Taxes & Fees

Excise rates, local fees, and the revenue math that shapes cannabis and hemp policy.

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 19, 2026

🏛️ DEA asks its own judge to hurry Schedule III

Justice restores gun rights to cannabis consumers, Connecticut closes a store for good and follows the money, and 79 percent of Massachusetts Democrats say keep the law.

Aug 18, 2026

📮 Georgia asks the mail to carry medical cannabis

The state's medical commission votes September 30th on USPS and FedEx delivery to patients. Plus Yale's $111 billion estimate, DEA's seventeen-hour turnaround, and Virginia's special session push.

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.

Aug 14, 2026

⚖️ Union mandates, struck from cannabis licenses

Hawaii's hemp crackdown came with a paper trail, Ohio's customers still drive to Michigan, and the Rogers family bought Levia back. Virginia's shelves wait on a judge in Roanoke.

Aug 13, 2026

🏢 Rent is deductible. Landlords noticed.

Medical operators can deduct rent again, and their landlords aren't volunteering anything. Plus Fall River's $4.6 million fee bill, Ballou rules by Friday, and Budd names his price.

Aug 12, 2026

🏢 Curaleaf goes hostile, and Aurora forms a committee

A $272 million unsolicited bid meets a special committee. Plus the alcohol industry endorses the hemp beverage bill, and Virginia defends its cap in Roanoke.

Aug 11, 2026

🥤 Five milligrams, eight cents, three tiers

Van Duyne and Landsman give hemp THC drinks an alcohol-style framework. Plus Houston counts signatures, Texas keeps enforcing, and Michigan's tax closes five stores.

Aug 7, 2026

🐑 Budd's ban finds a Democrat

Gillibrand crosses the aisle as Vance brokers and Thune warns of a wreck. Plus Newton repays $2.4 million in impact fees, the CCC reopens its testing file, and a court tells California to read its own track-and-trace data.

Aug 5, 2026

🧨 One amendment from the cliff

Budd moves to strip the hemp delay, 35 attorneys general back the November date, and marijuana's top trade group amplifies them. Plus North Carolina punts its hemp vote, and 280E goes to Tax Court.

Jul 24, 2026

🧪 The lab report Virginia didn't run

An accredited lab pulled Virginia shelf flower and found illegal THC, microbials, and a pesticide that becomes cyanide when smoked. Plus the White House backing Barr describes, Minnesota's plan to regulate a Schedule I product, and 89 percent.

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 16, 2026

🧾 Hemp's rescue, priced by the milligram

Sheehy's draft trades the November ban for a 1% crop line, age limits, and a nickel-per-milligram tax. Plus the War Department's rescheduling memo, and thirteen Massachusetts delivery pauses.

Jun 22, 2026

🔫 9-0 on cannabis and guns. ATF moves next.

Inside the Hemani decision and the two ATF rules it now reshapes. Plus Vermont's interstate runway, Missouri moving $71.9M while $95M sits idle, and Colorado teen use at a fresh low.

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 11, 2026

🏛️ The Cannabis Control Board, revived and wounded

Laughlin's Cannabis Control Board died 27-23 when co-sponsors crossed, then revived on a reconsider. Plus a rescheduling freeze bid, three New York wins, and a study on personalized cannabis dosing.

Jun 5, 2026

🏛️ The White House reopens the hemp definition

The White House asked Congress to update the hemp definition and left the key line undefined, reopening the fight before November. Plus New York's anti-inversion law, Michigan's tax shortfall, and the 280E fight.

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.

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 26, 2026

🧪 The label test in Massachusetts

Massachusetts puts a 75 to 125 percent band on THC labels. A federal judge tosses the Medicare hemp suit. Spanberger gets a poll she did not want. Scutari moves a 200-milligram hemp bottle.

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 21, 2026

⚖️ The Towns owed a paper trail

A Worcester Superior Court judge says Massachusetts municipalities had to document Community Impact Fees costs under the prior statute too. Curaleaf can sue to find out if they did.

May 20, 2026

🏛️ Healey owns it now.

DeLobato, Wilson, and Harding take the rebuilt Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission, and the executive director now reports to the chair. DOJ moves to claw back TerrAscend's $8 million refund. California writes a Schedule III workaround. Vermont keeps the 30% cap. Spanberger vetoes Virginia retail.

May 14, 2026

🗳️ Stop counting bills. Count votes.

The 2026 midterms will matter more for cannabis than the next bill filed in Congress, because bills only move when the political environment supplies a path. Plus: Cannabis Caucus co-chairs speak past a Republican wall, Nevada quantifies its $80 million gaming barrier, five MSOs file DEA registrations, Stitt holds an ibogaine trials bill, and Bonta files 66 felony counts against an $80 million unlicensed operation.