Los Angeles-area cannabis operators are prioritizing the safety and security of their employees and relief efforts amid historic wildfires raging across the region that have killed at least ten people, displaced countless others and decimated thousands of homes and businesses.

While it’s far too early to assess potential damages in one of the world’s largest regulated marijuana markets, a handful of retailers in Malibu and around Altadena are in or near evacuation areas, according to maps published by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and cross-referenced with store locations.

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A Rise outlet in Pasadena operated by Green Thumb Industries is among the closures, according to an automated message at the business.

The Chicago-based multistate operator did not immediately respond to an

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The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration rejected a September request from Colorado officials to participate in the United States’ historic marijuana rescheduling process.

That’s one example of the “bias” that should disqualify the agency from overseeing the hearings, according to claims made in a filing submitted Monday to the DEA’s chief administrative law judge, John Mulrooney II.

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The decision to exclude Colorado, where sales of adult-use marijuana began more than a decade ago, but include authorities from states without regulated cannabis such as Nebraska and Tennessee demonstrates why the agency should be removed from the proceedings, the filing claims.

Monday’s filing is the latest effort by designated participants Village Farms International and Hemp for Victory to disqualify the DEA, which has “obstructed the rulemaking process

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Sometime in 2025, the IRS could stop taxing state-regulated marijuana companies like cocaine kingpins.

As a bonus, licensed marijuana operators might no longer compete with mainstream retailers selling intoxicating THC products that meet the federal definition of hemp.

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Tax reform and some resolution to the civil war between marijuana and hemp are modest asks.

But a future where these longstanding problems are finally resolved would represent a dream scenario for many operators in the $32 billion state-regulated marijuana industry.

That’s a reflection of the steady advances that cannabis reform made in 2024.

The year behind

Cannabis industry progress was slow in 2024.

Congress failed to pass marijuana reform bills, and the Drug Enforcement Administration delayed reclassifying marijuana as a legitimate medicine until this

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