Texas Democrat bets on hemp to take on Dan Patrick

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What happened: Rep. Vikki Goodwin, the Democratic nominee for Texas lieutenant governor, runs a weekly phone bank aimed at hemp voters in her race against Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, she said on Tuesday’s Cultivated Live. 

She's one of three Democrats on the statewide ticket campaigning against the state's hemp crackdown four weeks before Election Day.

The proof:

Zoom in: The lieutenant governor controls which bills reach the Texas Senate floor, and Patrick used that power to push the ban through the Legislature. 

More than 600 people testified against the ban, Goodwin says, and Abbott's veto marked a rare split with Patrick. The health department's rule counts THCA toward a 0.3% total THC limit, clearing most smokable flower and concentrates, and raises some license fees to as much as $10,000. The Texas Supreme Court upheld the agency's authority in a related case in May. 

Senate nominee James Talarico called the ban "a gift to the cartels" in his race against Attorney General Ken Paxton, and GOP strategist Brendan Steinhauser told Cultivated it "could help him at the margins." Agriculture commissioner candidate Clayton Tucker pitches hemp as good for Texas soil.

What's next: Election Day is Nov. 3. Polls are split: a late-August survey had Patrick ahead 47% to 41%, while a Texas A&M poll in late July showed Goodwin up 48% to 46%.

No Democrat has won statewide office in Texas since 1994. Hemp businesses are fighting the ban in court, and Paxton is a primary defendant in that lawsuit. 

The federal hemp ban takes effect Dec. 11 after Congress delayed it one month in a stopgap spending bill, leaving lawmakers one more funding fight to change it.

The final word: "We let the genie out and now we're trying to put it back in the bottle,” Goodwin said. 

Watch the full interview here »

“I’d vote no,” Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said of the ballot measure to repeal cannabis sales in the state. 

“We’ve got to keep recreational marijuana here in Massachusetts. It’s an important industry, the cannabis industry, and I hope the voters keep cannabis.”

As attorney general in 2016, Healey notably opposed the ballot measure to legalize cannabis at the time. Her Republican opponent, Michael Minogue, also said it’s “too late” to repeal cannabis in Massachusetts. 

Florida's Department of Environmental Protection found Trulieve sprayed reverse-osmosis reject water and dehumidifier and HVAC condensate onto the lawn of its Jefferson County grow without a permit, with some of it leaving the property. Under an Oct. 2 consent order, Trulieve must apply for a wastewater permit within 120 days and pay $80,000 or fund a project worth at least $120,000, though it neither admits nor agrees the findings are violations. $TRLV

Kansas City liquor stores are racing to clear intoxicating hemp products before Missouri makes selling most of them a class D felony on Nov. 12, with a $5,000 fine per transaction. THC products make up about 9% of monthly sales at Gomer's, whose manager says suppliers won't take back unsold stock and he won't restock. The federal ban doesn’t kick in until December. 

Georgia's Access to Medical Cannabis Commission unanimously approved a rule on Sept. 30 allowing home delivery of medical cannabis, with the U.S. Postal Service handling it. Once the rule clears a procedural filing with the Secretary of State, the commission's executive director says deliveries could begin as soon as Oct. 28.

The DEA opened Schedule III registration for state-licensed medical cannabis manufacturers, distributors and testing labs on Oct. 5, more than five months after dispensaries got their portal. Applications cost $3,699 a year for manufacturers, which covers cultivation, $1,850 for distributors and $296 for labs, and businesses that already applied don't need to refile.

CURA v ACB
Another day, another chapter in the Curaleaf v Aurora prizefight 

Curaleaf formally filed its updated offer to Aurora shareholders, raising its hostile bid from $4 to $5 per share. 

“No more excuses. The technicalities have been addressed, although no regulator required us to do so,” Curaleaf CEO Boris Jordan said on X. “It’s time $ACB management take its fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders seriously, engage in a conversation, and invite us to conduct due diligence.”

On Monday, before the bid was filed, Aurora again urged shareholders to “take no action.”

“Once filed, our Special Committee will assess the revised terms and their implications for Aurora shareholders,” the company said. 

For more background about the hostile bid, what’s underpinning it, and the back-and-forth between the two companies, read our Monday newsletter.  

$CURLF ( ▲ 2.36% ) $ACB ( ▲ 2.92% )

And more:

Former board member Richard Cohen sued Holistic Industries CEO Joshua Genderson in D.C. Superior Court, claiming he was promised $5 million for helping clear the company's 2024 recapitalization with Island Capital and never got paid. The complaint alleges Genderson stalled for more than a year with fabricated wire confirmations, a bank meeting where no money moved and an altered $5 million check.

A man whose only felony is a 2015 Colorado cannabis cultivation conviction asked the Supreme Court to decide whether people with nonviolent records can challenge the federal ban on felons owning guns, citing a 6-3 split among appeals courts. The petition leans heavily on the Court's unanimous Hemani ruling this year, which found the gun ban for cannabis users unconstitutional as applied to a regular consumer.

Howie Mandel tells Bill Maher why he likes cannabis:

A SCOTUS Petition Argues That Pot Growers, Like Pot Smokers, Cannot Be Categorically Disarmed | Reason