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Built by a former cannabis regulator, Policy, Decoded helps operators read the policy terrain before it shifts beneath their feet.
Today’s edition runs from Capitol Hill drafting to state house knife fights, with a quick culture detour at the end. We cover the Farm Bill’s attempt to separate industrial hemp from intoxicants before the November deadline, the retail channel scramble playing out in convenience stores and distribution, and a set of state stories where taxes, ballot rules, and licensing pace decide who survives. Then we close with a Mardi Gras sidebar that shows how consumer rituals keep evolving, even while policymakers argue over definitions.
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🌾 Federal Hemp Reset
🏛️ State Rule Fights
📊 Market Discipline Tests
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Fast-moving headlines, flagged for what matters.
Congress is tired of hemp, and hemp keeps showing up anyway because the law still treats one plant like one product category. Intoxicating cannabinoids, wellness CBD, veterinary products, and industrial fiber all sit on the same statutory foundation, and the broad-brush approach has left honest supply chains guessing at the rules. Chairman Glenn GT Thompson’s draft draws a sharper line by easing parts of the industrial lane while tightening total THC and aligning with a November intoxicant ban. If the Farm Bill stalls, the next likely vehicles are appropriations riders, a stand-alone cannabinoid measure folded into a broader FDA or health package, or a year-end omnibus where clarity gets traded for votes. The clock matters, because once Congress shifts into midterm posture, this becomes politics and stops being governance. (Cannabis Business Times)
NACS is pushing to preserve a regulated hemp-derived THC category in convenience stores as the federal ban clock runs. DrinkDelta and 3CHI are steering retailers toward age-gating, third-party testing discipline, and an advocacy posture that can survive sunlight. The Hill math is unsettled, with paths that range from delay to a replacement framework that keeps product in commerce under tighter rules. C-stores have a credible argument here: they already run high-volume age-restricted sales with compliance infrastructure that many informal channels lack. If Congress shuts the door without building a new lane, demand moves anyway and compliant retailers get blamed for the vacuum. (NACS Daily)
BevNET reports suppliers and distributors pulling back from intoxicating hemp as timelines stay uncertain and contracts get harder to underwrite. New placements now come with an expiration-date problem, because November hangs over resets, inventory turns, and promotional calendars. Some brands keep shipping because demand remains real, but they are narrowing SKUs and tightening terms to limit exposure. This is where compliance becomes commercial, since age-gating and clean lab packages function like a passport to distribution. The brands that treated this category like a land grab are discovering that distributors will not hold the bag for them. (BevNET)
Indiana lawmakers are advancing a bill that would force billboards promoting marijuana dispensaries to come down, including ads tied to long-term contracts signed before last year’s ban. Rep. Jim Pressel is arguing the state can override those deals because Indiana treats the underlying advertising as unlawful, which makes the contracts unenforceable in his view. The bill sets an October 1st deadline and already cleared the House by a little more than two to one. Pressel says Lamar Advertising has indicated it would not sue if the measure becomes law. This is a template play for hostile states: once contract impairment becomes normalized in cannabis-adjacent disputes, marketing and sponsorship become easier targets. (Hometown News Now)
Virginia’s House and Senate advanced competing adult-use sales bills and set up negotiations over two different market designs. The House bill from Del. Paul Krizek starts sales November 1st and keeps oversight with the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority, while the Senate bill from Sen. Lashrecse Aird starts January 1, 2027 and shifts governance into a combined alcohol and cannabis authority. Taxes and timelines decide whether legal operators can pull buyers out of the gray market or simply price themselves out of relevance. Both bills keep serving limits at 10 milligrams THC and 100 milligrams per package and include delivery and labor peace requirements. If the compromise lands late and wobbly, Virginia’s launch becomes a guessing game for every serious investor and operator watching the state. (Marijuana Moment)
Smart & Safe Florida is back at the Florida Supreme Court as signature validation rules become the main weapon in the fight over ballot access. The dispute centers on invalidations tied to circulator eligibility and voter status rules, with the campaign arguing the state has applied the process in a way that blocks timely review. Even if the campaign wins key points, the qualification math remains tight because state tallies and local validations are not matching cleanly. This fight is about process control more than persuasion, and Florida’s courts are shaping who can realistically use direct democracy in the state. Whatever the court blesses here will be copied, because ballot mechanics travel fast across issue areas.. (Major state news outlets)
Yes, the Commission is exploring a cultivation licensing pause, and we already covered the underlying policy question. The added risk is execution, because the last few meetings have featured commissioners publicly chastising and blaming staff, turning internal management into the headline (again). A pause requires disciplined data work, clear criteria, and predictable administration, and the recent performance signals that none of that is settled. Stakeholders can live with a tough call when the process looks steady and fair. They do not trust it when the same officials proposing market intervention cannot keep “accountability” from spilling across the dais. That is how a policy debate turns into litigation and lobbying war within weeks. (WWLP)
A coalition of civil rights, criminal justice, and business groups is urging Gov. Josh Shapiro to convene legislative leaders and put an adult-use legalization path on the rails this session. They are framing it as both equity and economics, with the subtext that neighboring states keep collecting revenue while Pennsylvania keeps collecting arrests and court costs. Shapiro has endorsed legalization and has tied it to budget math, but the legislature remains divided and the Senate has not moved a comprehensive bill. The pressure campaign is an attempt to change the structure of the debate by forcing leadership-level negotiation instead of letting committees slow-walk the issue. The consequence is calendar risk, because if Harrisburg does not create a real process in 2026, legalization becomes a midterm talking point instead of a governable outcome and the border bleed accelerates. (Altoona Mirror)
Rhode Island regulators are still vetting applicants ahead of a retail lottery that could begin as early as May, and commissioners are debating whether licenses should be released in waves. Commissioner Robert Jacquard raised price collapse risk, and Cannabis Administrator Michelle Reddish pointed to Michigan, Oregon, and Massachusetts as cautionary examples of falling prices and operator failures. Newport Cannabis Company’s Kevin Rouleau warned of a race to the bottom, while Rhode Island Growers Association representative Nicholas Lacroix said cultivators are ready for more stores. Attorney Allan Fung argued delays punish applicants who followed the rules, and Mammoth CEO Spencer Blier accused the state of slow-rolling to protect the hybrid medical dispensaries currently selling adult use. Staggering can be smart market management, but it reads like protection when the commission still lacks a permanent chair and incumbents remain the only retail route. (Rhode Island Current)
Connecticut consumers are crossing into Massachusetts for lower prices, and Springfield retailers say they are seeing it. BudHR Cannabis founder Carl Tirella Jr. describes a tax stack that includes sales tax, local tax, and a potency-based excise that can push the effective burden into the mid-20s. Massachusetts stores can cut faster because the competitive density is already high and price compression has been underway for years. Connecticut lawmakers are now looking at swapping the potency structure for a flat 10.75% excise, which signals growing discomfort with how the current design hits lawful conversion. Taxes either track consumer behavior or they subsidize the illicit market, and border states keep the score in real time. (Western Mass News)
Advocates say Nebraska was left out of the 2026 federal appropriations rider that limits DOJ interference with state medical cannabis programs, and they are treating the omission as intentional. Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana Director Crista Eggers and Americans for Safe Access leader Steph Sherer pointed to entrenched opposition among Nebraska officials and flagged Sen. Deb Fischer’s role on the Appropriations Committee. Candidates Dan Osborn and State Sen. John Cavanaugh are using the issue to argue Washington is still trying to undermine a 2024 vote that passed with 71% support. Most medical states operate with this budget backstop, and Nebraska currently does not. Riders sound technical until a family needs care, and then the politics get sharp fast. (Lincoln Journal Star)
Clint Kellum is doing what a new director should do: signal steadiness, talk tools, and point the agency forward. He is also stepping into a role shaped by Nicole Elliott, who built credibility and modernization momentum during a bruising stretch for California’s legal market. Leadership transitions in cannabis regulation tend to reset priorities and enforcement tempo even when nobody intends it. The interview’s emphasis on taxes, enforcement, and the next policy fights in Sacramento is directionally right, but the market will judge continuity in day-to-day administration more than talk. California does not need a new narrative. It needs rules applied the same way every week. (Capitol Weekly)
North Carolina’s State Advisory Council on Cannabis is working toward preliminary recommendations by March 15th and final proposals by year-end under Gov. Josh Stein. The core tension is that traditional cannabis remains broadly illegal while hemp-derived intoxicants remain widely available under a dated legal framework. That mismatch drives enforcement confusion and rewards the least disciplined sellers, since ambiguity functions as a business model. The council earns its keep if it proposes a structure that regulates THC products as they exist in the real world and can be enforced without improvisation. Without that, North Carolina keeps outsourcing consumer safety to the market’s worst actors. (WCNC)
West Virginia has collected about $34 million in medical cannabis revenue and still has not deployed it to the uses state law contemplates. Del. Evan Worrell filed a bill to route the funds through the general fund and then transfer money to the Office of Medical Cannabis, research at Marshall and WVU, the Fight Substance Abuse Fund, and agriculture testing. State Treasurer Larry Pack says a path to resolve federal law concerns is close, while House Finance Chair Vernon Criss has hesitated because prohibition still clouds the legal posture. This is where governance shows: collecting program revenue while leaving public health and research investments dormant breaks the basic bargain sold to legislators and the public. Trust does not survive long when the state asks stakeholders to comply and then fails to do its own part. (Marijuana Moment)
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From the hearing room to the comment section — we’re watching it all.
🎭 Crowds still chase beads and brass bands, but a quieter shift is underway as younger Mardi Gras visitors trade heavy drinking for low-dose THC drinks and a more balanced parade-day rhythm. The market tell is distribution, since hemp-derived THC beverages can ride existing retail channels in parts of the South and normalize fast inside familiar rituals. (The Fresh Toast)
🧠 Heavy lifetime cannabis use correlated with weaker working-memory task activation in a large imaging dataset, which keeps the debate focused on frequency and age rather than moral panic. Public health credibility depends on telling the truth about heavy use without turning it into a referendum on legalization. (Neuroscience News)
🐶 Pet CBD demand keeps expanding into lightly governed categories where testing documentation and dosage clarity do most of the consumer protection work. This is where standards matter, because animals cannot consent and owners will buy what feels reassuring. (Newsweek)
💊 Switzerland’s model treats medical cannabis like medicine with prescribing norms, pharmacy dispensing, and documentation that clinicians can defend. U.S. reform efforts gain legitimacy when cannabinoids sit inside healthcare systems that can measure outcomes and enforce standards. (North Penn Now)
📰 The post-New York Times response cycle is already here, with industry outlets framing taxes and illicit-market economics as the missing context in harm narratives. The fight is over the story that policymakers carry into the next round of regulation. (High Times)