The New York Times misses the mark — again 🤦

NYT
The New York Times missed the mark — again 🤦

A New York Times opinion piece by German Lopez argues that drugs and alcohol have never been more affordable in America. He cites vodka that once cost 75% of a day's post-tax wages now costs less than 5% and that cannabis has fallen more than 60% since Oregon legalized it. 

Lopez's proposed fix isn't prohibition but higher taxes and greater “friction” in purchasing. He says that for cannabis, like alcohol, when higher taxes push prices up, demand falls.

While Lopez is making a classic Econ 101 argument about demand elasticity, his argument for cannabis elides the fact that there’s a well-oiled, untaxed supply chain ready to fill the gap. It can undercut the legal market at any moment if there isn’t strict enforcement by offering cheaper, tax-free alternatives. 

Elasticity works differently with cannabis than alcohol or cigarettes because there’s a quick and easy substitute. It’s why it’s so difficult for regulators to stamp out illicit markets, even in states with robust legal sales. 

The question policymakers should define is: What is the end goal of legalization? Is it to reduce use and promote public health, increase tax revenue and job opportunities, or for social and criminal justice? Without those clear questions, it’s hard to target policy effectively. 

Consider Michigan’s 24% wholesale cannabis tax — which took effect January 1 and was supposed to fund road repairs — and has only brought in nearly $34 million through the end of April, less than a third of the $105 million quarterly projection. Monthly recreational sales from January through April also came in below both 2024 and 2025 levels. The Michigan Cannabis Industry Association says the numbers prove what it predicted: higher taxes push consumers to the illicit market.

Higher taxes don't reduce cannabis use. They simply push consumers back to the illicit market. 

Read the full NYT piece here.

-JB

“You need $2 million to open a dispensary,” Longtime social equity and cannabis advocate Amber Senter told High Times, about what she views as the struggles of social equity programs in California and other states. “If you have $50,000, you can make a THC beverage.”

Senter says that due to capital constraints, social equity licenseholders shouldn’t be pushed into developing costly retail stores — there are cheaper and easier ways to get into the cannabis industry. 

Alabama makes its first medical cannabis sale ⏩

Alabama's first state-sanctioned medical cannabis sale happened Wednesday morning at Callie's Apothecary in Montgomery — a tincture and pack of gel cubes, purchased by Amanda Taylor, a multiple sclerosis patient who drove two hours from Cullman. 

WNBA follows the NBA and strikes cannabis from banned substances list 🏀

The WNBA officially removed cannabis from its prohibited substances list under the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, and has laid out rules allowing players to hold passive ownership stakes in cannabis companies and endorse hemp-CBD products. The league did, however, add several psychedelics — including psilocybin and DMT — to the banned list for the first time. The NBA also struck cannabis off its list of banned substances in 2023.

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Trulieve splits medical and recreational businesses in NYSE bid 🪓

Trulieve carved out its recreational cannabis operations into a separate entity — Harvest Enterprises, LLC — while retaining its medical business, with the explicit goal of applying to list on the NYSE, per a filing. The NYSE won't list companies that consolidate financials with recreational cannabis operations, so Trulieve brought in outside investor Whitley Holding for about $14.8 million to take a 10% voting stake in Harvest and make the split real under accounting rules. If federal rules change and the NYSE ever opens the door to recreational operators, Trulieve's non-voting stake in Harvest converts back into common units. The NYSE did not respond to a request for comment. $TCNNF ( ▲ 16.03% )

FDA gives breakthrough approval to cannabis pain drug 💊

The FDA just granted its first-ever Breakthrough Therapy Designation to a cannabis-derived drug — Vertanical's VER-01, a non-opioid treatment for chronic low back pain. It could be the first FDA-approved drug to contain meaningful amounts of THC. The move comes just weeks after the Trump Admin reclassified medical cannabis to Schedule III. The FDA has approved Epidiolex, a seizure drug based on CBD but it only contains trace amounts of THC.

New York State Senate confirms John Kagia as OCM executive director 🏛️

Hochul appointed Kagia acting executive director in February, after ousting his predecessor Felicia Reid in December. The Senate confirmed him to the role permanently this week. Kagia has been at OCM since 2022, previously serving as director of policy. The industry cheered Kagia’s full time hire. 

“At a moment when the market needs steady, credible leadership, John is the right person to steer the ship,” Empire Cannabis Manufacturers Alliance President Mack Hueber said.

Legal cannabis reduces opioid poisonings ✅

State medical and recreational cannabis laws are associated with a 15.47% and 11.92% reduction in non-fatal opioid poisonings per 100,000 insurance enrollees per quarter, according to a new study in Preventive Medicine Reports. The study examined 107 million employer-insured Americans to generate the data set. Remarkable findings that build off past research of a clear substitution effect between medical cannabis and more dangerous opioids. Full study here.

Ontario sold about $2.28 billion (CAD) worth of cannabis last year, per a report from The Ontario Cannabis Store. That breaks down to 441 million grams sold. Check out the full report here.