Male cannabis and hemp plants release huge quantities of it in mid-to-late summer, which happens to be a lean season for flowering plants in a lot of agricultural landscapes — what researchers call a "floral dearth." A 2019 Cornell University study published in the journal Environmental Entomology surveyed 11 hemp farms across New York's Finger Lakes region and identified 355 bees representing 16 different species foraging on the flowers
Buried in a 50-page legal brief filed August 17 with a DEA administrative law judge is a sentence that reads almost like a mic drop: "Marijuana can no longer remain in Schedule I." Not "certain formulations of marijuana." Not "FDA-approved marijuana products." Not "state-licensed medical marijuana."
On July 31, 2026, the Texas Department of State Health Services reinstated controlled-substance definitions it first adopted back in 2021, classifying delta-8, delta-10, THCP, and most other non-delta-9 THC compounds as Schedule I controlled substances under state law. Possession can now be charged as a felony. The only hemp-derived cannabinoid product still legal on Texas shelves is delta-9 THC at or below 0.3 percent by dry weight, the same federal hemp threshold that's existed since the 2018 Farm Bill.
Here's a fact that gets lost in the cigarette-versus-weed conversation: nicotine is a genuinely psychoactive stimulant. It binds nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and triggers a dopamine release, and in a naive or recently-abstinent user, it produces a real head rush, a light stimulant buzz, sometimes mild euphoria.
Strip away the political baggage and "synthetic" is a chemistry term. It describes a compound assembled through a manufactured chemical process rather than pulled directly out of a living organism. That's it. Aspirin is synthetic. Insulin used by millions of diabetics is synthetic. Vanillin, the compound behind most vanilla flavoring on earth, is overwhelmingly synthetic because there isn't enough vanilla orchid on the planet to meet demand. Being synthetic tells you nothing about safety. It tells you about origin.
SAMHSA dropped its annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health at the end of July, and the numbers should be front page news in every state legislature still clutching pearls over legalization. Past-month cannabis use among teenagers fell 22 percent between 2022 and 2025. Past-year use dropped 25 percent over the same stretch. Fewer teens are even trying the stuff for the first time. Young adults, ages 18 to 25, saw smaller but still real declines: 10 percent for past-month use, 12 percent for past-year use.
Yes, cops should do mushrooms. So should firefighters, paramedics, prison guards, and — while we’re at it — the prisoners themselves. Not recreationally on shift, obviously. Under medical supervision, as part of a deliberate effort to treat the psychological wreckage that these jobs, and this system, leave behind. Let me explain why I think that’s not a punchline, but a policy position with real evidence behind it
Fox News opinion ran a piece recently from Scott Chipman, vice president of Americans Against Legalizing Marijuana, arguing that legal cannabis "didn't kill the black market, it created a marketing department for it."
By gently heating your plant matter instead of setting it on fire, a vaporizer extracts far more goodness out of every single milligram. You get more sessions per quarter, spend less money at the dispensary, reduce daily environmental waste, and even get usable leftover material for homemade treats.
According to the latest quarterly NuggMD/Marijuana Moment tracking poll, only 48 percent of marijuana consumers now approve or strongly approve of the Trump administration’s cannabis actions. That’s down from 73 percent last quarter. Thirteen percent disapprove, and a striking 40 percent have simply checked out into “no opinion” territory. When four in ten of your most engaged constituency shrugs at you, that’s not apathy. That’s disillusionment wearing apathy’s coat.
