Hemp THC products will become illegal under federal law in November 2026 thanks to the spending bill President Donald Trump signed last month.

What’s still not known is which authorities will enforce the ban – or whether they’ll enforce the hemp ban at all, a new Congressional Research Service (CRS) report notes.

In fact, both the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Federal Food and Drug Administration “may lack the resources” to police banned hemp, according to the CRS.

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Congress moved to close the so-called “loophole” in the 2018 Farm Bill by redefining hemp under federal law.

Starting November 2026, hemp products can have no more than 0.4 milligrams of THC per container. And both THCA flower as well as synthetically derived delta-8 and

The post Report: Hemp THC ban may be unenforceable appeared first on GrowCola.com.

Ten marijuana brands won trophies in the inaugural MJBowl, a bi-coastal cannabis competition presented by MJBizCon and social review platform Budist.

The competition, designed to spotlight the Most Valuable Products across five major product categories in two major markets, brought together licensed producers from California and New York for a cross-market showcase of craft innovation and product excellence.

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“We wanted to bring a level of rigor and shared language to how we assess and celebrate cannabis products,” said Jocelyn Sheltran, co-founder and CEO of cannabis product review platform Budist.

“This competition is about recognizing the hard work of producers and creatin ga platform that translates quality to consumers.”

First cannabis product competition at MJBizCon

For participating brands, MJBowl is more than a trophy.

The post From rosin gummies to hash holes: Meet the winners of MJBowl appeared first on GrowCola.com.

Cannabis consumption lounges are redefining hospitality with a buzz-worthy twist.

From yoga sessions with edibles to paint-and-puff nights, dedicated consumption spaces are the next chapter for the cannabis industry, according to Dale Sky Jones, chancellor of Oakland, California-based cannabis education institution Oaksterdam University.

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Lounges are “the most exciting frontier for the cannabis industry,” said Jones, who’s leading a roundtable on consumption lounges at MJBizCon in Las Vegas today,

But creating these spaces isn’t just about good vibes.

A successful lounge act will master compliance, safety and customer education to craft an experience as elevated as the patrons themselves.

That can in turn build brand loyalty and unlock new revenue streams.

Crafting the experience – where cannabis meets hospitality

The foundation of a successful

The post Are consumption lounges the ‘next frontier’ for legal cannabis? appeared first on GrowCola.com.

Alleged massive fraud committed by signature-gatherers last year should mean the undoing of Nebraska medical marijuana legalization, the state’s high court heard this week.

The Nebraska Supreme Court is weighing a lawsuit filed by a former state lawmaker that seeks to force medical cannabis advocates to “prove” last year’s ballot question, overwhelmingly approved by voters, was actually valid.

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John Kuehn, a former Republican state lawmaker and co-founder of anti-legalization advocacy organization Smart Approaches to Marijuana, launched a quest to undo medical marijuana legalization in Nebraska months before last November’s vote.

Will the Nebraska Supreme Court cancel medical cannabis?

A lower-court state judge last fall dismissed Kuehn’s lawsuit alleging that Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana relied on fraud to collect enough signatures to qualify

The post Nebraska Supreme Court hears argument to cancel medical marijuana legalization appeared first on GrowCola.com.

After starting with a cultivation crunch, the newly launched Minnesota adult-use cannabis market is now suffering through a logistical crisis.

A severe shortage of licensed transporters is leaving retailers with empty shelves and cannabis cultivators unable to move inventory, according to MinnPost.

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As independent retailers try to establish a foothold in the state, the inability to legally transport product from cultivation sites to retail storefronts is creating supply chain friction, MinnPost reported.

Why is Minnesota slow to license cannabis transporters?

Operators report that stringent insurance requirements and a slow licensing rollout are favoring larger entities while threatening the viability of small, independent businesses.

Minnesota adult-use cannabis market is stuck in transit

The primary pain point is the disconnect between licensed cannabis cultivators and

The post The logistics crisis plaguing the Minnesota marijuana market launch appeared first on GrowCola.com.

As an attorney, Riana Durrett could never ask a cannabis operator to break the law.

But there isn’t a better way to test the reading of the U.S. constitution that Durrett, the director of the University Nevada Las Vegas Cannabis Policy Institute, and other legal scholars suggest could be another way forward for the cannabis industry that doesn’t hinge on President Donald Trump rescheduling marijuana.

Or on federal prohibition argued before the Supreme Court for the first time in more than 20 years.

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“I’m a believer in the dormant commerce clause arguments and that interstate commerce is no more illegal than intrastate commerce,” she added, referring to the language in the Constitution governing trade between the states – and the federal government’s ability

The post Can risky operators push marijuana interstate commerce forward? appeared first on GrowCola.com.

Ahead of a potential November 2026 launch of adult-use cannabis sales, marijuana multistate operator Curaleaf Holdings will enter the Virginia market with a purchase of competitor The Cannabist Company Holdings’ assets in the state, the companies announced Tuesday.

For $110 million, Curaleaf will acquire a vertically integrated medical marijuana license, which includes five retail dispensaries and the right to open a sixth as well as 82,000 square feet of cultivation canopy located near Richmond.

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The sale announcement is the latest move made by The Cannabist Co., formerly known as Columbia Care, after company leadership formed a “special committee” to explore mergers or other major moves.

Curaleaf to enter Virginia marijuana market ahead of adult-use sales

According to a company press release, the purchase

The post Curaleaf to enter Virginia marijuana market with purchase of competitor appeared first on GrowCola.com.

George Archos’ Christmas list this year is the same it was the year before, and the year before that.

All the CEO of marijuana multistate operator Verano Holdings wants is for his company to be treated like a normal business, by Meta and by the Internal Revenue Service and by everyone in between.

Figuring out how to get there – and how to get there as quickly as possible, with the minimum amount of stress and fuss – is the tricky part, and the subject of a discussion with other industry leaders today at MJBizCon.

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The wish list at Chicago-based Verano, which operates in 12 states, is similar to other C-suites in the cannabis industry.

Possibly top of the list is long-awaited relief

The post How cannabis operators are preparing for federal marijuana reform appeared first on GrowCola.com.

Virginia adult-use cannabis sales could begin Nov. 1, 2026 – and small businesses might get first crack ahead of big marijuana multistate operators.

That’s under a proposed regulatory framework state lawmakers plan to present to Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger, who has promised to finally launch legal sales after years of obstructionism.

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Virginia became the first state in the South to legalize recreational marijuana in 2021, and state lawmakers twice passed a bill that would have launched regulated sales.

However, outgoing Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed the bills twice.

Since Youngkin’s last veto – and ahead of Spanberger’s election in November – lawmakers on a Joint Commission on the Future of Cannabis Sales have been concocting a proposed regulatory framework.

Virginia adult-use marijuana taxes,

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Major marijuana multistate operators are among the nine companies poised to enter Texas’ rapidly expanding medical cannabis market.

The Texas Department of Public Safety on Monday gave preliminary approval to subsidiaries of Trulieve Cannabis Corp. and Verano Holdings  for licensing under the Texas Compassionate Use Program (TCUP), according to the Dallas Morning News.

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The nine new vertically integrated licenses come amid an overall expansion of medical cannabis in Texas, which for years has had one of the country’s strictest and most limited programs.

TCUP restricted access to CBD oil to only the sickest patients, and limited business participation to only three companies.

In the meantime, Texas’ hemp THC industry has exploded to an estimated $5.5 billion market – and the state is continuing

The post Marijuana MSOs enter Texas as medical cannabis market rapidly expands appeared first on GrowCola.com.

Brands that want to connect authentically with diverse audiences must learn to “read the room.”

That’s some of the advice Maverick Public Relations founder and CEO Shawna Seldon McGregor has to share at MJBizCon with cannabis brands seeking to authentically connect with the communities they want to serve – be they soccer moms, retirees or young people.

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“There are ways you can speak to different communities and do it in ways that connect with those communities even if you’re not part of them,” said McGregor, who’s a featured panelist on the MJBizCon breakout session, “Cultural Competency in Cannabis Marketing and Branding.”

The session, scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday in room N110, will help brands learn how they can move past surface-level representation and engage

The post How brands can achieve cultural competency and market to diverse communities appeared first on GrowCola.com.

Health insurance coverage for medical cannabis, a potential game changer for medical marijuana operators and the cannabis industry writ large, remains a distant dream as long as federal prohibition continues.

That’s unlikely to change if a tweak to Medicare reimbursement rules proposed Friday goes through, as it would cover only a small list of hemp-derived products.

And CBD is not among them.

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Speculation that government-subsidized health insurance could potentially cover CBD treatments beyond the sole Food and Drug Administration-approved pharmaceutical drug grew last week.

That was after Bloomberg reported the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services was considering covering CBD treatments for certain seniors.

Such coverage would be a potential boon for the $28.3 billion U.S. hemp sector, currently facing an extinction event

The post Is Medicare going to cover CBD? appeared first on GrowCola.com.

It’s been a few months since President Donald Trump promised he’d be “looking at” downgrading marijuana’s status under federal law – and would do so in a few weeks.

But according to a top House Republican lawmaker who spoke at a recent event and a separate report attributed to an anonymous “senior adviser,” marijuana rescheduling could be coming before next fall’s midterm elections – or even sooner than that.

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Over the summer, Trump reportedly told attendees at a $1 million-per-plate fundraiser at his New Jersey golf club that he was considering moving forward with the Biden-era proposal to reclassify cannabis as a Schedule 3 substance.

Marijuana rescheduling would gift plant-touching cannabis companies tax relief, as Internal Revenue Code Section 280E would no longer

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With hundreds of sessions that overlap and with limited time, MJBizCon 2025 offers more valuable marijuana industry programming than any one attendee can handle.

Whether you’re walking the show floor in Las Vegas for the first time or returning for your tenth year, choosing the right sessions can make a significant difference in the actionable insights you bring back to your team to get ready for 2026.

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And attendees run the gamut, from operators to investors and ancillary businesses.  

So here are the three most relevant sessions for five types of attendees:

Cannabis cultivators Investors  Retail-side employees, like budtenders Industry newcomers unsure where to start Seasoned cannabis executives. For cannabis cultivators

The post What MJBizCon 2025 sessions should you attend? appeared first on GrowCola.com.

The Michigan Court of Claims heard arguments Tuesday over the constitutionality of a new 24% wholesale tax on cannabis products, a measure that has sparked significant backlash from the state’s legal marijuana industry.

The tax, set to take effect on Jan. 1, was passed as part of Michigan’s fiscal 2026 budget to raise $420 million to fund road repairs and infrastructure projects.

However, critics say the tax, timed with an oversupply of cannabis and a saturated retail market, could send the second-biggest legal market in the U.S. into a tailspin.

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Judge Sima Patel, who presided over the hearing, said she expects to issue a decision soon.

The case is expected to progress to the Michigan Supreme Court, regardless of the outcome.

Cannabis tax

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Will the U.S. Supreme Court do what Congress and the White House have not and deliver the $32 billion U.S. cannabis industry from outdated federal marijuana laws?

An answer is inching closer after the highest court on Monday scheduled a meeting for next month to determine whether it will hear a constitutional challenge to federal cannabis prohibition.

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If the court hears the case – and if the justices rule in the industry’s favor – cannabis operators could enjoy profound benefits, well beyond what’s promised if President Donald Trump makes good on his promise to consider marijuana rescheduling.

“Part of the reason why we brought the case in the first place was, people in this industry have been told for the better part of

The post Will the Supreme Court end federal marijuana prohibition? An answer is coming appeared first on GrowCola.com.

The marijuana multistate operator-funded effort to legalize adult-use cannabis in Florida suffered a major blow on Friday when a state judge ruled more than 200,000 signatures invalid.

The decision jeopardizes Smart & Safe Florida’s effort to put legalization back on the ballot and is a big win for the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis, a longtime opponent of legal cannabis that moved to disqualify the signatures.

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According to the Tallahassee Democrat, the ruling by Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper erases roughly one-third of the 675,307 signatures collected and submitted by the campaign.

A spokesperson for Smart & Safe said the campaign will appeal the ruling.

But if it stands, the campaign now faces a significant challenge to gather the total of 880,000

The post Florida adult-use marijuana legalization campaign suffers major setback appeared first on GrowCola.com.

Massachusetts voters fooled into supporting a controversial ballot initiative that would end the state’s $1.6 billion legal cannabis industry have options.

Anyone lured to sign “An Act To Restore Sensible Cannabis Policy” through allegedly fraudulent means can contact their local town clerk to have their signature decertified, a state industry advocacy group advised Monday.

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“Clerks do this every season, they know what to look for when it comes to questionable signatures,” said David O’Brien, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Cannabis Business Association.

“If you’re a voter who signed this petition under the impression you were signing for something else, please do not hesitate to contact your local clerk and speak with them.”

Bid to end Massachusetts adult-use cannabis sales mired in controversy

The post Mass. voters tricked by campaign to end legal cannabis sales urged to act appeared first on GrowCola.com.

Along with new efficiencies and growth opportunities, the cannabis industry’s digital transformation is creating a new challenge for operators: cybersecurity.

For instance, retailers’ increasing reliance on integrated digital platforms for key functions like point-of-sale transactions and customer loyalty programs is also making them prime targets for sophisticated hackers.

With vast amounts of customer data at stake, the potential for costly and damaging data breaches has never been higher, underscoring an industry-wide need for proactive security measures, operators and security experts say,

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“Retail in general continues to be a very big target for cybercriminals,” said Ben Taylor, executive director of the Virginia-based Cannabis Information Sharing & Analysis Organization, a non-profit organization that offers resources to support the cannabis industry’s security.

“For cannabis businesses, the

The post How cannabis businesses can go digital while thwarting hackers appeared first on GrowCola.com.

A Missouri cannabis company must pay out $3 million to a former consultant who claims a severe asthmatic reaction to finely ground marijuana particles led to a debilitating heart attack.

The penalty assessed against St. Louis-based Blue Arrow for contributing to Mark Avent’s injury comes as recently published research highlights the risks of cannabis cultivation and manufacturing workers developing asthma – and, in at least two cases, dying.

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Cannabis workers are at heightened risk of developing workplace-related asthma, according to research published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine last month.

Workplace-related asthma has killed two cannabis workers

To date, workplace-related asthma has led to the deaths of at least two workers – one in Massachusetts in 2022 and a second, more recent

The post Cannabis company pays out $3 million for worker asthma as research highlights risk appeared first on GrowCola.com.