This Week in Cannabis News | April 4, 2025

Welcome to our new Friday program, This Week in Cannabis News, powered by Dutchie.

Each Friday at 10 a. m. Eastern, we'll deliver an overview of this week's cannabis news.

We will be quick, we'll be comprehensive, we'll send you into the weekend as a more informed cannabis professional, and it's all made possible by our friends at Dutchie. You can find and connect with the team there through our link in the show notes.

Let's get to it.

Pennsylvania residents overwhelmingly support cannabis legalization 

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has been beating the drum on legalization, urging state legislatures to put a bill on his desk. (Including on his Twitter account)

And, it appears that Shapiro is very much in line with voters. According to a new poll from Responsible PA, an organization backing legalization — in conjunction with Change Research — 74% of voters support legalization.

And that includes 53% of Republicans, 62% of Independents, and a whopping 85% of Democrats.

But, voters say they prefer a private model rather than state-run stores, as lawmakers have proposed dueling versions of a regulatory framework, one of which would give the state control of cannabis sales — similar to the state’s liquor stores.

Now, Pennsylvania has tried to legalize cannabis before to no avail. Shapiro says legalization could add $1.3 billion to state coffers within the first five years.

Trump White House on Cannabis Rescheduling

Will President Trump’s Administration push federal cannabis reform? 

That’s the question the industry’s been asking, since Trump posted in support of Florida’s failed bid to legalize in November as well as banking reform and moving cannabis to Schedule III. But according to the White House, it’s not on the radar yet. 

“No action is being considered at this time” on cannabis, an unnamed White House official told CNN.

Still, the CNN story did have an interesting tidbit. Trump’s team tried to put pieces of the SAFER Banking Act, a bill that would normalize the industry’s relationship to the financial sector, into the December Continuing Resolution to keep the government funded. 

Of course, that didn’t happen.

Trump’s new Drug Czar

More from the White House: President Trump tapped Sara Carter, a right-wing journalist and Fox News contributor, as the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) on Friday. Carter, according to reporting from Marijuana Moment, has spoken favorably of medical cannabis and said on her podcast last year that she “doesn’t have a problem,” if cannabis is legalized for recreational use. Of course, what you say on a podcast and what happens when you are in office, can be two very different things. 

Organigram buys US hemp-derived THC beverage company

Canadian cannabis firm Organigram is expanding into the US via an acquisition of the Collective Project Limited, a cannabis and hemp beverage company. Organigram will pay $6.2 million CAD up front, with total payouts up to $24 million CAD. It’s the latest big cannabis firm to get into the hemp-derived beverage market, after Tilray, Curaleaf, and others.

New York OCM close to picking new Chief Equity Officer

The New York Office of Cannabis Management is close to naming a new Chief Equity Officer, the position first held by Damian Fagon and unfilled since he left the role last year.

Speaking of people moves in New York Cannabis: Dasheeda Dawson is leaving Cannabis NYC, a city agency designed to support the burgeoning industry, she said on LinkedIn. Dawson was the agency’s founding Executive Director and served in the role since 2022. 

And, if you want even more about New York cannabis, earlier this week we connected wit Nick Guarino of Jaunty and Vince Ning of Nabis to talk about a nagging issue in New York cannabis - the misalignment of revenue producers collect and their excise tax payments to the state of New York. You can catch the full segment on our YouTube channel, but here’s a clip, in case you missed it… 

And, finally, one fun cannabis industry thing this week… 

Now, it was April 1st on Tuesday, and with April 1st comes some funny business and pranks and April Fools jokes… Our joke winner on Tuesday was erstwhile Democratic candidate for president Dean Phillips who said he was joining Elon Musk’s Department of Government Analysis for National Joint Advancement (DOGANJA) to “weed-out corruption,” and develop “green” initiatives. 

That’s it for This Week in Cannabis News powered by Dutchie. 

Check back next Friday at 10 am Eastern right here on Cultivated’s LinkedIn page and YouTube channel.