Recreational

North Dakota voters could see a “consumer-friendly, yet highly regulated” recreational cannabis legalization proposal on their November ballots. Only limited business opportunities would be available if the ballot initiative campaign that submitted initial paperwork to the secretary of state on Tuesday is successful, according to the North Dakota Monitor. If the petition is approved for circulation, organizers would need to collect 16,000 valid signatures by July 8 to qualify for the ballot. State voters rejected adult-use legalization in 2022 by a margin… Read more.

Infighting among Ohio Republican lawmakers is threatening the rules promulgation process for the voter-approved adult-use cannabis market and delaying when products will actually be available for purchase in the state. Issue 2, which passed with a 57-43% margin in November, allows adults 21 and older to consume cannabis in all of its main forms, as well as grow up to six plants per individual or 12 per household. However, the delay stems from expected disagreement between the Republican-controlled state Senate and House. The Senate passed… Read more.

New York’s adult-use marijuana industry rode a chaotic roller coaster the past two days, after a state Supreme Court judge on Wednesday struck down nearly all regulations for the market, only to issue a revised, much narrower ruling one day later. Last year, Leafly Holdings sued New York’s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), challenging the state’s ban on third-party advertising for cannabis retailers on free-speech grounds. But in a scathing ruling dated April 3 that began to circulate Thursday, Albany Supreme Court Judge Kevin… Read more.

A new report projects that the global recreational marijuana market will nearly double over the next four years, with legal sales of adult-use cannabis climbing to almost $50 billion per year by 2027. The report, from U.K.-based cannabis data, media and tech company Prohibition Partners, credits global momentum in cannabis reform and the opening of new recreational cannabis markets in Europe over the next three years as the prime drivers of the industry’s worldwide growth. “North America remains the global… Read more.

Organizers of a campaign to legalize recreational cannabis in Ohio said they’ve submitted more than enough signatures from registered voters to qualify for the November ballot. The campaign on Thursday submitted 6,545 to state election officials, campaign spokesperson Tom Haren said in a statement. That total is almost 10 times as many signatures as the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol needed. Earlier this summer, the campaign turned in roughly 223,000 signatures to the Ohio secretary of state’s office, which told the campaign… Read more.

Voters widely approved it last November, and in two months, legal cannabis will become a reality in the state of Maryland. Governor Wes Moore signed the state's framework into law Wednesday, and now Baltimore County is looking to bring its own laws up to speed. Councilman Julian Jones, chair of the Baltimore County Council, introduced that update at the council's meeting this past Monday. The measure would apply county rules for medical dispensaries to recreational ones. "For me, it was just… Read more.