For the Culture By The Culture
Reefer Report Card Vol. 31 examines a week where cannabis reform quietly retreated. Ballot rollbacks gained traction, federal action stalled, and patients remained unprotected. Legal weed stayed popular, but oversight weakened and accountability slipped. Another week where legalization survived while governance failed
Actor David Krumholtz’s experience with Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome sparked a backlash that reveals a deeper problem in cannabis culture. This piece examines how rare conditions get weaponized, why defensive reactions backfire, and how patients, veterans, and families are erased when nuance collapses on both sides of the cannabis debate.
Texas regulators are moving to eliminate smokable cannabis without passing a law. After lawmakers failed to ban THC products, state agencies rewrote testing standards and imposed crushing fees that push legal cannabis out of reach. The result is prohibition by process, driven by selective morality, political pressure, and regulatory maneuvering.
This week’s Reefer Report Card exposes a system under strain as federal hemp policy whiplashes, New York’s cannabis regulator unravels, and Massachusetts stirs panic over THC potency. Patients and workers absorb the fallout while international reform stalls under bureaucratic drag. Cannabis holds steady. Governance does not.
This week’s Reefer Report Card tracks rising tension across cannabis policy as the federal hemp derived THC crackdown threatens a multibillion dollar market, New York’s enforcement chaos drags on, and the Supreme Court prepares to weigh the future of prohibition. Veterans wait for real care, and global reform shows hesitation from Brazil to Germany and Thailand. Pressure is building everywhere.
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.
