💸 The Tape

As Georgia’s legislative session gets underway beneath the Gold Dome, one of the most persistent—and personal—policy debates is once again back on the agenda: medical marijuana.

For Army veteran Gary Herber, the issue isn’t theoretical. It’s medical.

Herber served with the 10th Mountain Division in Afghanistan in 2009, where an explosion ended what he hoped would be a lifelong military career. The blast left him with a traumatic brain injury, chronic pain, and neurological complications that would follow him home long after his deployment ended.

Like many veterans, his recovery initially relied on prescription narcotics. And like many veterans, that solution came with its own damage.

“In a lot of ways, it ruined my life,” Herber said. “It stripped away my drive, my emotions—my sense of who I was.”

That trajectory changed when his physician suggested Georgia’s medical cannabis program. The difference, he says, was profound.

“I can feel again,” Herber explained. “Emotionally, physically—I can manage the anxiety, the pain, the symptoms that come with brain injuries and neurological disease.”

Physicians like Dr. Elmore Alexander, who treats a large number of veteran patients, say Herber’s experience is far from unique.

“They sleep better. Their outlook improves. Their joy comes back,” Alexander said. “That’s not subtle—that’s life-changing.”

Yet Georgia’s medical cannabis program remains one of the most restrictive in the country. Patients are limited to low-THC oil-based products—tinctures, gummies, beverages—formats that can take significant time to take effect.

For conditions like PTSD or acute anxiety, that delay matters.

“When panic hits, you don’t have 45 minutes to wait,” Herber said. “You need relief now.”

Alexander argues that inhalable options, such as vaporized cannabis, should be available to medical patients precisely because of their rapid onset.

“For veterans with PTSD, immediate relief can prevent escalation,” he said. “Georgia’s current system simply doesn’t account for that reality.”

A Senate bill under review this session would expand the program to include additional THC formats, addressing the very limitations patients and doctors have raised for years. Notably, a similar measure cleared both legislative chambers last year—only to stall at the governor’s desk, unsigned.

Herber hopes lawmakers reconsider.

“This isn’t about getting high,” he said. “It’s about giving people their lives back.”

As Georgia lawmakers revisit medical marijuana once again, the question isn’t whether the program works. By many accounts, it does. The real question is whether the state is ready to let it work fully—for the people who need it most.

📈 Dog Walkers

The Fight For Adult Use In Florida Is Underway

Smart & Safe Florida has entered the 2026 election cycle with a financial advantage that is difficult to ignore.

According to newly filed campaign finance records with the Florida Division of Elections, the committee backing Florida’s next cannabis legalization initiative has raised more than $52 million, positioning it as one of the best-funded ballot campaigns in the state’s history—regardless of issue.

The filings show a steady stream of contributions throughout 2025, with the overwhelming majority of funding coming from Florida’s medical marijuana industry. Towering above all other donors is Trulieve Inc., which reported a series of multimillion-dollar contributions over the year that collectively account for most of Smart & Safe Florida’s war chest. While smaller donations from individuals and political committees appear in the disclosures, the financial reality is clear: Trulieve is underwriting the campaign in a meaningful and deliberate way.

That level of capitalization matters in Florida. The state’s ballot initiative process is among the most expensive and procedurally demanding in the country, requiring hundreds of thousands of verified signatures, extensive legal review, and sustained outreach across multiple major media markets. Advertising alone can consume tens of millions of dollars in the final months of a campaign. Smart & Safe Florida appears intent on ensuring that funding will not be the limiting factor this time around.

The organization is not relying on money alone. In November, the campaign announced it had collected more than one million signatures in support of the initiative—well above the statutory threshold required to qualify for the 2026 ballot. That said, only approximately 675,000 signatures have been formally verified by the state, meaning additional validation work remains. Even so, clearing the raw collection milestone early sends a signal of both organizational competence and broad voter engagement.

Taken together, the numbers suggest a campaign operating from a position of strength. Smart & Safe Florida enters 2026 with deep financial reserves, early signature momentum, and institutional backing from the state’s largest cannabis operator. That combination sharply contrasts with many past ballot efforts that struggled to sustain momentum through verification challenges or late-cycle fundraising gaps.

The stakes are not theoretical. In 2024, the group’s prior effort—Amendment 3—won a majority of the vote but fell short of Florida’s 60% supermajority requirement. The lesson appears to have been absorbed: winning in Florida requires not just popular support, but overwhelming reach, repetition, and turnout discipline.

This time, Smart & Safe Florida seems determined to leave as little to chance as possible.

$GLASF ( ▼ 0.22% ) Collabs With UC Berkeley

Glass House Brands Inc. continues to deepen its collaboration with University of California Berkeley through an ongoing hemp and cannabis research partnership that is now yielding tangible regulatory and scientific outcomes.

Launched in 2024, the partnership was designed to identify priority research gaps across the cannabis and hemp sectors, evaluate university research capacity, and advance the development of medicinal cannabinoids. That early coordination directly informed the scope and methodology of a successful research proposal submitted to the California Department of Cannabis Control, which recently awarded approximately $1.8 million to UC Berkeley for a project titled Cannabis Crop Yields: Survey & Remote Sensing.

The DCC-funded research will focus on estimating cannabis crop yield variability across indoor, outdoor, and mixed-light cultivation systems. By integrating grower survey data, field-level observations, and advanced remote sensing tools, the project aims to develop empirically grounded yield models that can improve production forecasting, inform regulatory oversight, and enhance market transparency in California’s legal cannabis sector.

UC Berkeley researchers will analyze how yields and growth rates vary across a range of propagation and production scenarios, including greenhouse cultivation, supplemental lighting environments, fully indoor facilities, and outdoor field-grown cannabis. The use of AI-enabled analytics and computer vision is expected to play a role in translating raw data into actionable agricultural insights.

For Glass House, the collaboration underscores a strategic focus on data-driven cultivation, operational efficiency, and long-term sustainability.

“Understanding how yields differ based on inputs and growing techniques is foundational to improving efficiency and quality across the regulated market,” said Graham Farrar, President and co-founder of Glass House. “This partnership helps move the industry away from assumptions and toward evidence.”

The research findings are expected to support growers, regulators, and policymakers alike—strengthening the empirical backbone of cannabis agriculture at a time when precision, transparency, and scalability increasingly define competitive advantage.

🗞️ The News

📺 YouTube

Which States Are Most Likely to Legalize Cannabis in 2026? | TDR Cannabis in 5

What we will cover:

✅ Which states are actually positioned to legalize marijuana in 2026 — and which ones just keep showing up in headlines without real momentum?

That’s the question this episode of TDR Cannabis in Five, presented by Flowhub, takes on using new reporting and data highlighted by Marijuana Moment. With federal cannabis rescheduling hanging in the balance, state-level reform is back in focus — and in some cases, it may matter more than ever.

As of early 2026, nearly half of U.S. states already allow adult-use cannabis, and most permit medical access. But reform hasn’t stalled. Instead, it’s shifted into a more targeted phase, where a handful of states show real, measurable movement — through ballot initiatives, legislative action, or political alignment — while others remain stuck.

This episode breaks down the states most likely to see progress next year, including Florida, where a 2026 adult-use ballot initiative is moving through legal review, and Pennsylvania, where lawmakers continue debating legalization as a revenue and regulatory issue. It also looks at states like New Hampshire and Hawaii, where legislative momentum has quietly been building, and Virginia, where adult possession is legal but retail sales still haven’t launched.