For the Culture By The Culture
Governor Josh Stein didn’t legalize weed, he just moved the goalposts. By creating a Cannabis Advisory Council stacked with experts, enforcers, and tribal leaders, North Carolina is skipping the legislature and designing legalization from the top down. This isn’t a bill. It’s a blueprint, and it might be the only way forward in a state stuck in denial.
From Hearst’s racist headlines to DEA funded junk science, cannabis has been framed, smeared, and scapegoated for over a century. This feature exposes how lies became law, how fear fueled policy, and how the truth got buried under headlines. It's not just history, it’s a damn indictment.
Legal cannabis has generated nearly $25 billion in tax revenue, with $4.4 billion collected in 2024 alone. States benefit significantly, funding various community programs. However, equity issues remain, as many who contributed to legalization are still marginalized. The promise of justice is overshadowed by bureaucracy and economic barriers for legacy growers.
New Mexico's cannabis market faces a crisis due to water hauling bans, impacting small operators while corporate farms remain unaffected. Regulatory confusion and inadequate support threaten local growers, leading to closures and potential lawsuits. The situation emphasizes the need for proper infrastructure to support small businesses in the evolving cannabis landscape.
Texas just passed a bill that could jail you for a gummy. House Bill 3948 criminalizes THC above 0.3 percent, targeting vapes, edibles, and Delta-8 under the guise of regulation. While the nation moves forward, Texas slams into reverse, fast and hard.
While California brags about record-setting cannabis seizures, the legal market is bleeding out. This feature rips into the state’s failed enforcement-first strategy, exposing the hypocrisy of Governor Newsom’s war on “illegal” weed while licensed shops go under. Legacy growers are sidelined, consumers get shafted, and culture is burning
