Top Stories (2026) -
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| Aug 28, 2026 |
Diversity is not the same as equity in US cannabis industry
(This is a contributed guest column. To be considered as an MJBizDaily guest columnist, please submit your request here.) The first time I understood cannabis enforcement, I was with five friends on the side of a road while police searched our car. Only one of us was white. He had smoked a blunt. An officer said he smelled cannabis, and that was reason enough to detain all six of us and search the vehicle. The officer didn’t know who had smoked or what lives we would go on to lead. In that moment, a smell turned a group of young men into a police matter. new framework ctas (2) My white friend later became an exceptional legal cannabis grower, but prohibition affected him by criminalizing the plant around which he developed expertise. I entered government and worked on cannabis regulation, social equity funding and business development. Both stories belong in the legal cannabis industry. But that encounter taught me that the same law can touch several people without leaving the same scars. That difference is what equity is supposed to measure. Are diversity and equity synonyms? Diversity asks who is present. Inclusion asks who is permitted to participate. Equity asks who was harmed, what was taken from them and whether resources, authority and opportunity are being directed toward repairing that injury. A cannabis company can employ people of different races and genders while ownership, investment and executive control remain concentrated among people with the greatest access to capital. |
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| Aug 28, 2026 |
Colorado Governor Pardons More People For Marijuana Convictions Colorado’s governor has issued additional pardons for past marijuana convictions, adding to the thousands of such acts of cannabis clemency he has granted to date. Gov. Jared Polis (D) on Wednesday pardoned 29 people—several of whom were sentenced for cannabis-related crimes. |
| Aug 28, 2026 |
The Future of Cannabis Tourism Starts on the Farm
Cannabis Wine Tours founder Charles Kimball argues that farmer-hosted experiences can connect visitors with the land while giving small Northern California growers another way to be seen and supported. |
| Aug 28, 2026 |
Poll finds 90% of Aurora investors oppose Curaleaf takeover bid An informal poll by The Marijuana Herald finds 90% of self-identified Aurora Cannabis investors oppose Curaleaf Holdings' current takeover bid, while 64% of self-identified Curaleaf investors support the proposed acquisition. The Marijuana Herald collected the first 50 responses from people identifying as Aurora investors and the first 50 from those identifying as Curaleaf investors, for a total of 100 respondents. Investors who identified as shareholders in both companies were excluded. The poll is not scientific, and The Marijuana Herald did not independently verify respondents' share ownership. |
| Aug 28, 2026 |
Connecting the Dots Between Cannabis Laws and Workplace Absenteeism No one wants to hear their HR teams talk about marijuana or other controlled substances in the workplace, whether for medical use or its recreational benefits, but these topics are worth being transparent about. New research from the University of Georgia shows that changes to cannabis laws can have a direct impact on workplace absenteeism, specifically in terms of medical marijuana usage. According to the paper, states where medical cannabis use has been authorized can find employees taking fewer days of sick leave by about 6.9%. While no direct links have been established between recreational cannabis legalization and health-related workplace absenteeism, employees who rely on the substance for wellness reasons can find much relief, adding a vote in favor of legalization of medical marijuana use. |
| Aug 28, 2026 |
Medical Cannabis Reduces Pain, Insomnia Or Mood Issues In 91% Of Older Adults, Study Finds Medical marijuana helps 91 percent of older adults improve their pain, insomnia and mood or behavioral symptoms, a new study has found. The research involved 124 people over the age of 65 who received medical cannabis from a specialized practice in Colombia and whose symptoms were measured at baseline, 44 of whom had a follow-up visit after three months. Most of the participants had not previously used marijuana, and the most frequent diagnoses they presented with were pain-related and musculoskeletal disorders, cancer and neurodegenerative and non-degenerative neurological disorders—with their top therapeutic objectives being relief of pain, mood/behavioral issues, insomnia and motor symptoms. |
| Aug 27, 2026 |
Market Convenience Outperforms Price in Legal Cannabis Adoption
A new study says variety and convenience seem to drive consumer choices in the legal market, while price is not a significant differentiator. The research, published in the Journal of Cannabis Research, compares provincial retail systems and concludes that legal market adoption was higher in provinces with competitive private retail systems. The article was accepted on August 10, 2026, and provides early access to its findings. While pricing remained relatively consistent across eight provinces, legal market adoption reached 78% in the four provinces with private retail (Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta), compared to 69% in provinces with uniform systems (PEI, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec). |
| Aug 27, 2026 |
Gallup: 17% of Americans Smoke Cannabis; 15% Consume Edibles Seventeen percent of Americans said they smoke cannabis, according to a Gallup poll released Monday. The figure ties the previous record high found by the pollster in 2023. In 2024, the number of Americans polled by Gallup who said they smoked cannabis fell to 13% but rose to 14% in 2025. Another 15% of those polled indicated they consume cannabis edibles, including 17% of women and 12% of men; comparatively, 15% of women and 18% of men said they smoked cannabis. |
| Aug 27, 2026 |
The High-THC Cannabis Debate Misses the Point: Adults Already Understand Potency
There is a strange assumption buried inside much of the modern debate over high-potency cannabis. It assumes adults cannot adjust how much cannabis they consume. A flower testing above 30% THC, a potent hash, a concentrate or another high-cannabinoid product is frequently discussed as though its potency automatically determines how much someone will use. But consumers do not necessarily consume every cannabis product in identical quantities. Someone smoking a powerful concentrate can take a considerably smaller amount than someone smoking flower. Someone using strong flower can take one pull instead of finishing an entire joint. Experienced consumers regularly adjust dosage based on product type, tolerance, desired experience, setting and budget. That basic idea has become central to an increasingly important conversation inside legal cannabis. |
| Aug 27, 2026 |
The Vault Is Still Locked—A Banking Update on Cannabis Rescheduling There’s a scene near the end of every heist movie where the crew finally cracks the vault and it’s empty. Somebody already got there first, or the money was never really in there to begin with. Four months into medical marijuana’s move to Schedule III, that’s starting to feel like the right metaphor for cannabis banking — not because nobody’s trying to open the vault, but because it turns out rescheduling didn’t come with a combination. |
| Aug 27, 2026 |
Strong Weed Is No Reason for Prohibition
Weed has come a long way since Up in Smoke. While there are disagreements about the potency advertised by retailers, there is little dispute that cannabis products have higher THC content than ever before. Concerns about that development were recently heightened by a study challenging the idea that cannabis has low addictive potential. |
| Aug 26, 2026 |
WHO updates its assessment of cannabis risks for the first time in ten years
The World Health Organization (WHO) has presented its first updated review of the consequences of the nonmedical use of cannabis since 2016. Over the past ten years, the situation has changed so significantly that, according to experts, the previous conclusions no longer reflect reality, the UN reported, UNN writes. |
| Aug 26, 2026 |
Common condition that impacts millions of Illinois women can now be treated with medical marijuana
A common hormonal and metabolic disorder that affects more than 170 women worldwide can now be treated in Illinois with medical marijuana. According to a Tuesday announcement from the Illinois Department of Public Health, chronic pain from polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, also known as PMOS, can now be treated by doctors in Illinois with cannabis. Pain associated with sickle cell disease has also been added to the list of "debilitating medical conditions" approved for such treatment, the IDPH said. |
| Aug 26, 2026 |
Canadian Marijuana Producers Expand Their Footprint in Europe Canada-based cannabis producer Tilray Brands recently announced that it was increasing its cultivation footprint in Europe and Canada as demand for medical marijuana continues to rise across regulated markets. According to the company, its yearly production capacity has increased to roughly 275 metric tons, compared with about 210 tons previously. The additional capacity is expected to support expanding sales in overseas markets, particularly across Australia, Europe, and other jurisdictions with established cannabis regulations. |
| Aug 26, 2026 |
Industry Responds After DEA Releases Rescheduling Transcripts
The Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) hearing on President Trump’s marijuana rescheduling proposal wrapped up last month, but this week the DEA published the transcripts from the multi-day affair. The transcripts prompted responses from notable industry stakeholders. |
| Aug 26, 2026 |
Can Cannabis Consumers Convince Government That It’s Time for Industry Reform? When Canada legalized recreational cannabis in 2018, it resolved one of the most contentious issues surrounding the plant. Canadians who believed people should not be criminalized for consuming cannabis had something clear to fight for, and ending prohibition gave them what they wanted. But legalization did not resolve many of the issues facing the industry that emerged in the years that followed. Cannabis businesses continue to push for changes to excise taxes, packaging and promotion restrictions, THC limits, and other regulations. What has largely disappeared is the public constituency demanding change alongside them. |
| Aug 26, 2026 |
DEA Releases Full Marijuana Rescheduling Hearing Transcript As Judge Prepares To Issue His Recommendation The full official transcript of a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) hearing on the Trump administration’s marijuana rescheduling proposal has now been made available to the public. The release of the day-by-day record of the cannabis rescheduling proceedings comes after DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge Derek Julius ordered that dozens of mostly small and technical changes be made to an initial draft. |
| Aug 26, 2026 |
Canada surpasses California as largest cannabis market in the world
California’s leaders love to brag about the state’s legal cannabis market being the largest in the world. Even when the legal market has shown deep problems and dysfunction, leaders could say that at least California was still No. 1. However, that no longer appears to be true. Canada’s federal government released data last week showing that its June sales totaled $517.8 million Canadian dollars, or about $374.5 million in U.S. dollars. That’s more than the $372.4 million that California sold the same month, according to the Department of Cannabis Control, meaning California has lost its superlative status. |
| Aug 25, 2026 |
Europe Has a Cannabis Prohibition Problem
European authorities are blaming North American cannabis legalization for rising illicit cannabis trafficking, but the evidence tells a different story. As regulated markets displace illegal sales in North America, Europe’s continued prohibition may be creating the very conditions that fuel its illicit cannabis trade. |
| Aug 25, 2026 |
Reports Of Increases In Problematic Cannabis Use Don’t Mean We Should Return To Prohibition (Op-Ed) As a physician, I don’t dismiss recent reports of increases in problematic cannabis use. But we should avoid letting them trigger another drug-war moral panic. Cannabis use has increased as more states have legalized it for adults. That should surprise no one. When a widely used substance moves from an illicit market to a legal one, some who previously abstained will try it, some occasional users will use it more often and people will be more willing to admit they use it. Yet these recent patterns don’t tell us what cannabis use will look like going forward. |
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