Legislation to expand Texas’ medical cannabis program has been scheduled for a public hearing on April 3.

House Bill 46, the companion to Senate Bill 1505, has been scheduled for a public hearing in the House Disease Prevention & Women’s & Children’s Health Subcommittee on April 3 at 8 a.m. in room E1.014. With nearly identical language to its Senate counterpart, which was recently given approval by the Senate State Affairs Committee, the bill would significantly expand access to low-THC cannabis for patients across Texas.

If passed, the legislation would allow licensed dispensaries to open satellite storage locations, raise the statewide cap on dispensing organization licenses from three to six, and require approved entities to begin dispensing low-THC cannabis within 24 months.

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Santa Cruz County officials have given approval to on-site cannabis consumption at retail outlets, while also approving a 3-year pilot program allowing cannabis consumption and sales at local farms.

In a narrow 3 to 2 vote on Tuesday, the county Board of Supervisors finalized an ordinance allowing the county’s 11 cannabis retailers to offer dedicated spaces for customers to consume marijuana products. Additionally, the board approved the first read of a separate ordinance to launch a three-year pilot program allowing cannabis consumption and sales at local farms.

The farm-specific pilot program, which also passed by a 3 to 2 vote, will allow cannabis farms to sell and permit on-site consumption. This program prohibits use on private roads and bans visiting drivers from consuming cannabis products. Initially, sales at farms were limited to one-eighth of an ounce to prevent competition with traditional retailers, but the board reversed this limit in favor of the state’s one-ounce purchasing cap. To mitigate concerns about excessive buying, the program will require customers to make reservations for on-site consumption.
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A key committee in the Iowa House of Representatives has given approval to a bill that would legalize psilocybin for those with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The House Ways and Means Committee voted 23 to 0 today to pass House File 620, renumbering it as House File 978.

Sponsored by Representative John Wills (R), the measure would establish a regulated framework for the production and supervised administration of psilocybin, the psychoactive compound found in magic mushrooms. The program would be overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services.
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A bipartisan coalition of Maine legislators filed Senate Bill 1314 today, titled “An Act to Protect Cannabis Industry Workers’ Access to Personal Credit.”

The bill, filed by 10 members of the Maine House and Senate, would prevent financial discrimination against individuals employed in the state’s cannabis sector, ensuring that cannabis industry workers are not denied credit solely due to their employment. The proposal has been assigned to the Senate and House Health Coverage, Insurance and Finance Services Committees.

Under the proposed legislation, creditors cannot refuse or cancel credit cards or deny credit applications based on a person’s status as an owner, operator, employee of a cannabis establishment, or as a registered caregiver under Maine’s Medical Use of Cannabis Act. This protection applies unless federal law explicitly prohibits such actions.
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The New Jersey Assembly Labor Committee has voted 5 to 1 to advance Assembly Bill 4182, a measure to expand labor rights for cannabis industry workers.

Sponsored by Assemblymembers Wayne DeAngelo (D) and Reginald Atkins (D) and filed in April 2024, the legislation would grant cannabis employees protections similar to those enjoyed by other private-sector workers under federal and state labor laws.

Currently, certain cannabis employees—particularly those working for licensed cultivators—lack safeguards against unfair labor practices due to their exclusion from the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). AB 4182 closes this gap by empowering the New Jersey State Board of Mediation to oversee labor relations within the cannabis industry. This includes preventing unfair labor practices and ensuring collective bargaining rights.
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Massachusetts’ Inspector General is advising the Cannabis Control Commission to conduct an audit after an investigation found that the agency did not collect nearly $2 million in fees over a two-year period.

In a letter sent today, Inspector General Jeffrey S. Shapiro advised the Executive Director and the Acting Chair of Cannabis Control Commission to conduct an audit to confirm that licensees have paid all applicable fees, after an OIG investigation found that the agency did not collect approximately $550,000 in prorated license fees and up to $1.2 million in potential provisional licensing fees from August 2022 to August 2024.

“I recognize that neither of you held leadership positions at the CCC during that two-year period, but as the CCC’s current leaders you must definitively act on the recommendations in this letter,” IG Shapiro said. “Our investigation did not find any suggestion of fraud, but it did reveal an egregious operational breakdown that underscores the need for statutory reform. We are pleased to learn that the CCC has recently worked to update the agency’s payment systems and has begun to recoup previously uncollected fees. It is still important to perform an audit to ensure that all current licensees have paid all applicable fees and fully understand what revenue went uncollected, as businesses ceased operations.”
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