January 2025
OFW’s Cannabis Team regularly monitors cannabis news, legislation, regulation, and policy so our clients stay up-to-date on the latest developments impacting their business.
If you have any questions or would like more information about any of the items below, please contact us.
We also track cannabis-related legislation introduced in the U.S. Congress. If you would like to learn more about our Congressional Bill Tracker, please reach out to Ben Dash.
DEA Rescheduling Hearing
• Judge postpones DEA hearing on proposed rescheduling of marijuana
• The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is asking an agency judge to reject a request to have it removed from upcoming marijuana rescheduling hearings over allegations it opposes the reform it is supposed to be defending during the proceedings—while still declining to clarify where it actually stands on the proposal.
• A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) judge is condemning the agency over its “unprecedented and astonishing” defiance of a key directive related to evidence it is seeking to use in upcoming hearings on the Biden administration’s marijuana rescheduling proposal.
Executive Branch/Enforcement
• Cannabis companies say the DEA has closed its mind against a less dangerous pot ranking
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) have added more hemp industry stakeholders to key trade advisory committees to promote the crop globally.
• A top U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) official says it’s “very encouraging” that President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the nation’s top health agency, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., supports psychedelics reform—and he hopes to work with him on the issue if he stays on for the next administration.
• The grandson of Jimmy Carter eulogized the late president, paying tribute to his “prophetic” early advocacy for policies like marijuana decriminalization.
U.S. Congress
• Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-5) tweeted, “Proud to serve as the new Co-Chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus alongside @repdinatitus Looking forward to pushing for meaningful cannabis reform and address the harm caused by decades of criminalization. It’s time to bring our federal cannabis laws into the 21st century.”
• Congresswoman Mary Miller (R-IL-15) has been added as a keynote speaker for the 2025 SAM Good Drug Policy Summit and will receive the Outstanding Legislator of the Year Award for her steadfast commitment to protecting families against Delta-8 THC.
The States
• Alabama: Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission license case appeal postponed to February 11 at 10 a.m.; Lawyers involved in the conflict that has delayed medical marijuana in Alabama are trying to reach an agreement through court-ordered mediation; Resolution to Alabama’s stalled medical marijuana rollout could occur in ‘next few weeks’
• Arizona: Arizona’s recreational marijuana sales hit a yearly low in November, continuing market decline
• Arkansas: DFA signs a temporary contract with Biotrack to track marijuana sales; The Republican governor of Arkansas has announced a new plan to use tax revenue from medical marijuana sales to provide public school students in the state with free breakfast and lunch.
• California: Applications Sought for Cannabis Vape Pen Study
• Colorado: Bipartisan Colorado lawmakers have filed a bill that would allow a form of psilocybin to be prescribed as a medication if the federal government authorizes its use; The state of Colorado reports monthly marijuana sales and tax revenue
• Florida: Republican consultants made $130 million pushing failed pro-marijuana referendum; Gov. Ron DeSantis’ newly announced special session will consider altering Florida’s citizen petition process, prompted by the state’s slew of battles against now-failed amendments legalizing marijuana and most abortions.
• Idaho: Idaho representative introduces bill to implement minimum fines for marijuana possession
• Illinois: A contentious battle between Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson over intoxicating hemp regulation left two competing hemp bills, House Bill 4293 and House Bill 5903, without a vote during the lame-duck session at the Capital earlier this week. But the battle over hemp regulations is not over. Two new hemp regulation bills were introduced for the next legislative session: House Bill 0064 and House Bill 0001.
• Indiana: Indiana lawmakers are already making moves to enact drug policy reform in the 2025 session—with newly filed bills to legalize marijuana, allow medical cannabis, and fund psilocybin research.
• Iowa: State budget and tax cuts could generate an appetite for marijuana revenue, observers say
• Kentucky: Beshear: More than 750 people have applied for medical marijuana cards
• Massachusetts: There’s a new face in Massachusetts’s fluctuating cannabis industry: Travis Ahern, the existing Holliston town administrator, will take on the Cannabis Control Commission’s executive director role in March.
• Michigan: Michigan Cannabis Sales decreased in December
• Minnesota: Governor Tim Walz and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan announced that Charlene Briner will step down on Jan. 17 after building the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) from the ground up. OCM General Counsel Eric Taubel will assume the role as interim director; Office of Cannabis Management opens public comment period on draft cannabis rules
• New Hampshire: The majority leader of New Hampshire’s House of Representatives said that the “ship has sailed” on the issue of marijuana legalization and, in his view, it will be another ten years or so before the state has a good chance to join its neighbors in enacting the reform.
• New York: Another psychedelics bill has been pre-filed in New York for the 2025 session—this one calling for the legalization of certain entheogenic substances such as psilocybin and ibogaine for adults 21 and older; A group of cannabis dispensary operators called on Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) to forgive tens of millions of dollars of high-cost loans that they say threaten the viability of their businesses; A group of marijuana dispensary owners sued New York cannabis regulators for allegedly illegally allowing pot shops to open too close together; Judge rules raids of hemp stores by NYC sheriff, state officials were improper
• Ohio: As marijuana legalization took effect in Ohio over the last year, the number of fatal traffic crashes linked to cannabis fell by 30 percent—contrary to warnings from opponents of the policy change who feared it would lead to more deadly car accidents involving stoned drivers.
• Oregon: Oregon Psilocybin Services 2024: Year in Review
• Pennsylvania: The Republican chair of a key Senate committee in Pennsylvania says he’s expecting to take up legislation this year that would make the state the 25th in the U.S. to legalize adult-use marijuana. He also thinks that more of his GOP colleagues could get on board with the reform sooner than have in the past.
• South Dakota: New legislation aims to overturn medical cannabis in SD
• Texas: Texas Agriculture Commissioner says regulation could be an alternative to banning THC; The Dallas, Texas Police Department is instructing officers to stop arresting or citing people for possession of up to four ounces of marijuana, following a voter-approved ballot initiative.
• Vermont: The Vermont Cannabis Control Board will launch a pilot program, effective January 15, 2025, to research how a disposable cannabis vaping device reclamation program could be implemented within the bounds of Vermont’s adult-use cannabis market. The pilot program is available to licensed manufacturers only.
• Virginia: Federal Court Rules Virginia’s Total THC Hemp Regulations Supersede 2018 Farm Bill. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that federal law does not preempt the state’s regulations, including a milligram cap on hemp products; Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) emphasized during his State of the Commonwealth address that he’s not interested in cooperating with lawmakers to legalize marijuana sales in the state, claiming that doing so would hurt children, worsen mental health and increase violent crime; Democrats to try again for a legal marijuana market in Virginia, despite Youngkin veto
• Wisconsin: Wisconsin’s Republican Senate majority leader says it’s possible that the legislature could pass a medical marijuana legalization bill in the 2025 session, though he’s cautioning that his chamber likely will not go along with a prior proposal from Assembly GOP leadership to establish state-run dispensaries.
Cannabis Abroad
• Ireland: Simon Harris and Micheál Martin at odds over cannabis decriminalization. Fianna Fáil’s election manifesto called for the decriminalization of cannabis.
• UK: Glasgow opens UK’s first safer drug consumption facility
• EU: SPD has spoken out in favor of the full legalization of cannabis in its election manifesto; PsychedeliCare Launches First European Citizens’ Initiative Demanding Political Action on Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies
• Philippines: National Unity Party president and Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte is optimistic that the 19th Congress can still approve the medical cannabis bill before the end of its third and final regular session.
Business, Banking, Insurance
• CBD Oracle worked with industry experts to establish 55 objective product quality standards to tackle long-standing issues with the hemp market.
• CBD Life Sciences, Inc. (CBDL) Secures Breakthrough Walmart Marketplace Approval for Mushroom Supplement, Setting the Stage for Unprecedented Growth
• Despite new changes to content moderation, Meta—the owner of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads—appears not to be changing its practices around marijuana, continuing to block search results on the social media platform for terms such as “marijuana” and “cannabis” and instead displaying a notice encouraging users to report “the sale of drugs.”
• Google cofounder Sergey Brin backs a startup studying a hallucinogenic mental-health treatment derived from an African shrub.
• DoorDash Expands Offerings to Include Hemp-Derived Products in Select States
• Tilray Brands Reports Q2 2025 Financial Results
Other Noteworthy Updates
• Marijuana goes national: 7 industry predictions for 2025
• The Year In Weed: 2024 Edition
• Experts confused but delighted by low rates of teen drug use
• A new report compiled by the Marijuana Policy Project demonstrates that legalizing and regulating cannabis for adults has not led to increased cannabis use among youth. In fact, data that was recently released shows decreases in youth cannabis use in 19 of the 21 states with before-and-after data. The full report is available here.
• Legal cannabis may be boosted by alcohol warning from surgeon general: analyst
• With more Americans able to access legalized marijuana, fewer are picking up prescriptions for anti-anxiety medications – new research
• Adolescent cannabis use and psychosis: Study finds shared risk factors and self-medication patterns. Researchers found that adolescents who used cannabis during the study period reported more psychosis spectrum symptoms and greater distress from these symptoms compared to those who never used cannabis.
• Nonprofit Representing Psychedelic Researchers Files Post-Trial Brief Following Historic Hearing that could shape the future of public health, scientific research on psychedelics, and the drug scheduling process as a whole.
• Single-Dose Psilocybin for Depression With Severe Treatment Resistance – An open-label study suggests the efficacy and safety of psilocybin in severe TRD and supports further study of psychedelics in this population, including consideration of PTSD interaction effects.
• Clinical and preclinical evidence of psilocybin as an antidepressant. A narrative review – Psilocybin shows efficacy for the treatment of mood disorders in clinical settings
• Subjects exhibit no significant changes in their driving performance following the use of CBD, according to clinical trial data published in the journal Addiction.
• Under code names that included MKULTRA, BLUEBIRD, and ARTICHOKE, the CIA conducted terrifying experiments using drugs, hypnosis, isolation, sensory deprivation, and other extreme techniques on human subjects, often U.S. citizens, who frequently had no idea what was being done to them or that they were part of a CIA test.
• Study Reveals Potential Use of CBD to Reduce Cravings in Alcohol Use Disorder Patients
• We need solid regulations, not product bans: Expert weighs in on CBD in 2025 – As question marks surround guidance on CBD and other minor cannabinoids, concerns over the future of CBD continue. Experts assert there is a need for clear regulations that go beyond product bans.
If you are interested in exploring commercial opportunities in the cannabis space, we would be happy to assist you with any of your cannabis law questions, comments, or concerns. Please contact Tish Pahl (tpahl@ofwlaw.com), Kyla Kaplan (kkaplan@ofwlaw.com), Denise Calle (dcalle@ofwlaw.com), and Ben Dash (bdash@ofwlaw.com) for assistance.
