Policy
What Does Cannabis Rescheduling Mean for Hemp Beverages?
On April 23, 2026, the Department of Justice placed FDA-approved marijuana products and marijuana products subject to qualifying state medical licenses into Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act. But the bigger hurdle- whether recreational marijuana should move from Schedule I to Schedule III- is still being decided. The Drug Enforcement Administration wrapped up its […]
Here Is What to Expect at the Upcoming Cannabis Quality Conference
This year’s Cannabis Quality Conference is being held alongside the long-running Food Safety Consortium, bringing cannabis quality professionals into the same room as food safety experts and creating an overlap between the two industries as they work through many of the same quality, testing, traceability, and safety challenges. That overlap is particularly relevant as cannabis […]
California Court Orders DCC to Overhaul Cannabis Track-and-Trace System
An Orange County Superior Court judge has ordered California’s Department of Cannabis Control to take steps to bring the state’s cannabis track-and-trace system into compliance with California law, concluding that the system does not currently flag irregular transactions for investigation. The August 4, 2026, final judgment in HNHPC Inc. v. Department of Cannabis Control represents the latest […]
Why Dietary Supplements Are the First Pathway for Cannabis Medicine
The cannabis industry has spent years waiting for this moment. As federal rescheduling moves forward, so do the opportunities to develop cannabinoid-based supplements and medicines backed by more rigorous scientific research. For some companies, this isn’t a new direction. It’s the payoff from years of work happening behind the scenes. Alleh Lindquist, CEO and co-founder […]
Pennsylvania Hemp Beverage Regulation: Why HB 2309 and SB 49 Are Two Very Different Bills
Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Senate rejected SB 49, Sen. Dan Laughlin’s Cannabis Control Board bill, on a 27-23 floor vote. Then, within the same session, lawmakers filed a motion to reconsider, and it passed 29-21. The bill lives, for now, in a kind of legislative purgatory. If you follow the hemp beverage space in Pennsylvania and […]
Hemp Beverage Operators Are in Fight Mode
“Everybody who came here today, and not giving up and saying that we’re going to continue to fight for this category, thank you, give yourself a round of applause, please,” were the fighting words of Christopher Lackner, President of the Hemp Beverage Alliance (HBA), as he opened the panel discussions for the Hemp Beverage Expo […]
Why California Cannabis Businesses Remain at Risk After the Schedule III Order
On April 22, 2026, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed an order placing state-licensed medical marijuana into Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act. The cannabis industry declared it a turning point. In certain respects, it is. But turning points are not endpoints. And for California cannabis retailers who operate in the most complex, most […]
Why Workforce Risk is Real and What it Means
Every conversation about cannabis risk follows the same script: Regulatory uncertainty, 280E, capital access, and maybe interstate commerce, depending on the room. None of that is wrong, and operators dealing with those pressures daily don’t need me to tell them they’re real. But after more than a decade working inside this industry, watching companies scale, […]
Engineering Consistency: Inside the Push for GMP-Compliant Cannabis
As cannabis becomes a globally traded medical commodity, cGMP compliance is reshaping how it is grown, handled, and transported. For operators working with imported biomass, controlling contamination and ensuring consistency across supply chains has become a defining challenge. That challenge was a central focus at the International Cannabis Business Conference in Berlin, where a panel […]
Colorado Pushes to Normalize THC Beverages in Bars as Federal Pressure Mounts
As federal policymakers move toward restricting hemp-derived cannabinoid products, a new state-level effort in Colorado is taking the opposite approach by moving to integrate low-dose THC beverages into mainstream hospitality. A coalition led by Colorado-based attorney Brian Vicente, partner at Vicente LLP, has formed the Colorado THC Beverage Coalition and introduced legislation that would allow […]