D.C. Cannabis Board denies medical retail license over applicant’s history of illegal cannabis sales
The D.C. Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Board has denied a medical cannabis retailer license application for Aloha, finding owner Saleh Salim unfit for licensure. The Board cited three previous enforcement actions involving businesses owned by Salim that were shut down for selling unlicensed, untested, and improperly labeled cannabis products, and concluded he failed to meet the District’s character and fitness requirements for a medical cannabis license.
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- The ABC Board will observe summer recess from August 13 – September 15.
Hanover eyes local cannabis rules ahead of 2027 retail launch
Hanover County supervisors directed staff on Wednesday to draft local cannabis ordinances, aiming for rules by February 2027, ahead of Virginia’s retail marketplace launch on July 1, 2027. While the state’s Cannabis Control Authority will handle licensing, localities retain authority over sales taxes, zoning, and penalties for off-hours sales, and supervisors unanimously backed the plan even as one noted the underlying policy came from the General Assembly rather than the board.
VA hemp businesses seek injunction to block new CBD restrictions
Virginia hemp businesses plan to file a federal injunction to freeze a new, stricter hemp product definition taking effect Aug. 15, which would reclassify many CBD products as marijuana under the recent state budget. Plaintiff Barbara Biddle of District Hemp said the goal isn’t to block the new cannabis market but to give businesses time to adjust before losing their products overnight, ahead of a roughly year-long gap before legal recreational sales begin in July 2027.
Moore taps former cannabis chief as top legislative aide
Gov. Wes Moore has named Will Tilburg, former director of the Maryland Cannabis Administration, as his new chief legislative officer, replacing Jeremy Baker, who is moving to lead the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency. Both take on their new roles Aug. 19, after the upcoming special General Assembly session.
ICYMI: D.C. sales climb and Virginia prepares for adult-use rules
East Coast Roundup
A federal judge signaled she’ll likely lift the injunction blocking Rhode Island from awarding new cannabis retail licenses now that the state has repealed the residency requirement that triggered the lawsuit, potentially unlocking 20 stalled licenses for roughly 100 applicants.
Massachusetts‘ State Ballot Law Commission rejected a challenge to petition signatures, clearing the way for a November ballot question that could make Massachusetts the first state to repeal its adult-use cannabis program while leaving medical cannabis intact.
North Carolina’s top law enforcement and prosecutor groups are pressing the state House to pass a conference-report hemp bill that would cap products at 0.4 mg total THC per container starting in November, effectively banning most hemp products currently on shelves, over hemp industry objections that the threshold is too strict.
Culture & More
Cannabis movement pioneer Steve DeAngelo recounts discovering as a young smuggler that his own cannabis loads were showing up, unaltered, in High Times’ centerfolds within months, tracing his path from 1970s trafficking to building the modern legal cannabis movement.
Jason Vedadi, who sold Harvest Health & Recreation to Trulieve for $2.1 billion, is now running the leaner Story Cannabis across five states, prioritizing profitable niche markets like Georgia and Texas over broad multistate footprint ahead of anticipated federal rescheduling.
Emerging research suggests cannabis, used by roughly 9% of American adults as a sleep aid, suppresses REM sleep and reduces dream recall, raising questions about long-term effects on memory and emotional processing.
Around the Country
Despite never legalizing adult-use cannabis, Texas has built a de facto cannabis market through hemp, a restricted medical program, and inconsistent local enforcement, leaving businesses and consumers navigating three separate and shifting legal regimes.
California’s Unified Cannabis Enforcement Task Force seized over 63,000 pounds of illegal cannabis worth more than $104 million between April and June, with Kern County accounting for the largest share, underscoring the persistence of the illicit market despite legalization and high combined tax rates near 28% in some counties
A federal jury convicted Queens, New York rideshare driver Wenjian Zhuo of possession with intent to distribute after border agents intercepted him carrying 207 pounds of cannabis from a reservation near the Canadian border, a case highlighting how trafficking networks are increasingly exploiting gig-economy drivers as unwitting couriers.
From the Swamp
Entrepreneur Chris Fontes, who pioneered hemp-derived THC products by exploiting the 2018 Farm Bill’s 0.3% THC threshold, is now lobbying to save the $1 billion-plus hemp beverage industry from a new 0.4-mg-per-container federal limit set to take effect November 12 under a push led by Sen. Mitch McConnell and backed by alcohol and cannabis industry groups.
The House passed NDAA amendments extending a Pentagon psychedelics research program (psilocybin, MDMA, ibogaine) through 2033 and codifying parts of Trump’s psychedelics executive order, while Republican leadership blocked a separate proposal to expand cannabis-related enlistment waivers for military recruits.
