Blueprint 2026

Apr 21, 2026

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Jason Karimi, WeedPress Contributor

in Law, legislation

April 21, 2021

rfra_scheduling_50_state_baseline_fourth_pass.xlsx Download

The architecture WeedPress is following to cover policy nationwide this year:

Layer 1: Source monitoring

Courts: CourtListener alerts for RFRA, free exercise, religious accommodation, controlled substances, marijuana scheduling, cannabis, sacramental use, etc.
Legislatures: OpenStates API or LegiScan for all-state bill activity.
News: Google Alerts plus AI search sweeps.

Layer 2: Structured tracker
Google Sheet with columns like:

State
RFRA statute status
RFRA bill status
Cannabis scheduling status
Court case update
Agency/rulemaking update
Last change date
Source
Significance
Needs manual review

Master tracker columns

Use one Google Sheet with these columns:

Core identity

State
Category
Subcategory
Item title
Item type
Current status
Priority
Last checked
Last changed

Legal substance

RFRA relevance
Cannabis relevance
Scheduling relevance
Court relevance
Legislature relevance
Agency relevance
Effective date
Citation
Short summary
Significance note

Source control

Primary source
Secondary source
News source
Docket / bill number
Court / chamber / agency
Source date
AI confidence
Needs manual review
Duplicate cluster ID

Workflow

Action needed
Assigned note
Published to blog?
Follow-up date
Archived?

Best values for each column

Subcategory

Examples:

new statute
amendment
repeal effort
bill introduced
committee action
chamber passage
signed
effective
rescheduled substance
petition
emergency rule
complaint filed
motion ruling
appeal
opinion issued
enforcement action

Item type

Use only:

statute
bill
rule
case
order
article
alert

Current status

Use a controlled vocabulary:

no activity
introduced
in committee
passed one chamber
passed legislature
signed
vetoed
effective
pending
granted
denied
stayed
appealed
reported
needs review

Priority

high
medium
low

AI confidence

high
medium
low

Needs manual review

Recommended sheet tabs

Make 5 tabs:

1. `Master Tracker`

One row per development.

2. `50-State Baseline`

One row per state with stable background fields:

State
Has state RFRA?
RFRA citation
Year enacted
State constitutional free exercise note
Marijuana schedule status
Scheduling authority
Medical cannabis legal?
Adult use legal?
Hemp exception note
Key agency
Baseline last verified

3. `Daily Intake`

5. `Blog Leads`

Rows worth turning into WeedPress coverage:

State
Headline angle
Why it matters
Source package
Status
Drafted?

One-row format

Each row in Master Tracker should represent one discrete development.

Good examples:

“Missouri HB 1842 introduced to create state RFRA amendment”
“Oklahoma court denies religious-use cannabis injunction”
“State board begins rulemaking to reschedule marijuana”
“Governor signs bill changing controlled substance scheduling authority”

Bad examples:

“Things happening in Oklahoma”
“RFRA and scheduling news this week”

Prompt for twice-daily monitoring

Use this as your main update prompt:

Search for updates across all 50 U.S. states related to:

State RFRA statutes
State RFRA bills or amendments
State cannabis scheduling changes
State agency rulemaking or petitions affecting cannabis scheduling
Court cases involving RFRA, free exercise, religious accommodation, controlled substances, marijuana, cannabis, sacramental use, peyote comparators, or related constitutional issues
Major news coverage on the above

Return only NEW or CHANGED items since the last sweep.

For each item, output:

State
Category
Subcategory
Item title
Item type
Current status
Date
Docket / bill number if available
Court / chamber / agency
Short summary
Significance note
Primary source
Secondary source
News source if any
AI confidence
Needs manual review

Rules:

Prefer primary legal sources over news.
Do not duplicate old items unless the status changed.
Mark “needs manual review = yes” if there is no primary source.
Keep summaries under 60 words.
Keep significance notes under 35 words.
Flag especially important items as priority = high.

Prompt for building the initial 50-state baseline

Build a 50-state baseline tracker for U.S. states.

For each state, provide:

Whether the state has its own RFRA statute
Citation to that RFRA statute if yes
Year enacted
Whether the state permits medical cannabis
Whether the state permits adult-use cannabis
How marijuana is classified or scheduled under state law
Which agency or authority controls scheduling changes
Any notable statutory exception structure relevant to controlled substances
Baseline verification source

Return the results in a spreadsheet-ready table.
Use concise entries.
If uncertain, say “needs verification.”
Prefer statutes, official legislative pages, and official state agency pages.

Prompt for court-only monitoring

Search for new or changed U.S. state court developments involving:
RFRA, religious freedom, free exercise, religious accommodation, controlled substances, marijuana, cannabis, sacramental use, peyote comparisons, probation conditions, licensing disputes, or criminal enforcement with a religious-use angle.

Focus on:

newly filed cases
important motions
injunction rulings
trial rulings
appellate opinions
supreme court activity

Return only developments since the last sweep.
Output spreadsheet-ready rows with:
State, case name, docket, court, procedural posture, ruling date, summary, significance, primary source, confidence.

Prompt for legislature-only monitoring

Search all 50 states for new or changed legislative activity involving:

RFRA bills
amendments to RFRA laws
free exercise protections
religious accommodation involving controlled substances
cannabis scheduling reform
agency scheduling authority changes
statutory petitions or review mechanisms for rescheduling

Return only new or changed items since the last sweep.

For each item provide:
State, bill number, title, category, subcategory, current status, chamber, date, summary, significance, primary source, confidence.

Prompt for news-only monitoring

Search major and relevant regional news for new reporting on:
state RFRA developments, state free exercise litigation, marijuana scheduling changes, agency actions, court rulings, and religious-use cannabis controversies.

Return only genuinely new coverage since the last sweep.
Exclude duplicate rewrites of the same AP-style story unless they add new facts.

For each item provide:
State, outlet, headline, date, topic, summary, significance, source link, whether it appears to be based on a primary legal development already in the tracker.

Deduping rule

Before adding an item, compare it against existing rows by:

state
docket or bill number
same event date
same legal development

If it is the same event, update the existing row rather than creating a new one.
Only create a new row when there is a genuine status change or a distinct legal event.

Priority rule

Use this scoring:

High priority

state supreme court activity
appellate opinion
governor signs bill
final agency rule
scheduling change becomes effective
major RFRA bill passes chamber
major injunction granted or denied

Medium priority

committee action
complaint filed
petition filed
hearing set
agency notice published

Low priority

routine article
commentary
duplicate coverage
procedural notice without substantive change

Blog-lead rule

Any row should be copied to Blog Leads if:

priority is high, or
significance note suggests structural implications, or
it ties RFRA to cannabis/free exercise in a new way, or
it shows a split between states, or
it involves hypocrisy / inconsistency / institutional failure, which fits your writing lane

Suggested Blog Leads columns:

State
Development
Why it matters nationally
Conflict angle
Reform angle
Suggested headline
Suggested subhead
Source packet ready?

Exact sheet header row

Best cheap workflow

Use it like this:

Morning sweep

courts
legislatures
news
dump results into Daily Intake

Evening sweep

run same prompts
compare to existing tracker
update only changed rows
send you a short digest

Weekly

clean duplicates
verify high-priority rows
move good story ideas to Blog Leads