Two Pennsylvania legislative panels held a joint hearing to discuss marijuana legalization on Thursday, with multiple lawmakers asking the state’s top liquor regulator about the prospect of having that agency run cannabis shops. Members of the House Health Committee and Liquor Control Committee heard testimony from a series of experts who also discussed issues such as impaired driving, workplace drug policies and the need for product testing in a legal market. Rep. Dan Frankel (D), chair of the Health Committee, has previously raised the possibility of pursuing legalization through a state-run ..read more

The newly approved annual state budget in New York greatly expands enforcement actions and resources to curb the proliferation of unlicensed marijuana operators. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who a few months ago called the state’s rollout of recreational cannabis retail a “disaster,” announced a series of measures that provides the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) and local municipalities with new authorities against illicit storefronts and enablers, including: Padlocking businesses immediately after an inspection if they are selling illicit cannabis and pose an imminent threat to health an ..read more

Canada’s federal regulator has issued a recall for a batch of recreational cannabis sold in British Columbia, citing microbial contamination discovered by random government testing. The recalled marijuana was grown by Alberta producer Sirona Pharma, also known as Acreage Pharms. ADVERTISEMENT The recall stems from Health Canada’s random cannabis testing program, launched in 2023 to analyze products bought from licensed stores. The recalled lot includes 1,200 28-gram packages of “Purple Gelato Punch” sold under the “Full Sesh” brand and packaged in September 2023. Health Canada’s testing “deter ..read more

Grown Rogue, an Oregon-based craft marijuana cultivator, increased its stake in its Michigan operation, Golden Harvests, from 52.2% to 80% through two transactions. The approximate value of both transactions is $2.8 million, with $200,000 paid in cash and $2.6 million in four-year sellers’ notes, according to a news release. ADVERTISEMENT Canopy Management, which is 87% indirectly owned by Grown Rogue, has a 60% interest in Golden Harvests. Grown Rogue bought the remaining minority interest in Canopy for $800,000 with a 20% cash down payment and monthly payments over the course of four years a ..read more

Federal lawmakers are inching closer to a deal on legislation that could include cannabis banking reform, a leading House Democrat says. “Now is the time” for Congress to finally pass the SAFER Banking Act, Rep. Maxine Waters of California, the leading Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, said Wednesday during an interview with Bloomberg Television. ADVERTISEMENT Negotiations between Waters and North Carolina Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry, the committee chair, will soon yield a compromise on cryptocurrency regulation, Waters said. And there’s support across Congress for tuckin ..read more

A top Democratic congresswoman says that “now is the time” to pass marijuana banking reform, and she’s “hopeful” lawmakers will “overcome” any potential challenge from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as they work to advance the legislation. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, was asked about possible vehicles for the Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act in an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday. The congresswoman said she’s been “working very well together” with Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-NC) over the last t ..read more

Louisiana lawmakers have approved a bill to create a regulatory framework for marijuana legalization, building upon the state’s 2021 decriminalization law. Members of the House Health and Welfare Committee passed the measure from Rep. Edmond Jordan (D), with amendments, in a unanimous 10-0 vote on Wednesday. The proposal wouldn’t legalize cannabis, per se. The plan is to have the broader reform implemented in three parts: passing the regulatory measure this year and then working to advance separate bills to allow adult possession and tax marijuana sales next year. Getting the regulatory measur ..read more

U.S. marijuana retailers reported brisk business on April 20, the biggest day of the year for cannabis sales, despite setbacks from widespread e-commerce platform outages. Retailers, point-of-sale (POS) and e-commerce operators overwhelmingly experienced significant increases in revenue and foot traffic during the high holiday weekend, according to first-hand accounts and industry data. ADVERTISEMENT In most cases, retailers and vendors handled the holiday rush and related festivities in fine fashion. While some marijuana retailers using Dutchie e-commerce systems said software outages slowed ..read more

Schumer on SAFE Banking; Fed ayahuasca settlement; Biden clemency; Top DARE officer on medical marijuana; DE cannabis banking vote; MA sales Subscribe to receive Marijuana Moment’s newsletter in your inbox every weekday morning. It’s the best way to make sure you know which cannabis stories are shaping the day. Your support makes Marijuana Moment possible… Your good deed for the day: donate to an independent publisher like Marijuana Moment and ensure that as many voters as possible have access to the most in-depth cannabis reporting out there. Support our work at https://www.patreon.com/m ..read more

Employees at one of the country’s largest cannabis companies have reportedly fled their union amid a dispute over wages and dues. The outlet MJBizDaily reports that workers at one of Cresco Labs’ cannabis cultivation facilities in Massachusetts “voted to de-unionize earlier this month,” which it said was “believed to be the first instance in the U.S. of a regulated cannabis workplace exiting organized labor.” The move comes after workers at the facility in Fall River, Massachusetts “had joined the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 328 in November 2020,” according to MJBizDaily ..read more