💸 The Tape

Hemp regulation in America has stopped being a federal question and become fifty state questions — all of which get overwritten in 105 days. If you want to understand where the intoxicating hemp market goes from here, the tape this week runs from Austin to Dover, and the states are not converging.

Texas: the ban lands tomorrow

Start with the largest disruption. Following the Texas Supreme Court's May 1 ruling in favor of the Department of State Health Services, the Court issued its mandate on June 5, dissolving a five-year-old injunction, and DSHS published notice in the July 10 Texas Register reinstating controlled-substances definitions first adopted in 2021 — definitions that take effect July 31, 2026.

Translation: as of tomorrow, more than trace amounts of any THC other than delta-9 is a controlled substance in Texas, with products subject to detention, embargo and referral to law enforcement. That covers delta-8, delta-10, THCP and the rest of the isomer catalog. The distinction regulators drew is between naturally occurring and manufactured cannabinoids — trace isomers in a product testing at or below 0.3% delta-9 remain lawful. Since commercial delta-8 is almost always synthesized rather than harvested, that's a distinction without much of a market.

Two things make Texas worth studying closely. First, the legislature never passed any of this. SB 3, SB 5 and SB 6 all failed, and the field moved to the agencies and the courts instead — a reminder that in hemp, rulemaking and litigation now matter more than floor votes. Second, there are two separate DSHS actions running in parallel, sharing dates and confusing everyone. A distinct March 2026 rule recalculates "total THC" to include THCA, raises licensing fees, and effectively restricts most smokable flower; an appeals court lifted the injunction against it in June.

The commercial damage is not small. The closing loophole had sustained a roughly $500 million annual hemp-cannabinoid market in Texas, and retailers face fines up to $25,000 per violation plus criminal referral. Licensing costs escalated in parallel: annual retailer fees jumped from $150 to $5,000 per location, with manufacturers owing $10,000 a year. That's not regulation trimming the market's edges. That's a structural extinction event for independent Texas hemp retail.

Ohio: the channel-shift model

Ohio ran the same play with a different objective — and it's the version MSOs should be rooting for everywhere.

Senate Bill 56, signed December 19, 2025 and effective March 20, 2026, reclassifies any product containing more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container as marijuana — meaning delta-8 gummies, THCA flower and THC beverages can no longer be sold at gas stations, smoke shops or convenience stores, and are restricted exclusively to licensed dispensaries regulated by the Division of Cannabis Control.

Note the mechanism. Ohio didn't destroy the demand — it relocated it, into a licensed channel with a statutory cap of 400 dispensaries. Every hemp dollar previously spent at a Circle K is now either a dispensary dollar or an illicit one.

Governor DeWine went further than his own legislature. SB 56 originally carved out 5mg THC beverages through the end of 2026; DeWine line-item vetoed it, saying a carve-out would create consumer confusion and conflict with federal law. And the industry's counterattack failed — Ohioans for Cannabis Choice couldn't gather enough signatures to put a referendum on the November ballot, letting the law take effect. Ohio moved roughly three months from signing to enforcement, while the federal government gave states a full year. Compressed timelines are becoming the norm.

Florida: the permissive outlier, still unhedged

Then there's Florida, which has spent three years declining to decide.

The 2024 session passed SB 1698 — which would have banned delta-8, delta-10, THCA, HHC, THCV and THCP — and DeSantis vetoed it on June 7, 2024, citing debilitating regulatory burdens on small businesses. HB 1597 died in committee in May 2025. The 2026 session adjourned March 13 without enacting hemp legislation. The next regular session doesn't begin until January 2027. CannabisregulationsCannabisregulations

The result is that Florida runs the most permissive hemp framework among large states, with no statewide milligram cap per serving or container — the vetoed 5mg/50mg limits never took effect. Enforcement has been aggressive but sideways: FDACS has issued stop-sale orders on more than 631,000 products across 420,000 packages on packaging and child-appeal grounds rather than on the underlying legality of the cannabinoid. Is HHC Legal in Florida? 2026 Status Under FS 581.217 +2

For a state with a large medical program and no adult-use market, that's a meaningful competitive leak — and Florida enters the federal deadline with no state framework to fall back on.

Delaware: regulate and tax

The third playbook showed up this week. Governor Matt Meyer signed HB 373, restricting hemp THC drinks to buyers 21 and up, capping single-serving containers at 10mg delta-9 and multi-serve packages at 60mg, allowing 170mg in 750ml bottles, taxing single servings at 50 cents and large bottles at $8.50, and confining sales to licensed liquor stores or marijuana dispensaries.

But read the fine print — the law contains a sunset clause terminating legal hemp beverage sales if federal restrictions classify those beverages as controlled substances. Delaware built a regime and pre-installed a kill switch.

The cliff

All of it runs into the same wall. Late last year the president signed legislation redefining hemp so that only products with 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container remain legal after November 12. The post-decarboxylation total-THC test replaces the delta-9-only standard, rendering most current hemp delta-9 edibles and beverages non-compliant.Several members of Congress have filed bills to delay or alter the recriminalization, and the Trump administration has called for similar action, but none has gained traction with House or Senate leadership. Delaware Governor Signs Bill To Regulate And Tax Hemp THC Drinks - Marijuana Moment +2

The investment read: Texas shows what happens when you delete the category. Ohio shows what happens when you route it into licensed retail. Florida shows what happens when you do nothing. Only one of those three is good for MSO comps — and after November 12, everyone finds out whether Washington intends to make Ohio's answer the national one.

📈 Dog Walkers

$PCLO.TSX ( ▲ 5.26% ) Fixed Its Costs With A Ways To Go

PharmaCielo Ltd. (TSXV: PCLO) (OTC Pink: PCLOF) closed its fiscal year ended March 31 with the kind of results that read well in percentage terms and remain very small in absolute ones.

Fourth-quarter revenue was $0.7 million, up from $0.5 million. More meaningfully, Q4 gross profit swung to positive $0.3 million from a $0.3 million gross loss — the difference between selling product profitably and not. The quarterly net loss narrowed to $1.3 million from $2.2 million, with the adjusted EBITDA loss improving to $0.6 million.

For the full year, gross profit rose to $0.7 million on lower production costs and operational rightsizing, while the net loss narrowed dramatically to $3.6 million from $11.4 million. Adjusted EBITDA loss improved to $2.5 million from $3.5 million — achieved on a twelve-month period against a fifteen-month comparative and lower revenue, which makes the underlying improvement better than the headline suggests.

The balance sheet work was decisive. PharmaCielo sold the unused La Margarita property for roughly $10.0 million gross, booking a $2.2 million gain, and used the proceeds to fully repay the Banco Agrario loan, make $3.6 million of debenture repayments and reduce other obligations. Management reports the Colombian subsidiaries turned cash-flow positive for the first time — before Canadian corporate and financing costs, a caveat that carries weight.

Because the financing costs are the remaining problem. The company has drawn $2.8 million in bridge loans from management and directors — $2.6 million from Marc Lustig, $0.2 million from Doug Bache. And it now intends, subject to TSXV approval, to settle $777,717 of accrued interest on its 11% secured debentures by issuing 9.7 million shares at $0.08.

Paying interest in stock at eight cents is a solvency solution, not a strategy. The operations are finally working. The capital structure is what's left.

📺 Trade To Black

Cannabis Consolidation Wave Expected Within 18 Months | Trade to Black

• The next 12 months could reshape cannabis finance more than the last decade. Terry points to rescheduling, the SAFE Banking Act, and a wave of financial institutions finally treating the space as investable.

• Losing 280E opens the entire tax code. Operators gain access to deductions they've never had — including potential opportunity zone benefits — and Terry argues companies should simplify corporate structures now to be ready for consolidation or acquisition later.

• Federal legality remakes the ancillary stack. Mainstream payroll providers, point-of-sale systems and payment processors entering the market would change dispensary and brand operations day to day.

• Where the money goes next. Terry shares his read on where consolidation hits first, how loan participation programs could let smaller banks and credit unions compete, and what the Fed holding rates steady means for cannabis lending.