Top Stories (2026) -
(390 items)
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| Mar 24, 2026 |
Mississippi Bills To Expand Medical Marijuana Access Head To Governor’s Desk Mississippi lawmakers have sent a pair of bills to expand medical marijuana access to the governor’s desk. One of the proposals, known as the “Right to Try Medical Cannabis Act,” would create a pathway for patients who don’t have one of the state’s specific delineated qualifying conditions to become eligible for legal marijuana access. |
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| Mar 24, 2026 |
Lawmakers skeptical of ballot question rolling back recreational marijuana law Massachusetts voters legalized recreational cannabis through a 2016 ballot measure. A ballot campaign called the Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts is advancing towards the 2026 ballot a question that would repeal legalization of non-medical marijuana, allow adults 21 or older to possess and gift up to an ounce of marijuana (possession of up to second ounce would carry a civil penalty), make it a civil infraction for people younger than 21 to possess up to two ounces, and allow retail marijuana stores to either apply to become medical dispensaries or sell their inventory to one. The Cannabis Control Commission would remain, but only to regulate the medical sector. |
| Mar 24, 2026 |
No Rise in Problematic Cannabis Use Among Teens Following Adult-Use Legalization State laws legalizing marijuana access for adults are not associated with any increase in the number of hospitalized teens presenting symptoms of cannabis use disorder (CUD), according to data published in the International Journal of Drug Policy. |
| Mar 24, 2026 |
Price pressure and traceability gaps are testing Portugal's medical cannabis market Portugal has built a reputation as one of Europe's more forward-thinking medical cannabis jurisdictions, with a favorable climate, established cultivation expertise, and a regulatory framework that has attracted producers from all over the world. But inside that framework, a series of structural vulnerabilities have been showing since the police raids that happened last May. |
| Mar 23, 2026 |
US Cannabis Companies Could ‘Ring the Bell’ at US Stock Markets Under New Bill State-sanctioned U.S. cannabis businesses could soon list on major stock exchanges in their own country under legislation that a pair of congressmen filed on March 23. The bipartisan Capital Lending and Investment for Marijuana Businesses (CLIMB) Act, sponsored by Reps. Troy A. Carter Sr., D-La., and Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., would also provide a safe harbor to private financial institutions wishing to offer lending services to state-sanctioned cannabis businesses. |
| Mar 23, 2026 |
Medicare Could Cover $500 Per Year in CBD, THC Products Under New Proposal The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has detailed a new plan that could allow participants to have up to $500 per year covered for hemp CBD and THC products. The Substance Access Beneficiary Engagement Incentive (BEI) is an optional program in certain CMS Innovation Center models that allows for consultation with eligible beneficiaries about the possible use of eligible hemp products to improve symptom control. |
| Mar 23, 2026 |
Canadian cannabis sales, licensed space up as extracts and edibles gain market share The latest sales and inventory figures from Health Canada indicate that total cannabis sales in the medical and recreational markets were up 21% in Q3 2025 (July-September) compared with Q3 2024. Dried cannabis continued to account for the largest share of total medical and non-medical sales at 48% (12,901,920 units), although its overall share continues to shrink from 50% in Q2 2025 and 51% in Q3 2024. The second largest cannabis product category after dried cannabis flower was cannabis extracts at 28%, which includes the fast-growing vape pen category. This was up from 25% in the previous quarter and 24% year over year. |
| Mar 23, 2026 |
Could Indiana be getting closer to legalizing cannabis? INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Gov. Mike Braun is reportedly addressing legalizing cannabis in Indiana for medical use. It's a topic he's spoken about before. "Apparently he's giving this issue some thought and consideration and I'm all on board with that," said Republican State Rep. Jim Lucas, reacting Monday to the governor's reported recent comments surrounding legalizing marijuana in Indiana. |
| Mar 23, 2026 |
Virginia Lawmakers Send Marijuana Sales Bill to Governor Virginia is on the verge of establishing a legal marketplace for recreational cannabis, five years after lawmakers permitted possession but stopped short of creating a system for sales. The General Assembly approved legislation that would set up a regulated retail structure, resolving a long-running gap in state policy. |
| Mar 23, 2026 |
Is Wisconsin losing millions to states where cannabis is legal?
Yes Cannabis isn’t legal in Wisconsin, so residents are purchasing it in states where it is, generating tax money for those states. Wisconsin borders three states with legal recreational cannabis: Michigan, which legalized it in 2018; Illinois, which legalized it in 2019; and Minnesota, which legalized it in 2023. |
| Mar 23, 2026 |
De-Risking the Future: What’s Holding Traditional Industry Back from Cannabis Investment? Nearly a decade after the inception of what we would now consider the ‘global cannabis industry’, Prohibition Partners forecasts its total worth to be around $40bn in 2025, already larger than the entire global recorded music industry. Yet despite this scale, cannabis remains one of the most structurally misunderstood growth sectors in the global investment landscape. |
| Mar 23, 2026 |
How US cannabis breeders can protect their IP before legalization Renowned cannabis breeder James Loud plans to spend the next several years developing cultivars specifically designed for pre-rolls and joints. Cannabis with enhanced shelf life better-suited for prepackaged products should be ideal for the market. The trick is ensuring nobody steals his ideas. And until cannabis is federally legal in the United States, operators have to get creative. |
| Mar 23, 2026 |
Request to pull cannabis working group debate A debate on whether Guernsey should explore legalising cannabis may be pulled after the politician leading the proposal said allegations had created a "risk" of undermining discussions. Home Affairs Committee President Marc Leadbeater confirmed he would ask the States to withdraw his requête, which called for a cross?committee working group to examine how a regulated cannabis regime could operate. |
| Mar 21, 2026 |
New Ohio Restrictions On Marijuana And Hemp THC Products Take Effect After Referendum Push Fails The changes made by Republican state lawmakers to Ohio’s voter-passed weed law have now taken effect, including new criminal charges, along with the state’s new intoxicating hemp ban—which includes THC and CBD beverages. Ohio Senate Bill 56 became law Friday after Ohioans for Cannabis Choice failed to get enough signatures to get a referendum on the November ballot for voters to block the law. |
| Mar 21, 2026 |
Five Years In: What New York Cannabis Got Wrong—and What’s Finally Going Right Five years after New York created the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), the state’s legal cannabis industry is still finding its footing. When New York created the OCM, it felt like the state had a chance to rewrite the cannabis playbook and address many of the harms created by the War on Drugs. With lessons learned from markets like Colorado and California, the hope was that New York could build an adult-use system that worked differently. |
| Mar 20, 2026 |
France: A Last Bastion of Cannabis Prohibition Paris, France: While the United States Supreme Court reviews landmark challenges regarding the rights of cannabis consumers and Germany establishes a robust framework for legal adult-use, France has taken a dark, regressive turn. The French approach serves as a significant case study of the consequences of maintaining strict prohibitionist policies amid a shifting global landscape. Despite early signs of reform, recent executive decisions have led to increased friction between the state and millions of cannabis consumers. |
| Mar 20, 2026 |
Idaho Medical Marijuana Initiative Exceeds Statewide Signature Count To Make November Ballot, Campaign Reports An Idaho campaign says it’s collected enough signatures for a medical cannabis legalization initiative to exceed the statewide threshold for ballot qualification. But because it’s unclear how many are valid and whether activists have met a separate requirement for regional distribution of petitions, the Natural Medicine Alliance of Idaho (NMAI) is continuing to hold signature gathering events across the state to widen their coalition of supporters in the run-up to the May 1 submission deadline. |
| Mar 20, 2026 |
End of Cannabis Act funding accounts for significant Health Canada spending and staff reductions Health Canada’s 2026-27 Departmental Plan, released on March 13, 2026, outlines spending and employee reductions, with $87.8 million in reductions in 2026-27, $152.5 million in the following fiscal year and another $198.2 million in cuts in 2027-28. The planned spending reductions are anticipated to involve a decrease of 942 full-time equivalents (FTEs) by 2028-29. |
| Mar 20, 2026 |
Federal Agencies Retain Employee Marijuana Testing Guidelines The U.S. Health and Human Services Department (HHS) announced that federal workplace drug testing programs will continue screening for cannabis metabolites, maintaining the current approach. The announcement comes despite a December 2025 executive order by President Trump which called for cannabis to be reclassified from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act as quickly as federal procedures allow. |
| Mar 20, 2026 |
Beyond the Abstract: What the Landmark Lancet Psychiatry Cannabinoid Review Shows A major new systematic review has concluded that the available evidence rarely justifies the routine prescribing of cannabinoids for mental health conditions and substance use disorders. |