For the Culture By The Culture
Congress buried a hemp ban inside a federal funding deal and triggered a crisis that threatens farmers, retailers, processors, and millions of consumers nationwide. A microscopic THC limit will erase products, crush rural economies, and push people back toward alcohol or the underground. The fight now moves to the Farm Bill, where pressure can force lawmakers to fix what they broke.
This week’s Reefer Report Card tracks mounting pressure across the cannabis world as the federal hemp derived THC crackdown rattles a multibillion dollar market, New York’s enforcement chaos deepens, Germany’s legalization plan stalls, and global reform hits resistance. Veterans and patients remain stuck in outdated systems. A tense week for cannabis policy and international legalization.
The New York Times has finally admitted that legal cannabis is eating into alcohol consumption across the country, after years of fear mongering that painted the plant as a public threat. Anyone inside weed culture saw this shift long before the paper caught on. As people replace booze with a calmer, less punishing option, the old narrative collapses and the Times scrambles to catch up
Canada seized more than two hundred million dollars in cannabis from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, but the deeper story is sovereignty. Indigenous growers say their laws and economic rights were ignored while Canada enforced a system built without them. The raid exposes a legalization model that favors corporations and provinces while sidelining First Nations.
Congress slipped a hemp ban into a shutdown bill and triggered a nationwide fight that threatens farmers, small operators, veterans, and a twenty eight billion dollar market. Hemp Industry Strikes Back exposes the misinformation behind the vote and the yearlong battle now forming in courts, statehouses, and rural communities across the country.
Veterans are still denied access to the cannabis that could help them heal. Despite legalization across most of America, the VA clings to outdated federal law, blocking its doctors from recommending or prescribing marijuana. Lawmakers praise veterans in public while denying them the right to the medicine that works. The hypocrisy is staggering.
