too. Career DEA staff spent their working lives treating this plant as Schedule I. Now they're carrying out an about-face in campaign season, with a White House pressing for results and the order on appeal in the D.C. Circuit. At a moment like that, the help an agency needs is from regulators who have licensed, inspected and recalled cannabis products for more than a decade. Wednesday is September 30th, the deadline four House members led by Rep. Dina Titus set for answers to their own list of questions. (Marijuana Moment)

⚖️ Neil Willner of Vicente LLP counted six pending New York Supreme Court cases in which the Office of Cannabis Management has been named or has asked to be added. Cannabis Law § 131-a makes OCM a party to litigation affecting who possesses, owns or receives a license, and licensees must report litigation to the agency within three business days. In Pura NY Industries v. Hepworth AG, OCM objected to a settlement that would have delivered cannabis to an exiting member with no license. In Norgard v. TS Lender, an equity dispensary owner alleges a $4.37 million loan unlawfully pledged his license. He says the lender then demanded about $9.7 million plus a $36 million acceleration premium, and a September 23rd restraining order stopped the sale of his membership units. No court has yet ruled on how far § 131-a reaches, and this is a law firm writing about work it sells. Anyone lending against a New York cannabis license is lending against collateral OCM has to approve before it changes hands. The Norgard injunction hearing is October 6th. (Vicente LLP)

📺 Nebraska independent Dan Osborn released a Senate ad Thursday that opens with Sen. Pete Ricketts, then governor, saying in 2021, "If you legalize marijuana, you're gonna kill your kids." The rest of the ad is about Ricketts' Medicaid votes and his campaign money from insurers. Ricketts has since opposed rescheduling and cosponsored a bill to keep 280E in place even after rescheduling. In a state where 71 percent of voters approved medical cannabis in 2024, the campaign led with the line it expects people to remember. (Marijuana Moment)

Connecticut's Department of Consumer Protection is moving $450,000 to the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station to add microbiological testing at its Griswold lab, plus up to $50,000 a year and two new staff positions. The lab will test for yeast and mold, E. coli, salmonella, listeria and Aspergillus, using only samples DCP inspectors collect. Oversight stays with DCP, spokesperson Kaitlyn Krasselt says.

In Maryland, Cannabis Industry Journal reports the Maryland Cannabis Administration will start a pilot in October with Cannabis Safety & Quality, a certification company. Retail flower goes to four licensed labs, and the results are checked against the state reference lab and the original certificate of analysis, with findings due in December. In both states, the grower who pays for the test no longer picks the sample. Michigan still can't manage that, because its reference lab has no legal authority to hold one. Neither state has said what happens when its number and a private lab's certificate disagree. (CT Insider; Cannabis Industry Journal)

🗂️ California's Department of Cannabis Control filed a notice of appeal Friday from the August 4th judgment in HNHPC Inc. v. Department of Cannabis Control, a case HNHPC has pressed for nearly five years. Orange County Superior Court Judge Lee Gabriel held that the state's track-and-trace database falls short of Business and Professions Code § 26067. The statute says the database "shall be designed to flag irregularities for the department to investigate." She found DCC relies on analysts combing through transaction data with no defined criteria for what counts as irregular. Her judgment orders the department to write those criteria and bring the system into compliance. Metrc, the platform licensees report through, isn't a party, and the judgment goes to how the department uses the data it already collects. The next question is whether the six-month compliance clock keeps running during the appeal. DCC's opening brief will show what the department thinks the statute asks of it. (The Marijuana Herald; Law360)

🎲 Federal prosecutors charged Kashawn McKinley, Atlantic City's director of constituent services and a school board member, on Thursday with honest services fraud and two counts of soliciting bribes from a cannabis business owner. The complaint alleges he took more than $20,000 in cash and cannabis to help the owner open a dispensary and settle fee disputes with the city. One alleged favor was getting the store classified as a "micro" business, which cut its annual mercantile license fee from $25,000 to $2,500. Prosecutors also allege he collected $6,000 after steering a city refund of more than $25,000. They further allege he directed the owner, who was working with the FBI, to assault someone. The city suspended him without pay, and he is presumed innocent. Every alleged payment ran through the local fees and classifications New Jersey towns layer on top of state licensing, where one official's call could move a store's costs by $22,500 a year. (Philadelphia Inquirer; U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey)

🦀 Talbot County, on Maryland's Eastern Shore, awarded its first $200,000 from the Community Reinvestment and Repair Fund to ten local projects. They include an after-school program on Tilghman Island, a playground at Polaris Village Early Learning Center and a literacy effort run by Talbot Mentors. The state fund receives 35 percent of Maryland's adult-use cannabis tax, and each county's share is set by its history of cannabis possession charges. The Talbot Family Network, acting as the county's commission, got 19 applications asking for $867,350, more than four times what it had to give. A second round is planned for 2027, and county officials say this cycle's proposals will shape the long-term distribution plan. (Outlaw Report)

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