Policy & Regulation

Cannabis consolidation often is explained as the natural result of scale and efficiency. But a new international report asks whether regulation itself gives larger operators an advantage by making fixed compliance costs easier to absorb. An independent operator and a regulatory expert examine where essential safety standards end and one-size-fits-all regulatory burdens begin.

The D.C. Circuit declined to suspend Attorney General Todd Blanche’s limited marijuana rescheduling order while several challenges to its legality proceed. The court also denied two state-licensed operators full intervenor status but allowed them to participate as amici.

Congress has no shortage of ideas for hemp after December 11. Lawmakers are pursuing repeal, delay, FDA regulation, state-led oversight, and a separate system for hemp beverages. The differences could reshape which products remain viable, who regulates them, and what compliance costs operators face.

Congress gave most hemp-derived cannabinoid products another 29 days before sweeping federal restrictions take effect. But the reprieve arrived through another must-pass funding bill, while standalone hemp legislation remains stuck and the Farm Bill stalled over an unrelated SNAP dispute.

Senate Democrats have revived CAOA, a sweeping bill that would deschedule cannabis entirely and address several consequences of federal prohibition. Its previous versions went nowhere.

Federal rescheduling may accelerate two distinct THC economies: a pharmaceutical channel built around federally regulated medicines and a state-licensed consumer market built around retail, experience, and brand. The more immediate business question may be what happens when intoxicating-hemp consumers need somewhere else to shop.

SAFE Banking is back in Congress, but operators should not plan around passage just yet. Here is what the bill covers, why the Senate remains the challenge, and what Schedule III does not solve.

DEA’s June marijuana-rescheduling hearing will feature seven designated private participants, and every one opposes moving cannabis to Schedule III. The federal government will make the affirmative case, while outside participants representing law enforcement, drug testing, anti-legalization advocacy, state governments, impaired-driving victims, and medical professionals challenge it. Here is who they are and what they’re likely to introduce.

Medical cannabis businesses have until June 26 to preserve expedited DEA registration review. Cannabis Business Advisors founder Sara Gullickson explains why the filing should prompt a hard look at license records, ownership disclosures, product flows, SOPs, security controls, and traceability before federal oversight becomes more consequential.

State-licensed medical cannabis operators have days to submit DEA registration applications and preserve expedited review protections under the Blanche rescheduling order. The June 26 business deadline applies across the medical supply chain, including cultivators, manufacturers, distributors, and dispensaries.