Good morning.
Happy Monday, everyone. That was fast for Virginia. Less than two months after former Gov. Glenn Youngkin left office, new Gov. Abigail Spanberger has a cannabis bill headed to her desk. Finally some good news.
And in other news, The Ohio State University’s Drug Policy Enforcement and Policy Center puts some evidence against the New York Times Editorial Board’s tax claims.
Let’s get to it.
-JB, JR, ZH
Today’s newsletter is 530 words or about a 4-minute read.
📣 Quotable
“You all need to come together and understand that social equity is a core tenant of our cannabis program, and if you can’t buy into that you’re not going to get the support of our legislature,” New York Assemblyman Landon Dais told Politico, of the industry’s fractured attempts to lobby Albany.
⏩ Quick hits
Virginia lawmakers finalized a deal to legalize recreational cannabis sales, setting a January 1, 2027 launch date and an 11.3 percent combined excise and sales tax rate — after two previous attempts died under former Gov. Glenn Youngkin's veto. The bill now heads to Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who supports it. Read more.
The USPTO denied Snoop Dogg's bid to trademark "Smoke Weed Everyday," ruling that cannabis remains federally illegal and the phrase is too culturally ubiquitous to function as a brand identifier. Read more.
New York's Office of Cannabis Management shut down and padlocked an unlicensed Watertown shop after a 16-year-old was hospitalized following consumption of cannabis flower purchased there. No arrest was made due to lack of information on the victim. More here.
📺 In case you missed it
Catch up on Friday’s This Week in Cannabis Live, in case you missed it. The Cultivated team was joined by AnnaRae Grabstein and Ben Larson from High Spirits, Marc Hauser from Cannabis Musings, and special guest Bryan Fields from The Dime:
🤝 Deals, launches, partnerships
Headset, a cannabis data and analytics platform, and Distru, an ERP and supply chain tool, are integrating to automate ordering by connecting demand insights directly to fulfillment workflows. The companies said the partnership aims to cut out manual restocking decisions for brands and distributors.
🔬 Science & research
A new analysis in Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research argues that rescheduling cannabis to Schedule III would eliminate the 280E tax burden and reduce research barriers but would not legalize cannabis, authorize interstate commerce, or expunge past convictions. The authors call Schedule III a starting point requiring congressional action on banking, equity, and criminal justice. Read more.
A new report from Ohio State's Moritz College of Law found no apparent correlation between cannabis tax rates and usage rates across 14 legal states, pushing back on a recent New York Times editorial board argument that higher taxes would reduce consumption the way tobacco taxes have. Read more.
📰 What we’re reading
Teenagers Have Easy Access to Cannabis. Science Says It’s Bad for Them. | Wall Street Journal
Should the government solve the cannabis industry’s debt crisis? | The Boston Globe