Weed Wanted

Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Announcing the nominees for Leafly Strain of the Year 2025

Five strains. Five breeders. Only one winner. Here are our nominees for Leafly Strain of the Year 2025.

The post Announcing the nominees for Leafly Strain of the Year 2025 appeared first on Leafly.

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Monday, January 26, 2026

Federal Cannabis Law and Policy in 2026: Watch the Webinar Replay

U.S. federal cannabis law is at a pivotal moment heading into 2026. In a January 15th webinar, attorneys Jason Adelstone and Vince Sliwoski examined two major federal developments that are poised to reshape the industry: the Executive Order directing the rescheduling of marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act, and new Congressional legislation redefining “hemp,” effective later this year.

Marijuana rescheduling from Schedule I to Schedule III could have far-reaching implications for state-licensed cannabis businesses, including potential relief from IRC Section 280E, expanded research opportunities, and shifts in how regulators and service providers approach the industry. At the same time, rescheduling raises important questions about implementation, agency rulemaking, and state-level responses.

On the hemp side, Congress’s move to redefine “hemp” threatens to eliminate many intoxicating hemp products currently on the market. While the law is significant, uncertainty remains around enforcement, future regulations, and possible legal challenges—making 2026 a critical year for hemp companies to reassess risk and compliance strategies.

The webinar focused on what these changes mean in practice, where uncertainty remains, and how businesses and stakeholders can prepare as federal policy continues to evolve. Jason and Vince answered many audience questions during the hour. Enjoy!

Watch the webinar replay here

Tuesday, January 20, 2026

Make your voice heard and help protect Texans’ right to hemp

This January, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) is considering a proposed ruling that could restrict the rights of Texans to access hemp products that they have come to rely on. Even after a similar ban was vetoed by the governor last year, new proposed regulations would effectively ban smokable hemp products entirely […]

The post Make your voice heard and help protect Texans’ right to hemp appeared first on Leafly.

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Jason Adelstone Joins in CannaGen Sesh 3: Deeply Seeded Webinar

Harris Sliwoski attorney Jason Adelstone will be participating in CannaGen Sesh 3: Deeply Seeded, a webinar hosted by CannaGen on Thursday, January 22, from 11:00–12:00 PM PST. This session will focus on a significant but underappreciated change in federal hemp law that will materially affect cannabis genetics, seed commerce, and cross-border operations. Under recent amendments to the Farm Bill framework, which take effect in November 2026, the federal definition of “hemp” will no longer include viable cannabis seeds derived from plants that exceed 0.3% total THC on a dry-weight basis. As a result, marijuana-capable seeds will once again be treated as federally illegal marijuana.

Thankfully, the amendment maintained a critical loophole: tissue cultures and clones that test below 0.3% delta-9 THC remain outside the revised hemp definition. This distinction creates both compliance opportunities and operational risk, depending on how companies structure their genetics programs. Moving forward companies should proactively assess their genetics portfolios, supply chains, and risk exposure well before the grace period expires.

Breeders, seed producers, nursery owners, and tissue culture operators should all tune in. There’s a ton of misinformation out there. Let’s set the record straight. We’ll discuss in detail how to operate legally under these new laws, and how to plan ahead accordingly.

Participants are encouraged to submit questions in the comments during the live session, and Jason and the panel will address them as the discussion unfolds.

To preview what Jason will be discussing, please check out Jason’s blog post: “Hemp companies have one year to get marijuana genetics into or out of the us but a loophole may still exist“.

The post Jason Adelstone Joins in CannaGen Sesh 3: Deeply Seeded Webinar appeared first on Harris Sliwoski LLP.

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Sunday, January 18, 2026

MLK Day 2026: Cannabis and Civil Rights

It’s MLK Day once again.

I have written an MLK Day post on this blog for nine consecutive years. The theme of all these posts is that cannabis is a civil rights issue, and that Dr. King would have advocated for ending marijuana prohibition based on that fact.

Each year, I have demonstrated with facts (upon facts upon facts) that the War on Drugs continues in insidious ways. In, 2024, which is the most recent year that FBI data is available, law enforcement officials made nearly 190,000 arrests for marijuana possession and distribution, comprising over 22% of all drug-related arrests. Of those arrests, 92% were for marijuana possession. The other 8% of marijuana-related arrests were defined as “sales/manufacturing.”

Those numbers are a slight and welcome downtick from 2023, but they remain shockingly large. Sadly, marijuana-related arrests of black people continue to be disproportionate to population size, at 42% of all recorded arrests. (Black people comprise roughly 14% of the U.S. population.) I doubt this troubling dynamic will change anytime soon.

Heading into MLK Day weekend last year, President Biden announced that he was commuting the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of non-violent drug offenses. The focus was predominantly on individuals “who received lengthy sentences based on discredited distinctions between crack and powder cocaine…”, as opposed to cannabis-related crimes. It wasn’t what he promised, but at least it was something.

Trump hasn’t made a similar effort, saving his pardons for large scale narcotraffickers and those who can afford to pay. Elsewhere, the President gets some credit for picking up the ball on Biden’s stalled marijuana rescheduling effort, but rescheduling is no solution to the plague of marijuana-related arrests nationwide. As we’ve explained many times, moving marijuana to Schedule III will not legalize the plant federally, and it does nothing to change state laws—which is where most arrests are made.

Forgive me if I sound a little grouchy today: in the nine years I’ve been writing this MLK Day post, scant progress has been made on cannabis decriminalization. Instead, we’ve seen states roll out cannabis licensing programs, with business opportunities for those who can marshal resources. That’s all well and good, but so many people are left behind—some literally behind bars, and on account of race.

On MLK Day, it’s important to remember that there is still a lot of work to do at the intersection of race and drug law enforcement. Here is a short list of organizations if you’d like to get involved: