For the Culture By The Culture
Congress just buried hemp inside the 2025 spending bill, redefining the crop to outlaw hemp-derived THC products that built a $28 billion market. Farmers, brands, and workers face erasure without a vote or debate. Pot Culture Magazine exposes how lawmakers quietly re-criminalized hemp and why voices from Cheech & Chong to NORML say this fight is far from over.
Michigan’s new 24 percent wholesale cannabis tax is being sold as a road repair plan but looks more like a cash grab. Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s law faces a constitutional challenge from the Michigan Cannabis Industry Association, while NORML’s Paul Armentano warns that greedy taxation drives consumers back underground and destroys legal markets that voters fought to build. The weed war is back this time in a budget.
California just bragged about hauling in over half a billion dollars in cannabis tax revenue this year. Behind the headlines, growers are bleeding out under crushing taxes, defaults, and broken promises. The state pockets the cash while farms fold and the underground market thrives. Outlaw cannabis journalism tells the story others won’t.
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.
Colorado just lost $20 million in cannabis sales, and it’s not a fluke. From hemp loopholes to collapsing tourism, this feature investigates what’s really behind the budget cuts and how the cracks in Colorado’s cannabis economy could foreshadow a national unraveling. If the “gold standard” of legalization is struggling, what does that mean for everyone else?
The cannabis industry is expected to pump $123.6 billion into the U.S. economy in 2025. That’s not just growth—it’s a cultural reckoning. Built by the same community they tried to erase, this number doesn’t just shut down critics. It buries them.
