For the Culture By The Culture
Reefer Report Card Vol. 29 tracks a week where cannabis demand held steady while governance cracked. Ballot initiatives threatened regulated markets, federal reform stalled behind messaging, and patients absorbed the fallout. Legal weed stayed popular. Oversight became optional. Another week where legalization survived but accountability did not.
Christmas arrives with assumptions that don’t fit everyone. Cannabis culture has always lived outside permission, outside institutions, and outside seasonal narratives. This piece explores why the holidays often expose the gap between performance and survival, and how cannabis culture continues to persist quietly, honestly, and without apology when the noise fades.
Congress inserted language into the shutdown bill that threatens to eliminate a 28 billion market relied on by veterans, older adults, people living with chronic pain, and those avoiding alcohol. The Hemp Beverage Alliance and NORML warned that this crisis is the result of political maneuvering rather than safety concerns. The next 365 days will decide the future of these products.
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 Veterans and patients remain stuck in outdated systems.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.
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.
