⚖️ 99 Days of Silence on Schedule III, Ohio Exports Its Hemp Economy, Mississippi Blocks Terminal Patients

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Ninety-nine days ago, President Trump told DOJ to reschedule marijuana as fast as possible. The agency lost its judge, missed a research deadline, and went quiet. That silence sets the tone for the rest of today's edition. Ohio killed its hemp beverage lane and started watching breweries pack up for other states. Minnesota's rescue effort is hostage to a political fight that has nothing to do with hemp. Indiana's governor said the quiet part out loud while his Legislature ran out the clock. And Mississippi vetoed medical cannabis for terminal patients in the same sweep it greenlighted psychedelic research. Nobody is waiting for permission anymore. The people who should be governing are the only ones still standing still.

🔥 DOJ stalls on Schedule III
🍺 Ohio exports its hemp economy
💀 Mississippi vetoes the dying

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) sent a letter Friday to Attorney General Pam Bondi and DEA Administrator Terry Cole demanding a status update on marijuana rescheduling, ninety-nine days after President Trump signed an executive order directing DOJ to complete the Schedule III process "in the most expeditious manner." Cohen pointed to the wreckage at DEA: the administrative law judge overseeing the rescheduling hearing has retired, an appeal stayed proceedings in January 2025, and the agency has no replacement, no hearing date, and no public timeline. The letter is a useful data point, but it probably does not move the needle. Cohen is a Democrat writing to a Republican administration heading into midterms, and this White House has not shown much interest in bending to congressional pressure on anything, let alone cannabis. Rescheduling remains a purely administrative process that will move at the pace the bureaucracy wants it to, which, ninety-nine days in, appears to be slow. The letter does show continued bipartisan support for the idea inside Congress, and every month of delay keeps Section 280E in place for state-licensed operators who were told relief was coming. (Marijuana Moment)

Jushi Holdings refinanced its prior credit facilities with a new $160 million senior secured term loan led by FocusGrowth Asset Management and a broader syndicate. The structure: a $150 million term loan plus a $10 million delayed draw, 12.5 percent annual interest, 4 percent original issue discount, no amortization, three-year maturity. CEO James Cacioppo and major shareholder Denis Arsenault (approximately $21 million in principal) both participated, making this a related-party transaction reviewed by a special committee with Cacioppo abstaining. Jushi called it nondilutive and reported roughly $35 million in cash after paying off the old facilities. The deal tells the story of cannabis capital access in 2026: debt is the new equity, money still exists for operators with real assets and lender relationships, and the terms are built to buy survival runway, not to signal optimism. Jushi reports Q4 2025 results Tuesday. (Cannabis Business Times)

Ohio's March 20th law tightened adult-use possession and consumption rules while banning intoxicating hemp products and THC drinks outright. Gov. Mike DeWine's line-item veto of SB 56 wiped out the temporary beverage carveout that would have preserved low-dose drinks through 2026. The ban took effect, but the consumer demand that built the category did not disappear with it. Northeast Ohio breweries are halting production, Saucy Brew Works has already moved manufacturing out of state, and companies including Urban Artifact and Fifty West are pressing lawmakers to restore a regulated framework. The short-term off-ramp is Senate Bill 86, which would create a licensed beverage lane with taxes, potency limits, and age restrictions. Ohio can ban the product. It cannot ban the appetite for it, and every month of prohibition pushes jobs, revenue, and category-defining influence to other states. (Cleveland.com)

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun told WOWO that "over half of Hoosiers probably smoke it illegally" and that the state will "have to address" cannabis reform, with Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky all permitting some form of legal access on Indiana's borders. But Braun describes himself as "agnostic" on the issue, has framed any future conversation around deferring to law enforcement, and has not pushed a bill, endorsed a timeline, or spent any visible political capital on moving reform forward. Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray says flatly he is not interested. House Speaker Todd Huston calls marijuana "a deterrent to mental health." The 2026 session ended without a vote. A Ball State survey says more than 62 percent of Hoosiers support legalizing for both medical and recreational use. That level of public support with this level of legislative resistance does not suggest a state on the verge of a strategic market. It suggests a governor offering a begrudging conclusion rather than leading a charge. (Marijuana Moment; WOWO)

🗳️ A new Pew analysis puts cannabis acceptance at 76 percent of U.S. adults. The partisan gap persists, with 84 percent of Democrats calling marijuana morally acceptable versus 69 percent of Republicans. Little variation by age or gender. Public opinion is approaching stability. Political institutions keep reflecting the slower half of that equation. (Marijuana Moment)

🛡️ Bloomberg Law reports James River Insurance Co. dropped its coverage lawsuit against a cannabis testing lab over claims tied to a license suspension. Less a win on the merits than a reminder that cannabis-adjacent insurance litigation is becoming a permanent feature, especially where licensing, testing integrity, and enforcement collide. As the market professionalizes, insurers are getting more selective and more willing to fight over the boundaries of regulated-risk coverage. (Bloomberg Law)

Minnesota Democrats promised to buy time before the federal hemp ban takes effect in November, but the delay bill has stalled in committee and a Farm Bill amendment went nowhere over a jurisdictional dispute. Retailers are slowing orders, producers are cutting output, and some operators are pivoting to avoid sitting on unsellable inventory. Sen. Amy Klobuchar is still pushing for a federal delay, but the political overlay complicates everything. The Trump Administration and Minnesota's Democratic delegation are not friends right now, and that friction runs through ICE and Homeland Security, not hemp. With Klobuchar running for governor, Republicans have little incentive to hand her a win on anything. The market consequences are collateral damage from a fight happening on entirely different terrain. (Minnesota Star Tribune)

Germany's Federal Court of Justice ruled that publicly advertising medical cannabis treatments online violates the country's medicinal-product advertising law, targeting telemedicine platforms built around patient acquisition. Meanwhile, a Times investigation found just ten UK doctors wrote more than 800,000 cannabis prescriptions since 2019, more than half the national total, with a recent inquest tying Curaleaf prescriptions to a patient death. The pattern is the same on both sides of the Channel: medical cannabis markets that grow faster than their oversight frameworks produce credibility crises. Europe's maturation is worth watching closely because it is previewing fights the American medical market has not yet fully had. (StratCann; The Times)

🤠 A San Antonio Express-News commentary argues Texas designed a regulatory cull, not a ban. The new DSHS fee structure, $5,000 annual retail licenses and $10,000 manufacturing licenses, functions as a market filter. Pair that with the move to total THC testing, which industry challengers say exceeds the 2019 hemp law's authority, and the result is a system that may replace legislative prohibition with regulatory elimination of smaller operators. The next fight belongs in court and the Legislature. (San Antonio Express-News)

⚖️ An attorney for a Tampa hemp shop owner says a lawsuit is coming against Tampa Police and the State Attorney's Office following a raid tied to alleged illegal cannabis sales. The defense will argue the products were lawful hemp, setting up a fight over how officers distinguish hemp from marijuana in the field. These cases sit at the fault line of statutory definitions, testing limitations, and prosecutorial discretion. They rarely stay local. (WFLA)

🎸 Bob Marley's heirs sued Tilray Brands Friday in Delaware Chancery Court over nearly $13 million in allegedly unpaid licensing fees tied to Marley's name, image, and likeness for cannabis products. Bloomberg Law reports the family terminated the deal in 2023 and says more than $11 million remains owed. The Marley name is not a typical celebrity endorsement. It carries cultural weight that connects a brand to a movement, which makes the alleged nonpayment a governance story as much as a royalty dispute. Cannabis companies have leaned on licensing deals to buy credibility, but those arrangements only hold when the paper behind them survives stress. (Bloomberg Law)

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Virginia's pending adult-use bill strips out the state's old 25-to-1 CBD ratio pathway and replaces it with a hard cap of no more than two milligrams of total THC per package. That technically maintains a hemp market, but probably not a viable one. For context, CMS recently acknowledged that full-spectrum CBD products may contain up to 3 milligrams of THC. Landing below that threshold for an intoxicating hemp program looks less like consumer protection and more like clearing the field for a new marijuana market. Retail sales under the broader framework are not expected until 2027 if Gov. Abigail Spanberger signs the legislation. Hemp operators argue the transition is designed to narrow the field before they have a realistic on-ramp. Unless Spanberger amends the bill, the state risks solving one cannabis problem by wiping out a lawful low-dose category that already has customers, storefronts, and a political constituency. (Richmond BizSense)

South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden signed Senate Bill 39, excluding delta-8 THC, delta-10 THC, THC-O, HHC, and THCP from the state's legal hemp definition while reinforcing that only licensed producers may cultivate. The law adds transport documentation requirements and takes effect January 1, 2027. The approach here is worth noting because it shows that bans can be strategic and surgical rather than blunt. South Dakota targeted synthetics and chemically derived cannabinoids specifically, leaving traditional hemp intact. The definitions matter, and this is a cleaner model than states that have tried to ban the entire intoxicating-hemp category without distinguishing between naturally occurring and artificially converted products. (The Marijuana Herald)

NJ-CRC Chair Dianna Houenou is stepping down, telling Gov. Mikie Sherrill the agency is ready for "a new leader to take the pen." Houenou has been central to New Jersey cannabis policy from the ACLU-led legalization push through the Murphy administration and the commission's launch. Her exit opens a power lane in Trenton with Senate President Nick Scutari already carrying significant influence around commission politics. New Jersey is past launch mode. Leadership choices now shape whether the next chapter is steadier or more political. (Heady NJ)

Gov. Tate Reeves vetoed two bipartisan bills that would have widened medical marijuana access, including one letting doctors seek eligibility for patients with severe or terminal illnesses outside the current qualifying-condition list. He also rejected a measure lifting the 60 percent THC cap on tinctures and easing caregiver registration. Reeves said the bills would weaken safeguards against adult-use drift. In the same sweep, he signed HB 314 creating an ibogaine clinical trial consortium for opioid use disorder treatment. Rejecting expanded cannabis access for terminal patients while embracing psychedelic research is a striking split-screen. It is also, frankly, heartless. Limiting legal products for the patients with the least time and the fewest options does not protect a medical program. It sends those patients and their caregivers to alternative markets, including illicit ones. Mississippi can frame this as caution. It looks a lot more like indifference. (Marijuana Moment)

The Boston Business Journal editorial board has lined up with the growing call for a cultivation license pause in Massachusetts. NBC Boston and Boston 25 report the Cannabis Control Commission is expected to revisit the idea, with Commissioners indicating any freeze would apply only to new applicants, not operators already in the pipeline. At the same time, the state is distributing more than $25 million in grants to social equity participants to help them through licensing while the regulator contemplates closing the door. Speaking as the former executive director of that agency: the CCC has looked more focused on personal grudges and political posturing than real policy lately, and the Legislature is now putting the finishing touches on reshaping the commission entirely. Whether a license freeze survives that transition depends on who is left standing to implement it. (Boston Business Journal)

🌱 GreenState reports Budist is building annual California Cannabis Harvest Reports modeled on wine vintage guides, with growers sharing weather, cultivar, and regional data across Emerald Triangle and other counties. The project is part market education and part survival strategy for sungrown producers squeezed by large-scale production. Premiumization only works when the market can explain why one harvest or region deserves a premium. California's craft growers are trying to build that language before the commodity end of the market erases the distinction. (GreenState)

🏀 Basketball Network revisits Don Nelson's Maui cannabis story, where Willie Nelson and Woody Harrelson helped make it ordinary enough for him to try. Nelson went on to grow his own strain, "Nellie Kush," and Stephen Jackson recalled that his openness helped build trust in the locker room long before the NBA softened its stance. When a Hall of Fame coach talks about cannabis the way previous generations talked about golf or gardening, the category's place in mainstream American life looks settled. (Basketball Network)