Best of the Week: June 6 – June 12, 2025
Here, we bring you our top five recent articles covering safety regulations in North Carolina, licenses in Minnesota, the FDA’s FY2026 Agriculture appropriations bill, cannabis taxes in California, and antifungal properties of CBD and CBDV.
Let’s dive into the top stories shaping the conversation this week. Summaries of each article are listed below.
1. North Carolina Governor Forms Advisory Council to Regulate Cannabis Market
North Carolina Governor Josh Stein announced in a recent statement that the state would be creating a State Advisory Council on Cannabis and urged that young people needed stronger protection from the unregulated cannabis market.
“Today all across North Carolina, there are unregulated intoxicating THC products available for purchase: just walk into any vape shop. There is no legal minimum age to purchase these products! That means that kids are buying them,” Governor Stein mentioned in his statement. “Without any enforceable labeling requirements, adults are using them recreationally without knowing what is in them or how much THC there is. Our state’s unregulated cannabis market is the wild west and is crying for order. Let’s get this right and create a safe, legal market for adults that protects kids.”
2. Minnesota’s Office of Cannabis Management Accidentally Sends Lottery Winners Denied Licenses Email
The cannabis industry in Minnesota is getting off to a rough start after hosting their first cannabis license lottery on June 5, 2025. Just days later, all 249 cannabis business winners were sent an email on June 9, 2025, that they were denied a license.
MPR News reported that the state’s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) said that a staff member had “sent the wrong email notification to winners of Thursday’s lotteries. The email said they did not get a license.”
“The message was corrected and sent to all selected applicants within one hour,” said Jim Walker, OCM public information officer.
In a recent press release, the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) “expressed support for Congressional efforts to eliminate synthetic and novel cannabinoids from the hemp-derived product market, while urging Members of the House Appropriations Committee to strike specific language in the proposed FY2026 Agriculture–FDA appropriations bill during full committee markup to avoid the potential prohibition of naturally-derived, state-regulated Delta-9 THC hemp products.”
In the bill, Section 759 contains language that could place a federal ban on hemp products that include “naturally occurring cannabinoids.”
4. California Votes to Prevent 25% Cannabis Tax Hike
On June 2, 2025, the California Assembly conducted an unanimously vote which would prevent a bill from implementing a 25% tax hike on “on the state’s legal cannabis industry that is set to take effect July 1.”
"If we continue to pile on more taxes and fees onto our struggling small cannabis businesses, California's cannabis culture is under serious threat of extinction," Assemblymember Matt Haney said to CBS News. Additionally, Haney expressed, “If we continue to pile on more taxes and fees onto our struggling small cannabis businesses, California’s cannabis culture is under serious threat of extinction.”
5. Study Demonstrates Antifungal Activity of Two Cannabinoids
A recently published study examined the effects of two cannabinoids on different fungal pathogens and sought to explain their mechanism of action. The researchers highlighted results on the pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans, which is listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a Critical Priority pathogen. As noted in the abstract, the rise antifungal resistance has been seen globally, yet there is a lack of planned clinical development of new antifungal drugs. The study, “Uncovering the antifungal potential of Cannabidiol and Cannabidivarin,” was published in June 2025 in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.
Both CBD and CBDV showed antifungal activity in both in vivo tests and in vitro wound models.
