🌿 Minnesota’s Supply Squeeze • 🏛️ Ohio’s Hemp Battle • 🎧 Pam Epstein on Hemp’s High Stakes

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Minnesota’s new cannabis market is already running out of product - a story that reveals how even well-intentioned regulation can falter when execution outruns supply. And as Ohio’s hemp fight reaches courtrooms and committee rooms, we also dropped a new episode of The Hybrid, featuring Pamela Epstein of Terpene Belt. Pam’s one of the sharpest legal minds in the business, and she joined us to unpack the high stakes of hemp: what’s working, what’s failing, and where smart regulation should go next. Listen, like, subscribe - and send us your ideas for the topics and guests we should cover next.

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🌿 Minnesota’s Supply Squeeze Tests Market Design
🏛️ Ohio’s Hemp Battle Heads to Court
🎧 Pam Epstein on Hemp’s High Stakes

Stay sharp. Stay informed. Get some rest this weekend!

📌 What Happened: Forty licensed Minnesota dispensaries are operating without product to sell two months after the state began issuing retail licenses, forcing owners like Mark Eide to lay off employees and consider closing his Minneapolis shop that became the city's first licensed microbusiness in August. Only four entities can legally supply recreational cannabis: White Earth Nation and Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe under tribal compacts, plus medical operators RISE and Green Goods who received state permission to convert existing inventory to adult-use sales. White Earth has supplied only one dispensary so far and told MPR News it hopes to add four to five more shops in coming weeks, while Mille Lacs anticipates beginning wholesale by month's end after resolving Metrc seed-to-sale tracking compliance issues that take five to seven days per new retail customer. Independent retailers say they've called tribal suppliers and medical operators repeatedly without response, and RISE confirmed to MPR News it hasn't begun wholesaling yet due to cultivation limits that cap the company at 30,000 square feet of adult-use canopy. Minnesota has licensed 61 cannabis businesses total, but only two are large-scale cultivators and two are testing facilities, with no licensed transporters yet despite 29 pre-approved applicants waiting to enter the market.

💡 Why It Matters: Minnesota tried to avoid New York's oversupply disaster by prioritizing retail licensing, but the approach has temporarily created supply constraints that are squeezing independent dispensaries while medical operators with existing inventory capture the early market. Office of Cannabis Management director Eric Taubel told MPR News the agency deliberately avoided New York's top-down cultivation licensing that created product with nowhere to sell it, choosing instead to license retailers quickly and let businesses decide when to open within an 18-month window. The decision to allow RISE and Green Goods to convert medical inventory for adult-use sales caught microbusiness owners off-guard despite OCM mentioning the change in a July news release, with retailers saying they had no visibility into contract terms that allowed MSOs to enter the recreational market before social equity applicants finished their buildouts. Independent dispensaries report 80% sales drops after nearby medical operators began selling recreational products, and owners like Cassidy Gow in Two Harbors say they're surviving only by continuing to sell nicotine products while waiting for cannabis supply that may not arrive until January or February from cultivators they know personally. The bottleneck will intensify January 1st when hemp products must get tested in Minnesota by the state's two licensed labs, creating competition between cannabis and hemp for limited testing capacity just as outdoor cultivators bring their first harvests to market.

🏛️ Ohio House Speaker Says Judge's Hemp Ban Pause Muddies Waters but Won't Delay Legislative Fix

House Speaker Matt Huffman said Franklin County Judge Carl Aveni's 14-day pause of Governor DeWine's intoxicating hemp ban "muddied the water" by creating uncertainty for retailers but won't change lawmakers' timeline for passing regulations in the next few weeks. Huffman explained the legislative challenge stems from two poorly constructed frameworks: Ohio's voter-passed recreational marijuana law that he called "poorly drafted" because it bypassed committee hearings, and the 2018 federal Farm Bill that unintentionally legalized intoxicating hemp products by removing hemp from DEA controlled substance lists while capping only delta-9 THC at 0.3%. The speaker acknowledged prohibitionists like himself have "largely lost" the debate over whether these products should exist, and lawmakers now face three competing factions arguing over how to regulate hemp versus recreational cannabis. Aveni ruled Tuesday that DeWine created "new definitions" about intoxicating hemp that don't exist in state law, temporarily blocking the governor's emergency order requiring retailers to remove products or face $500 daily fines after DeWine spent over a year asking the legislature to act. DeWine's executive action was always leverage to force legislative movement, but using emergency powers to prod a divided legislature into consensus on cannabis policy rarely works when prohibitionists, hemp defenders, and dispensary operators all want incompatible outcomes. (Cleveland.com)

🏛️ Senators Split on Whether Trump Rescheduling Cannabis Would Help Pass Banking Bill

Bipartisan senators told Marijuana Moment they remain committed to passing cannabis banking legislation but disagree on whether Trump rescheduling marijuana would create momentum for the SAFE Banking Act, with lead GOP sponsor Steve Daines saying he's "not sure absolutely" it would matter because "many senators hold strong opinions" they keep separate from banking issues. Democrat Ron Wyden argued rescheduling would send a "huge message" to colleagues about needing a "modern approach" to marijuana laws, while Alaska Republican Dan Sullivan said he's "not tracking" rescheduling developments and constituents haven't raised the issue. Ohio Republican Bernie Moreno, expected to be the lead SAFER Banking sponsor this Congress, previously said Trump rescheduling would be an "important domino" toward passage but told reporters his office is exploring what can be done in Q4 amid competing priorities. The divergent views reflect the persistent challenge: supporters like Daines who oppose recreational legalization see banking as standalone public safety policy, while reform advocates like Wyden view it as one piece requiring broader signals like rescheduling to overcome Senate resistance. Moreno's suggestion that Democrats are creating competing priorities reveals banking reform remains a "when we get around to it" issue for Republican leadership rather than the urgent public safety matter sponsors claim, and Trump's ambivalence about restating his rescheduling support gives senators political cover to keep delaying action. (Marijuana Moment)

🏚️ Oklahoma Faces Crisis as 6,000 Abandoned Marijuana Grows Leave Toxic Waste With No Clear Cleanup Authority

The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics testified at the state capitol that over 6,000 marijuana grow operations have been abandoned or shut down since 2022, leaving behind illegal chemicals, raw sewage contaminating land and water, faulty electrical wiring creating fire hazards, and acres of trash with no clear jurisdiction over who handles remediation. OBN agents told legislators that "no one ever had that responsibility attached to them" when Oklahoma's medical marijuana program exploded to nearly 10,000 licensed grows serving a state of just 4 million people, creating a regulatory vacuum as operators pack up overnight abandoning hazardous sites across rural counties. Lawmakers are considering legislation for the upcoming session that would hold landowners accountable for cleanup costs, a proposal that shifts environmental liability onto property owners rather than the criminal operators who contaminated their land or the state agencies that licensed operations without requiring cleanup bonds. The testimony reveals what happens when states design medical marijuana programs focused on access and licensing revenue while ignoring exit strategies: you get organized crime syndicates using rural Oklahoma as a disposable supply chain for East Coast markets, then vanishing and leaving contaminated properties that counties lack resources to remediate and agencies claim falls outside their statutory authority to address. Oklahoma now faces the expensive lesson that California learned a decade ago: licensing thousands of grows without environmental oversight, performance bonds, or clear decommissioning requirements doesn't create a sustainable industry, it creates Superfund sites in farm country that taxpayers and landowners get stuck remediating years later. (NewsOn6)

🎯 White House Official Says Cannabis Reform Is Good Politics as Trump Weighs Rescheduling

A White House official told The Free Press that President Trump sees marijuana reform as "good politics" ahead of 2026 midterms, comparing the issue to how same-sex marriage gradually gained bipartisan support. The unnamed senior staffer said even Stephen Miller, the deputy chief of staff who opposes loosening cannabis laws and would oversee any policy change, "recognizes the politics" favor reform after looking at polling data. Sources indicated Trump has been educated on medical benefits by seniors in his orbit who use cannabis for golf performance and sleep, with a decision potentially coming by end of year or even this month. Rep. Pete Sessions warned that "anybody in the administration encouraging the president to do this is making a huge mistake," while other Trump allies dismissed cannabis as gross-smelling or making people lazy. The internal White House debate reveals what operators already know: rescheduling has become a Republican electoral calculation rather than a policy priority, which explains both the persistent delays and why Trump keeps the issue alive without pulling the trigger. (The Free Press via Marijuana Moment)

📦 Minnesota Ending Direct-to-Consumer THC Shipping as Retail License Deadline Approaches in Two Weeks

Minnesota businesses have until the end of October to apply for retail licenses to sell low-potency THC products, after which direct-to-consumer shipping from both in-state and out-of-state operators will end under the state's 2023 cannabis legalization law. The Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management said the shipping ban exists because license holders must verify customer age and ensure consumers aren't visibly intoxicated, requirements impossible to meet through mail delivery. The state created separate wholesale, manufacturing, transportation, and even cannabis event organizing licenses, with strict rules prohibiting transporters from displaying business names on vehicles, requiring manifests of all products, and banning non-employee passengers. Retailers like Unwind THC & CBD told KVRR that many hemp beverage companies relied heavily on direct online sales to consumers, and the new restrictions will significantly disrupt their business models as they work through applications to become full dispensaries. Minnesota's approach treats low-potency hemp edibles and beverages with the same age verification and intoxication screening requirements as high-THC cannabis, effectively killing the direct-to-consumer convenience model that allowed hemp beverage brands to reach rural areas without retail distribution. (KVRR)

⚕️ German Pharma Company Completes Phase 3 Trial for Multi-Compound Cannabis Medicine That Could Launch in Europe by 2026

German pharmaceutical company Vertanical completed a Phase 3 trial in Germany for VER-01, a multi-compound whole-plant cannabis chronic pain medication containing over 100 compounds including THC, CBD, and CBG, after investing $250 million over seven years in development. The company expects German market authorization in 2026 and plans to use the EU mutual recognition procedure to expand across the bloc, while Phase 2 UK trials completed in July and US Phase 3 trials are underway targeting over one billion potential patients. VER-01's success represents a breakthrough for botanical cannabis medicines after Jazz Pharmaceuticals failed to secure FDA approval for Sativex because randomized control trial procedures favor single-compound drugs over multi-compound botanical formulations. The 800-patient German trial showed significant improvements in chronic back pain with mild side effects that tapered off, and founder Clemens Fischer told Forbes he believes VER-01 could become the first non-opiate chronic pain treatment worldwide. Vertanical's potential regulatory success matters beyond Europe because it would establish precedent for whole-plant formulations navigating pharmaceutical approval pathways that have historically rejected them, proving you can satisfy safety and efficacy standards without isolating single cannabinoids. (Cannabis Health News/Business of Cannabis)

⚖️ Australian Think Tank Warns Medical Cannabis Restrictions Will Drive Patients to Illicit Market

The Penington Institute told Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration that restricting medical cannabis access will push patients toward the unregulated criminal market rather than protecting public health, challenging claims by the Australian Medical Association and others that the program causes widespread harm. The drug policy think tank said in its TGA consultation submission that available data, including a 2019-20 spike in cannabis-related hospitalizations cited by regulators, fails to distinguish between prescribed medical use and illicit consumption, making it impossible to establish causation between the medical program and reported harms. Penington proposed a fee-based registration system where sponsors demonstrate product quality and safety without proving efficacy, predicting this would reduce the current product catalog to a smaller number of TGA-approved options while switching pharmacovigilance responsibility from prescribers to manufacturers. The submission noted that "hundreds of thousands of patients" would see care disrupted by new restrictions and many would return to "Australia's affordable and easily accessible criminal cannabis market" where suppliers historically target sick and vulnerable populations without quality assurance. Australia's debate mirrors tensions across medical-only markets where physicians' anecdotal harm reports clash with lack of systematic data proving causation, and regulators face the impossible choice between tightening access to address concerns from medical associations or maintaining pathways that prevent patients from seeking untested illicit market alternatives that created the rationale for medical programs in the first place. (Cannabiz)