Illinois

Equity licensing at scale, high taxes, and a cross-border trade its neighbors keep paying for.

Aug 21, 2026

📊 Massachusetts voters reject repeal 55 to 33, and Kevin Sabet rejects the poll

The first general-electorate number on Question 8 lands the day the repeal's funder makes his case on GBH. Plus Booker and Trump's two federal tracks, Texas hemp's third lawsuit, and Tennessee's $54 million hemp tax hole.

Aug 17, 2026

📏 Virginia's hemp cap is law, and the judge explains why he let it land

Judge Robert Ballou lets the two-milligram line land at midnight. Plus the CCC potency audit's harder questions, kratom goes Schedule I, and Stop the Repeal's chair joins The Hybrid.

Jul 31, 2026

🏦 Ma turns on Prop 64

California's treasurer wants Prop 64 replaced outright. Plus Virginia stands up an intoxicants unit, North Carolina nears its unamendable hemp vote, and Texas's line lands today.

Jul 22, 2026

🥊 Question 8 is real

The State Ballot Law Commission puts repeal on the November ballot. Plus Blanche commits to medical only, in writing, and the hemp cliff reaches the bar.

Jul 17, 2026

📜 Booker's answer to Schedule III

Descheduling filed one day after the record closed. Plus: New Jersey revokes one license and extends Curaleaf's, Missouri hemp sues in federal court, and hemp drinks finally have a dataset.

Jul 3, 2026

🎆 Two hemp bills, one deadline, a country turning 250

The Senate splits over who regulates hemp, the DOJ names the money behind Schedule I, and a nation founded on the federal-versus-state fight spends its 250th still having it.

Jun 30, 2026

📝 Rescheduling: DEA defends what it fought

Day one put cannabis's safety on the record the D.C. Circuit will weigh. Plus two House Republicans bet against their own rescheduling block, Virginia's market becomes law, and Massachusetts braces for a repeat repeal cycle.

Jun 16, 2026

🥤 A Republican lifeline for hemp drinks

Van Duyne drafts a federal carve-out for hemp drinks as the November cliff nears. Plus a Harvard witness enters the rescheduling fight, Hanna takes CANNRA, and High Tide trades up to a Big 5 bank.

Jun 15, 2026

🗳️ The repeal question survives its court challenge

The SJC cleared the adult-use repeal question for November in Massachusetts. Plus a bill to let states force rescheduling, Illinois closing the hemp gap, Virginia's deal revived, and the CCC's cultivation pause.

Jun 10, 2026

🧨 Beshear's order, now a prosecution threat

Kentucky's House whip wants cannabis licensees prosecuted for following Beshear's medical-marijuana order. Plus Texas hemp back by court order, Ohio's veto fight, and psychedelics at the Pentagon.

Jun 9, 2026

🗳️ Idaho asks voters to lock their own door

Idaho's legislature put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot asking voters to give up their own power to legalize cannabis, while Massachusetts fights a push to repeal the market its voters passed. Plus Cresco's $50M bank line and who it leaves out, federal marijuana cases at a record low, and Vireo buying up the supply chain.

Jun 2, 2026

⚖️ Louisiana's quiet exit

Murrill withdraws days after Trump ends a Louisiana Senate career, a third challenge hits the D.C. Circuit, Illinois operators move SB 3222, Sherrill signs the hemp-drink law, and Japan bans CBN.

Jun 1, 2026

🌿 "None of us can advise our licensees"

Six weeks after Schedule III, state regulators say they can't advise their own licensees, with the DEA hearing two weeks out. Plus three Republican plays to stop November's hemp ban and Robinhood's open door.

May 29, 2026

🏛️ Virginia's end-run around Spanberger

Surovell and Lucas float folding cannabis sales into the July 1 budget to box the governor in. Plus: Congress leans on the IRS over 280E, ATACH lawyers up for the DEA hearing, and Tennessee's THCA ban hits July 1.

May 28, 2026

⚖️ Indiana, Nebraska, Louisiana, and Bill Barr

Indiana, Nebraska, and Louisiana AGs went to the D.C. Circuit on Tuesday, and by Wednesday the court had consolidated their case with SAM and NDASA's. Cruz, newly the senior Texas senator after Cornyn's blowout loss, says hemp reversal is uphill. New Jersey courts split on cannabis hiring. Minnesota's omnibus hits Walz's desk. Maryland arms ATCC with seizure power.

May 27, 2026

🪙 Curaleaf moves first

Curaleaf moves toward a U.S. uplisting with a 1-for-3 reverse split. Rhode Island writes its cannabis fix and picks a chair to run it. Delaware lawmakers can't agree which channel sells the same molecule. VA puts MDMA back in a randomized trial. Illinois routes hemp through the cannabis system.

May 22, 2026

🏦 Maryland's side door

A bankruptcy court hands Maryland a permit transfer the state was not planning to allow. Federal labor law settles against cannabis exceptionalism. Colorado cultivators sue over the excise tax math. Minnesota loses a lab.

May 13, 2026

🌿 Schedule III does not touch hemp

DOJ's Schedule III order leaves hemp's November cliff fully intact, and Congress just told DEA to start enforcing. A Florida ALJ reopened the MMTC scoring. Ohio puts $20M into messaging while its regulator runs on a $9M budget. Inside today.

May 11, 2026

📝 Oklahoma's DEA registration order

Oklahoma becomes the first state to translate rescheduling into a hard compliance directive, with a January 2027 enforcement clock | The drug czar pulls the federal framing back to "still illegal" | SAM v. Kennedy heads to the bench on the CMS cannabinoid pilot | Susan Burns surfaces the $14.3B luxury spa segment hidden inside the hemp debate

May 8, 2026

🚨 The FBI walked into a state senator's cannabis shop

Federal agents searched Louise Lucas's office and her hemp store Wednesday in a corruption probe Virginia Democrats are already calling political. Plus: Texas hemp lands in court for the third time this week, an Ohio Republican joins a lawsuit against her own party's bill, and New Día heads to Suffolk Superior Court Friday with $13 million in claims hanging over a Cookies-branded equity flagship.

May 6, 2026

🚨 The White House Goes After Synthetic Hemp In Its 2026 Drug Strategy

The White House targets delta-8, delta-10, THC-O, and THCP while protecting full-spectrum CBD | SAM and NDASA take Schedule III to the D.C. Circuit | Tim Scott reconsiders cannabis banking

May 5, 2026

⚖️ The $1.6 Billion Question Reaches The Massachusetts SJC

Operators argue at the SJC that the SAM-funded repeal initiative is unconstitutional | The White House Drug Strategy talks tough on cannabis without mentioning Schedule III | A 320-page lawsuit names Cresco, GTI, and Verano

Apr 22, 2026

🚨 Virginia's sponsors ready to walk, Delaware catches an Arizona scheme, Pritzker and Beshear campaign on 4/20

Virginia's sponsors may kill the bill rather than accept Spanberger's rewrite | Delaware catches an Arizona licensing scheme | Pritzker and Beshear spend 4/20 building their cannabis records

Apr 9, 2026

⚖️ Rhode Island Freezes Cannabis Licensure as Courts Settle What Washington Won't

Rhode Island freezes licensure on a constitutional claim | Massachusetts finally chooses governability | Cannabist and Silverpeak land in court on the same day

Apr 6, 2026

🧭 The AG Is Out, The November Cliff Is Closer, and Nobody's Laying Rail

Bondi fired, rescheduling "on track." Ohio's hemp law blocked on day one. Cannabist finds the bankruptcy door cannabis wasn't supposed to have.