Last Week in Cannabis #11
October 12–18, 2026 | Issue #11
Hey friend — welcome back to Last Week in Cannabis. The Massachusetts cannabis vote is two weeks away and the campaign is intensifying, the US rescheduling process hit another procedural turn, and Illinois hit a new sales record worth knowing about. Let’s get into it.
1. UNITED STATES — Massachusetts Is Rallying Hard to Protect Legalization
With November 3rd two weeks away, the campaign against Question 8 — the ballot measure that would repeal Massachusetts’s adult-use cannabis laws — has reached new momentum. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu endorsed the No on 8 campaign on October 14th. More than 50 state legislators — including Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Ronald Mariano — publicly urged voters to reject the repeal. Governor Maura Healey has been actively campaigning against it as well.
The repeal campaign is funded almost entirely by the out-of-state prohibitionist group Smart Approaches to Marijuana and has focused its advertising on impaired driving concerns. Current polling shows approximately 55% opposed to the repeal, with 33% in favour.
Mary Jane’s Take: The political weight behind the No on 8 campaign is striking. The Governor, the Mayor of Boston, the House Speaker, the Senate President, and more than 50 legislators have all gone on record opposing the repeal. That kind of alignment across elected officials from both chambers is not something you see every day on a ballot question. The 55-33 polling gap looks comfortable, but two weeks is enough time for a well-funded advertising campaign to move numbers — particularly on an issue like impaired driving that resonates emotionally. Two more weeks to go.
2. UNITED STATES — The Rescheduling Process Is Still Paused — and Getting More Complicated
The DEA rescheduling hearing remains frozen following the procedural stay we covered two weeks ago. This week, the DEA filed its response to the opponents’ motion to admit a Government Accountability Office report into the hearing record — arguing that the anti-rescheduling parties had mischaracterized what the GAO report actually found, and that the report does not contain any scientific evaluation of cannabis. The DEA objected to reopening the hearing for additional testimony but deferred to the judge’s discretion.
The judge has now ordered all parties to respond by October 21st before he decides whether to reopen testimony. Meanwhile, the DOJ and groups opposing rescheduling jointly agreed on a briefing schedule in the separate federal court litigation challenging the rescheduling order — adding yet another parallel legal track to the process.
Mary Jane’s Take: The DEA’s own response this week was meaningful: the agency argued that opponents mischaracterized the GAO report and objected to reopening the hearing. In other words, the government is still fighting for rescheduling, even while the process is temporarily paused. The rescheduling effort is not derailed — it is in a procedural holding pattern that opponents are using to try to force more delays. October 21st is the next milestone. Whatever the judge decides then will determine whether this moves toward a conclusion or faces another round of testimony.
3. UNITED STATES — Illinois Set a New Monthly Cannabis Sales Record After Doubling Purchase Limits
Illinois set a new monthly cannabis sales record this week, with regulators attributing a significant portion of the growth to the state’s recent decision to double the purchase limits for adult consumers. Illinois is now one of the highest-revenue cannabis markets in the United States, and the record comes as other major markets like California continue to see sales plateau or decline.
Mary Jane’s Take: The Illinois result is an interesting data point on the relationship between regulation and consumer behaviour. Doubling purchase limits reduced the friction for regular consumers who were previously making multiple trips or crossing into neighbouring states. When legal cannabis is convenient and competitively priced, consumers use the legal market. When it is not, they find alternatives. Illinois is demonstrating that regulatory adjustments — not just marketing — drive legal market growth.
4. GLOBAL — A Clinical Trial Found a Cannabis Formulation Reduced Morphine Use by Nearly 50% in Nerve Pain Patients
A clinical trial published this week found that a specific formulation combining THC, CBD, and terpenes reduced morphine use by nearly 50% in patients experiencing acute nerve pain. The findings were published in a peer-reviewed journal and represent one of the stronger clinical demonstrations yet of cannabis as an opioid-sparing treatment.
Mary Jane’s Take: A nearly 50% reduction in morphine use in a clinical trial is a significant finding. Nerve pain is notoriously difficult to treat, and opioids are the default in many settings because other options frequently fall short. A cannabis formulation that meaningfully reduces how much opioid medication patients need adds real clinical weight to the case for cannabis being part of pain management protocols. It also matters for the rescheduling conversation — the government’s own witnesses testified to cannabis’s value for pain. Studies like this one build the evidentiary foundation that makes that case harder to dismiss.
That’s your week — three from the United States, one global. See you next Monday.
— Mary Jane
