💸 The Tape

Virginia lawmakers just did what many thought might never happen: they agreed on a plan to bring regulated recreational marijuana sales to the commonwealth. After months of back-and-forth, a conference committee hammered out the final version of SB 542 / HB 642, and both chambers signed off. The Senate approved the deal 21-18 on Friday; the House followed Saturday with a 64-32 vote. The bill now sits on Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s desk, where most observers expect a signature within 30 days.

The compromise is classic Richmond pragmatism. Adult-use sales will launch January 1, 2027 — adopting the Senate’s more cautious timeline rather than the House’s November 2026 target. The tax structure leans House: a 6% excise tax plus 5.3% retail sales tax, with localities permitted to tack on up to 3.5%. Regulation stays with the existing Virginia Cannabis Control Authority (CCA), while a study will explore giving the Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority a bigger role down the road.

Revenue splits thoughtfully: 30% to the Cannabis Equity Reinvestment Fund, 40% to early childhood education, 25% to behavioral and developmental health services, and 5% to public health. Adults can buy up to 2.5 ounces (or equivalent) per transaction. Delivery is allowed, serving sizes capped at 10 mg THC per unit (100 mg per package), and existing medical operators can convert for a $10 million fee. Businesses must sign labor peace agreements, and a legislative commission will study on-site consumption and microbusiness event permits.

Sen. Lashrecse Aird (D), the Senate sponsor, called it “a balanced path forward to responsibly regulate Virginia’s cannabis market.” Del. Paul Krizek (D), the House sponsor, said the package “creates a license structure, consumer protections and a tax framework that allows the commonwealth to move from an illicit market to a regulated and safer system.”

Personal possession and home cultivation have been legal since 2021, but without retail access Virginians have operated in a gray zone. This bill finally closes that gap, shifting billions in spending from the illicit market to a taxed, tested, and safer system. The state that helped spark the modern cannabis conversation is now catching up on retail — and doing so with an eye toward equity and public health.

Earlier attempts to add stricter penalties for unlicensed activity were stripped after advocacy pressure, preserving the reformist spirit. The final language largely tracks recommendations from the legislature’s Joint Commission on the transition to a retail market. One new addition: hemp regulation moves from the Department of Agriculture to the CCA, and intoxicating THC products will align with recent federal restrictions.

For consumers, the change means legal, labeled, tested products available at licensed stores instead of corner dealers. For the state budget, it means new revenue streams funding schools, equity programs, and health initiatives. For the industry, it’s the green light to invest, hire, and operate openly after years of patchwork uncertainty.

Spanberger, a longtime reform champion, now holds the pen. Given her support for legalization and the bipartisan votes that carried the bill, approval seems likely. Once signed, Virginia will join the growing list of states with regulated adult-use markets — a milestone that would have seemed improbable just a few years ago under former Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s repeated vetoes.

The road here wasn’t smooth. Earlier Senate versions included tougher penalties for unlicensed sales, underage possession, and interstate transport — amendments that advocacy groups argued undermined the bill’s intent. Those were reversed in Finance and Appropriations after a coalition letter warned they contradicted “the will of the people.” The final compromise kept criminal penalties minimal, focusing instead on regulation and safety.

Key consumer protections made it through: purchase limits, serving-size caps, delivery options, and labor peace agreements. The equity fund and education/health allocations signal a commitment to repairing past harms while investing in the future.

Economically, the shift could be transformative. Virginia’s legal cannabis market is projected to generate hundreds of millions in annual tax revenue once retail opens. Local governments cannot opt out, ensuring statewide access while municipalities retain zoning authority. The $10 million conversion fee for medical operators provides a controlled on-ramp for incumbents.

Critics may argue the January 2027 start date feels too slow, or that the tax structure could still drive some consumers underground. Yet the compromise reflects the reality of Virginia politics: a purple state balancing progressive reform with conservative concerns about public safety and youth access.

The bill’s alignment with the Joint Commission’s December recommendations lends it legitimacy. Those guidelines emphasized consumer safety, equity, and a competitive marketplace — goals the final package largely achieves.

For Virginia’s 8.7 million residents, the change will be tangible. No more driving to Maryland or D.C. for legal purchases. No more relying on unregulated products with unknown potency or contaminants. Instead, Virginians will have access to tested, labeled cannabis sold by licensed businesses that pay taxes and follow rules.

The timing also aligns with broader national momentum. Federal rescheduling discussions continue, and a Supreme Court ruling in related cases could further reshape the landscape. Virginia’s move positions the state to benefit from any federal easing on banking, research, or interstate commerce.

As the governor weighs her options, the message from lawmakers is clear: this is a good compromise that gives everyone something they need. Patients get safer access, the state gets revenue and regulation, and the illicit market loses ground.

In the commonwealth that once led the charge for cannabis decriminalization, retail legalization has finally arrived. The wait has been long, the negotiations messy, but the result is a framework that balances ambition with pragmatism. Virginia’s cannabis story is entering its next chapter — and for the first time, consumers will be able to legally turn the page at a neighborhood dispensary.

Source Marijuana Moment

📈 Dog Walkers

Dude, Where’s My Dementia? Science Clears Older Cannabis Users

The Cannabis Brain Myth Busted: Landmark Studies Show Older Users Face No Increased Dementia Risk or Cognitive Decline — And the Supreme Court May Finally Force the Issue

For decades, the federal government has clung to the idea that cannabis belongs in Schedule I alongside heroin — a substance with “no currently accepted medical use” and a “high potential for abuse.” That classification underpins everything from banking restrictions to the punitive tax code of Section 280E. Yet a growing body of rigorous observational and genetic research is dismantling the last scientific pillar of that argument: the claim that cannabis damages the aging brain.

In a landmark 2026 study published in BMJ Mental Health, researchers at Oxford Population Health and the Department of Psychiatry analyzed two massive cohorts — the UK Biobank and the US Million Veteran Program — and found zero evidence that cannabis use accelerates cognitive decline or raises dementia risk in older adults. Lead author Saba Ishrat put it plainly: “Cannabis users demonstrated significantly better cognitive performance in cross-sectional analyses… Importantly, cannabis use was not associated with increased risk of dementia in either observational or Mendelian randomization analyses.”

The findings held across nearly 19,000 UK Biobank participants who reported ever using cannabis (grouped by low or high frequency) and MVP participants identified through recorded cannabis use disorder. Users outperformed non-users on several cognitive tests at baseline, though the authors were careful to attribute the edge to higher socioeconomic status and education levels among users rather than any protective effect of the plant itself. Genetic analyses reinforced that conclusion: no causal link between cannabis and cognitive harm.

A separate UK Biobank analysis published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs (2025) went further. Among adults aged 40–70, lifetime cannabis use was positively associated with larger regional brain volumes in CB1-receptor-rich areas like the caudate, putamen, hippocampus, and amygdala. Users also showed better performance in learning, processing speed, and short-term memory. Even those who used only in adolescence exhibited larger volumes and superior cognition compared to never-users.

Another UK Biobank study in Age and Ageing (2025) examined adults 60 and older. Lifetime cannabis users (17% of the sample) performed better across every cognitive domain tested: attention, executive function, processing speed, visual memory, and working memory.

An observational cohort of 540 older adults in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society (2025) found recent cannabis users (11% of the sample) performed identically to non-users across five neuropsychological domains. The authors concluded: “Our results are generally consistent with findings from systematic reviews concluding that low frequency cannabis use among older adults is generally well tolerated and is not clearly associated with adverse cognitive outcomes.”

These aren’t cherry-picked outliers. A 2021 twin study in Cognitive Development found no neurocognitive decline among moderate users who began after age 15. A 2019 quasi-experimental co-twin design in Drug and Alcohol Dependence similarly found “little support for a potential causal effect of cannabis use on cognition.”

Even brain-structure meta-analyses reinforce the pattern. A 2022 review in Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research examined 16 studies of young users (ages 12–26) and found no detectable differences in global or regional brain volumes. A 2021 meta-analysis in Frontiers in Psychiatry reached the same conclusion on gray matter. A 2021 diffusion tensor imaging study in Addiction Biology showed long-term near-daily cannabis users had white matter microstructure indistinguishable from controls.

The implications for federal policy are profound. Schedule I status rests on the twin pillars of “no accepted medical use” and high danger. These studies — spanning hundreds of thousands of participants and using gold-standard genetic methods to probe causation — directly undermine the danger claim for older adults, the fastest-growing demographic of cannabis users. If cannabis does not accelerate cognitive decline or dementia risk — and in some analyses appears neutral or even correlated with better baseline performance after controlling for confounders — the scientific justification for Schedule I evaporates.

That matters for Section 280E. The tax code’s ban on ordinary business deductions applies only to Schedule I or II substances. Courts have increasingly questioned whether 280E remains constitutional when the executive branch itself concedes medical use and when states have legalized cannabis for millions. A Supreme Court ruling that cannabis use does not inherently render someone “dangerous” (as hinted in recent Second Amendment arguments) or that the Schedule I classification is now arbitrary could render 280E unenforceable for cannabis operators.

The judicial path is gaining steam precisely because the administrative one has stalled. The DOJ under Attorney General Pam Bondi still controls the final rescheduling rule, but delays persist. Meanwhile, lower courts are demanding individualized assessments rather than blanket prohibitions. The Tenth, Eleventh, Eighth, and Third Circuits have all chipped away at categorical bans. A Supreme Court decision in pending cases could achieve what rulemaking has not: de facto descheduling and 280E relief through constitutional logic rather than agency discretion.

The science is no longer debatable. Oxford’s conclusion is blunt: “Cannabis use was not associated with increased risk of dementia… indicating no supporting evidence of a causal link with cognitive decline in later life.” UK Biobank data show lifetime users often perform better, not worse. Twin and co-twin designs control for genetics and environment and still find no causal harm. Even adolescent-onset moderate use shows no lasting IQ or neurocognitive deficit.

For a plant once demonized as brain-rotting Reefer Madness, the reversal is almost poetic. Older adults — the demographic most worried about cognitive decline — are the very group now shown to tolerate cannabis without measurable harm. The fastest-growing user segment is finding relief, not risk.

The Supreme Court has shown willingness to revisit outdated federal classifications when evidence and state practice diverge sharply. With cannabis legal or decriminalized in most states, backed by thousands of studies, and now exonerated on the dementia question by rigorous observational and genetic data, the Court has ample grounds to act.

Whether through deliberate DOJ rulemaking or judicial necessity, Schedule I’s days appear numbered. The studies are in. The lower courts are moving. And the American public has already voted with its wallets and ballots. The only question left is how long the federal government can ignore the evidence — and how many operators will suffer under 280E in the meantime.

The cannabis brain myth is dead. The Supreme Court may soon deliver the obituary.

🗞️ The News

📺 YouTube

Big Week Across Cannabis Policy Courts And Earnings | TTB Weekly Recap

What we will cover:

✅ On the latest TDR Weekly Recap presented by frepouch.com, host Shadd Dales breaks down the biggest cannabis industry developments from the past week — spanning the courts, state legislatures, corporate earnings, and new scientific research.

One of the most closely watched developments involves growing legal challenges moving through the U.S. court system that could eventually impact the federal Schedule I classification of cannabis and even Section 280E tax treatment for the industry. Recent arguments in U.S. v. Hemani before the U.S. Supreme Court highlighted how evolving federal policy around cannabis may begin to collide with long-standing legal restrictions.

At the state level, Colorado lawmakers advanced Ryan’s Law, legislation that would allow terminally ill medical cannabis patients to use their medicine inside hospitals. Meanwhile, lawmakers in Tennessee reopened the debate around medical marijuana following President Donald Trump’s executive order directing federal cannabis rescheduling.

On the corporate side, several major operators reported earnings this week, including Verano Holdings Corp. (CSE: VRNO) (OTCQX: VRNOF), MariMed Inc. (CSE: MRMD) (OTCQX: MRMD), Village Farms International (NASDAQ: VFF) (TSX: VFF), and SNDL Inc. (NASDAQ: SNDL).