Stop Smoking Pot
The Anti-Mind Control Substance: Is Cannabis a Threat to the System?
Cathy O’Brien is a controversial figure. A survivor of what she claims was a CIA-connected mind control program called MK-Ultra, her testimony occupies the uncomfortable intersection between documented government abuse of citizens and conspiracy theory territory that most mainstream commentators prefer to dismiss wholesale. I’m not here to adjudicate her specific claims. What I am […]
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 […]
Robinhood Just Made It Easier To Invest In Cannabis – Are You Buying Yet?
For years, investing in the US cannabis industry has been frustrating to say the least. The legal cannabis industry has generated billions of dollars annually in sales, not to mention hundreds of thousands of jobs, and is accepted in most states. Despite the massive growth, everyday investors haven’t been able to benefit from investing in […]
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 […]
How to Make a Medical Cannabis Study Say Whatever You Need It To Say
A study dropped in The Lancet Psychiatry in March 2026 and the headlines wrote themselves. The largest review of medicinal cannabis ever conducted. Fifty-four randomized controlled trials. Forty-five years of data. Conclusion: no evidence that cannabinoids effectively treat anxiety, depression, or PTSD. The three conditions that drive most medicinal cannabis use worldwide. News outlets ran […]
Glass Ceilings and Green Futures: Why Greenhouse Growing Should Be the Cannabis Industry Standard
The cannabis industry has a dirty secret, and it has nothing to do with the plant. It’s the power bill. Right now, the dominant model for cannabis production in the United States is indoor cultivation — sealed warehouses stuffed with high-intensity discharge lights, industrial HVAC systems running around the clock, and CO2 tanks pumping carbon […]
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 […]
Recriminalizing Cannabis Is a Spectacular Idea, If You Enjoy Spectacular Failures
Tyler Cowen published a piece in The Free Press recently asking whether we should recriminalize marijuana. He landed, sensibly, against it. The comment section of his blog filled up with the usual range: suburban homeowners insisting legalization ruined New York City, economists arguing about social norms, at least one guy who seems to think the […]
The Last Prescription: Why the Dying Should Have Access to Any Relief They Choose
There’s a Pennsylvania House bill making its way through the state legislature right now, and the fact that it exists at all should embarrass us. The bill, passed with bipartisan support, would allow terminally ill patients to use medical marijuana for pain management even while hospitalized. That’s the story. That’s the bill. And somewhere in […]
What Makes a Healthcare-Ready Cannabinoid Ingredient?
For much of the cannabinoid supply market, the model has been simple: make the molecule, test the batch, sell the material. If the product meets basic specifications, passes third-party testing, and can be produced at a competitive price, it is considered ready for market. That model has supported much of the consumer cannabinoid industry, where […]