Featured Analysis
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I Spent 17 Years Arguing for Federal Cannabis Legitimacy. Now Small Operators Are About to Learn What That Means.
I have spent most of my adult life arguing that state medical cannabis programs could not survive forever as legally tolerated gray markets.¹ They needed federal recognition. They needed treaty analysis. They needed administrative pathways. They needed constitutional pressure. They needed people willing to say the uncomfortable thing before the institutions were ready to admit…
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Weedpress Exclusive: Weedpress Founder & Veteran Cannabis Advocate Jason Karimi Tapped as Expert Witness in Federal Religious Cannabis Lawsuits – Ready to Testify This Summer
Weedpress Exclusive: Weedpress Founder & Veteran Cannabis Advocate Jason Karimi Tapped as Expert Witness in Federal Religious Cannabis Lawsuits – Ready to Testify This Summer Weedpress has learned that its own founder, Jason Karimi, a leading voice in the cannabis reform movement for over 15 years, has been invited to serve as an expert witness…
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Why Business Lawyers and Lawmakers Must Master the U.S. Reinterpretation of the Single Convention: Treaty Flexibility as the Foundation for Durable Cannabis Reform
The United States’ ongoing transformation of federal cannabis policy—from rigid Schedule I prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to a more nuanced regulatory framework—has long been cabined by claims of international legal constraint. For decades, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) invoked the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs as an absolute bar to any…
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The Federal Rescheduling Shockwave Hits: South Carolina and 26 Other States Appear to Have Automatic or Mandatory Conformity Mechanisms for Federal Marijuana Scheduling Changes
Suggested citation: Karimi, Jason, The Federal Rescheduling Shockwave Hits: South Carolina and 26 Other States Appear to Have Automatic or Mandatory Conformity Mechanisms for Federal Marijuana Scheduling Changes (May 05, 2026). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6726361 In late April 2026, the Trump administration’s Department of Justice and DEA issued a final order moving FDA-approved drug products containing…
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DEA Registration Decision Tree: 5 Questions Every Medical Operator Should Answer Before June 26
The June 26, 2026 deadline is not a suggestion. It is the cutoff for expedited DEA Schedule III registration under the new federal medical marijuana framework. File on time and you lock in six-month guaranteed processing, continued state-law operations during review, and the clearest path to improved banking and payments. Miss it and you fall…
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Why Cannabis Operators Can’t Afford to Ignore the Federal Rescheduling Details — And What You Must Do Now
The federal government has split cannabis into two tracks. FDA-approved drug products containing marijuana and marijuana activity tied to a qualifying state-issued medical marijuana license under the new federal framework now occupy a different federal posture, while broader marijuana remains in Schedule I pending further proceedings.¹ That split is real, immediate, and carries tax, compliance,…
Policy
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Why Cannabis Reform Keeps Winning Headlines but Losing on Structure
April 16, 2026 Cannabis reform has spent years winning the visible fight while losing too many of the structural ones: That is the contradiction at the heart of the modern marijuana debate. The headlines look triumphant. More states legalize. More politicians soften. More investors return every election cycle to promise that normalization is just around…
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The Next Cannabis Boom Will Reward Operators — Not Amateurs
The real 2026–2027 unlock is not federal reform alone. It is the moment policy relief begins rewarding scale, infrastructure, experience, and real business discipline. April 15, 2026 For years, cannabis commentary has treated federal reform as the singular unlock. That was always too simplistic. The real 2026–2027 cannabis unlock is not just a policy shift…
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Communication Mistakes During Campaigns: A Leadership Institute Training
Campaigns invest significant time refining how a candidate explains their values, their priorities, and their vision to the voters they need to reach. The expectation is consistency. The expectation is control. But discipline does not always hold in real time. REGISTER NOW For the first hour and a half, we will walk through several well-known…
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Google Scholar Just Sent Traffic to WeedPress. That Matters More Than It Looks.
Google Scholar Just Sent Traffic to WeedPress. That Matters More Than It Looks. By Jason Karimi | WeedPress April 7, 2026 WeedPress just picked up a referrer that stood out from the usual traffic noise: Google Scholar. According to the Jetpack stats page, one of the site’s visits appears to have come from scholar.google.co.il, alongside…
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South Dakota District 35’s Republican Primary: Who’s Best Positioned in the Four-Way Race?
South Dakota District 35’s Republican Primary: Who’s Best Positioned in the Four-Way Race? By Jason Karimi | WeedPress April 4, 2026 South Dakota House District 35 is one of the more interesting Republican primaries in the state this cycle because it is an open-seat race with four Republican candidates competing for two House nominations on…
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Discernment, Not Drama: How to Carry Yourself When Evil Is Real
Discernment, Not Drama: How to Carry Yourself When Evil Is Real By Jason Karimi | WeedPress April 3, 2026 There are some subjects polite society would rather mock than confront. Spiritual darkness is one of them. Many modern people are willing to speak of “energy,” “trauma,” “vibes,” and “mental health,” but the moment anyone raises…
Law
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I Spent 17 Years Arguing for Federal Cannabis Legitimacy. Now Small Operators Are About to Learn What That Means.
I have spent most of my adult life arguing that state medical cannabis programs could not survive forever as legally tolerated gray markets.¹ They needed federal recognition. They needed treaty analysis. They needed administrative pathways. They needed constitutional pressure. They needed people willing to say the uncomfortable thing before the institutions were ready to admit…
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Weedpress Exclusive: Weedpress Founder & Veteran Cannabis Advocate Jason Karimi Tapped as Expert Witness in Federal Religious Cannabis Lawsuits – Ready to Testify This Summer
Weedpress Exclusive: Weedpress Founder & Veteran Cannabis Advocate Jason Karimi Tapped as Expert Witness in Federal Religious Cannabis Lawsuits – Ready to Testify This Summer Weedpress has learned that its own founder, Jason Karimi, a leading voice in the cannabis reform movement for over 15 years, has been invited to serve as an expert witness…
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Why Business Lawyers and Lawmakers Must Master the U.S. Reinterpretation of the Single Convention: Treaty Flexibility as the Foundation for Durable Cannabis Reform
The United States’ ongoing transformation of federal cannabis policy—from rigid Schedule I prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to a more nuanced regulatory framework—has long been cabined by claims of international legal constraint. For decades, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) invoked the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs as an absolute bar to any…
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The Federal Rescheduling Shockwave Hits: South Carolina and 26 Other States Appear to Have Automatic or Mandatory Conformity Mechanisms for Federal Marijuana Scheduling Changes
Suggested citation: Karimi, Jason, The Federal Rescheduling Shockwave Hits: South Carolina and 26 Other States Appear to Have Automatic or Mandatory Conformity Mechanisms for Federal Marijuana Scheduling Changes (May 05, 2026). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6726361 In late April 2026, the Trump administration’s Department of Justice and DEA issued a final order moving FDA-approved drug products containing…
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DEA Registration Decision Tree: 5 Questions Every Medical Operator Should Answer Before June 26
The June 26, 2026 deadline is not a suggestion. It is the cutoff for expedited DEA Schedule III registration under the new federal medical marijuana framework. File on time and you lock in six-month guaranteed processing, continued state-law operations during review, and the clearest path to improved banking and payments. Miss it and you fall…
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Why Cannabis Operators Can’t Afford to Ignore the Federal Rescheduling Details — And What You Must Do Now
The federal government has split cannabis into two tracks. FDA-approved drug products containing marijuana and marijuana activity tied to a qualifying state-issued medical marijuana license under the new federal framework now occupy a different federal posture, while broader marijuana remains in Schedule I pending further proceedings.¹ That split is real, immediate, and carries tax, compliance,…
Science
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I Spent 17 Years Arguing for Federal Cannabis Legitimacy. Now Small Operators Are About to Learn What That Means.
I have spent most of my adult life arguing that state medical cannabis programs could not survive forever as legally tolerated gray markets.¹ They needed federal recognition. They needed treaty analysis. They needed administrative pathways. They needed constitutional pressure. They needed people willing to say the uncomfortable thing before the institutions were ready to admit…
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Stork Just Sent a Researcher to WeedPress: What Academic Tools Mean for Cannabis Policy Analysis
Independent statutory deep-dives are showing up alongside peer-reviewed literature in researchers’ workflows. It’s not every day your analytics dashboard lights up with a referrer you’ve never seen before. Today, May 5, 2026, WeedPress received a visit from paper-box.co — the domain tied to Stork (storkapp.me), a specialized publication-tracking and research intelligence platform used by academics,…
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The Post-Announcement Phase of Cannabis Rescheduling: What the June DEA Hearing Means, What States May Have to Change, and What to Watch Next
The most important cannabis-law story in the country is no longer the announcement that part of the marijuana market has been moved into Schedule III. It is the implementation phase that follows. In April 2026, the Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration took the unusual step of immediately placing state-licensed medical marijuana and…
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Why South Dakota’s Own Statutes Now Make Schedule I Marijuana Unlawful to Maintain
“Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is placing both FDA-approved drug products containing marijuana, and medicinal marijuana products subject to a qualifying state-issued license in Schedule III under his authority to reschedule drugs to carry out the United States’ obligations under the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.”¹ South Dakota, however, is not automatically bound by that…
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South Dakota’s Schedule I Marijuana Prohibition Heads to Court This Summer: Lawsuit Will Seek Declaration That State Law No Longer Satisfies Its Own Criteria
This summer I intend to file a civil action against the State of South Dakota seeking a judicial declaration that the state’s Schedule I classification of marijuana no longer satisfies the statutory criteria required for Schedule I placement under South Dakota law.¹ The claim is straightforward: once the factual predicate of “no accepted medical use”…
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Maryland Just Drew a New Line on Veterinary Cannabis
April 24, 2026 In a new development, Maryland has protected veterinarians from professional discipline solely for discussing or recommending cannabis or cannabidiol products for animals. House Bill 452 and Senate Bill 54, signed on April 14, 2026 as Chapters 47 and 48, bar the State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners from suspending or revoking a…
Current Events
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What Happened With Former First Lady Laura Bush’s “Secret Marijuana Religion?”
Oprah, Jay Leno, and even the Today show…Laura Bush has repeatedly stated, and been backed up on a claim by her family…that Laura Bush’s religion uses marijuana as a key part of it’s religious practice. Does Laura Bush use marijuana as part of her religious practice? It would make sense given her reputation during college.…
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Iowa Senate File 2170, An Act Prohibiting Burdening Free Exercise Of Religion
Senate File 2170 — Provides damages, injunctive relief against government entities that burden religious freedom. Video of today’s hearing on this relevant to religious marijuana freedoms bill, SF 2170, will be up on WeedPress shortly. Here’s the text in the meantime. To watch the unedited video of today’s hearing — peyote was discussed by a…
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Federal Agents To American Public: If You Want Us To Send SWAT After Your Ex, Let Us Know
Hey ATF…you guys doing ok over there? Encouraging vindictive petty behavior and domestic abuse just to get your violence in against the public really doesn’t speak well to your mental status. Have you ever thought about trying medical marijuana to deal with your anti-social behavior? The ATF: where jaded bitches can become lying snitches.
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EXAGGERATING HARMFUL DRUG EFFECTS ON THE BRAIN IS KILLING BLACK PEOPLE.
Dr. Carl Hart. “This is why you don’t do drugs kids.” That admonishment—directed at bystanders who watched in horror as police manhandled George Floyd’s 46-year-old, defeated black body—spoke volumes about what kind of people we are and our warped values. Drug researchers with neuroscience leanings, me included, have helped shape and perpetuate this sick ethos in…
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Iowa DOT Signs: “If You Have A Super Bowl, Don’t Drive High”
A University of Iowa driving simulator study found marijuana use to be safe when used by medical marijuana users when it comes to driving. That hasn’t stopped the Iowa DOT for trying to claim marijuana users are dangerous behind the wheel. Check out these recent pictures snapped by a legalization supporters in Iowa on I-80…
Legislation
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I Spent 17 Years Arguing for Federal Cannabis Legitimacy. Now Small Operators Are About to Learn What That Means.
I have spent most of my adult life arguing that state medical cannabis programs could not survive forever as legally tolerated gray markets.¹ They needed federal recognition. They needed treaty analysis. They needed administrative pathways. They needed constitutional pressure. They needed people willing to say the uncomfortable thing before the institutions were ready to admit…
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Stork Just Sent a Researcher to WeedPress: What Academic Tools Mean for Cannabis Policy Analysis
Independent statutory deep-dives are showing up alongside peer-reviewed literature in researchers’ workflows. It’s not every day your analytics dashboard lights up with a referrer you’ve never seen before. Today, May 5, 2026, WeedPress received a visit from paper-box.co — the domain tied to Stork (storkapp.me), a specialized publication-tracking and research intelligence platform used by academics,…
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Why Cannabis Operators Can’t Afford to Ignore the Federal Rescheduling Details — And What You Must Do Now
The federal government has split cannabis into two tracks. FDA-approved drug products containing marijuana and marijuana activity tied to a qualifying state-issued medical marijuana license under the new federal framework now occupy a different federal posture, while broader marijuana remains in Schedule I pending further proceedings.¹ That split is real, immediate, and carries tax, compliance,…
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WeedPress Looked Deeper: Congress’ Quiet Move to Block Trump’s Cannabis Rescheduling — and Why It Threatens Operators
The quietest threat to the federal cannabis shift is not coming from DEA’s June hearing. It is coming from the House appropriations process. On May 13, 2026, the full House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to mark up the FY2027 Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) bill after the CJS subcommittee approved its version on April 30. Buried…
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West Virginia and Mississippi Tried to Move Marijuana to Schedule III. Both Bills Reveal the Same Structural Problem.
April 24, 2026 West Virginia and Mississippi each opened the 2026 session with a bill that would have done something their existing marijuana laws still refuse to do: move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under state law.¹ ² Both proposals were straightforward on paper. West Virginia’s SB 809 would amend W. Va. Code…
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WeedPress Blueprint Update 1
April 23, 2026 Tracker — newly surfaced / incremental developments since last sweep https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/the-week-in-weed-april-2026-3-9554026/ https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/the-week-in-weed-april-2026-3-9554026/ Priority watchlist shift: Rhode Island residency litigation + possible legislative cure is the most material new development in this run.
RFRA Updates
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Petition To White House Faith Office For Religious Protections For Rastafarians (DRAFT)
Subject: Petition for Religious Exemption for the Sacramental Use of Cannabis Under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) Date: 12-18-2025 To: The White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships The White House1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NWWashington, DC 20500 Dear Director and Staff of the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Mr. Karimi, the undersigned, respectfully…
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Utah Court Grants Standing To Intervene For Sugarleaf Church Member
A church I am a member of has received approval to intervene in Utah in an ongoing case. Attached is the ruling:
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RFRA Protections: Watered Down Trap Inferior To Other Protections Or Not?
Grok AI says: The most famous and direct Supreme Court statement lamenting that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) has been “watered down” or dramatically weakened comes from Justice Antonin Scalia’s majority opinion in Employment Division v. Smith (1990) is actually the pre-RFRA case that prompted Congress to pass RFRA in the first place. After…
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Holy Smoke: Rastafarians Toke for a Higher Power (2013 City Pages Minnesota)
Holy Smoke: Rastafarians Toke for a Higher Power By Matt Peterson October 9, 2013 Hey, pass me that lighter,” Jamison Arend says to the guy in the chair next to him, a younger man with loose dreadlocks that hang down to his waist. The two men are lounging in the living room of a modest,…
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Wyoming Religious Cannabis Lawsuit Happening
Wyoming passed RFRA. Weedpress will provide details on a lawsuit we just found out about shortly. Stay…tuned…
Upcoming Events
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I Spent 17 Years Arguing for Federal Cannabis Legitimacy. Now Small Operators Are About to Learn What That Means.
I have spent most of my adult life arguing that state medical cannabis programs could not survive forever as legally tolerated gray markets.¹ They needed federal recognition. They needed treaty analysis. They needed administrative pathways. They needed constitutional pressure. They needed people willing to say the uncomfortable thing before the institutions were ready to admit…
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Why South Dakota’s Own Statutes Now Make Schedule I Marijuana Unlawful to Maintain
“Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is placing both FDA-approved drug products containing marijuana, and medicinal marijuana products subject to a qualifying state-issued license in Schedule III under his authority to reschedule drugs to carry out the United States’ obligations under the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.”¹ South Dakota, however, is not automatically bound by that…
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South Dakota’s Schedule I Marijuana Prohibition Heads to Court This Summer: Lawsuit Will Seek Declaration That State Law No Longer Satisfies Its Own Criteria
This summer I intend to file a civil action against the State of South Dakota seeking a judicial declaration that the state’s Schedule I classification of marijuana no longer satisfies the statutory criteria required for Schedule I placement under South Dakota law.¹ The claim is straightforward: once the factual predicate of “no accepted medical use”…
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They Don’t Get To License The Press
Recent reporting indicates a Florida judge extended a temporary restraining order involving James O’Keefe and also ordered firearm surrender pending further proceedings. Whether that order is a pure First Amendment prior-restraint problem depends on what it actually forbids. If it regulates threats, contact, or violence, that is one thing; if it blocks publication, reporting, or…
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Iowa Medical Cannabis Board Hearing Friday March 27 (DETAILS)
Meeting Information: March 27, 2026 – Medical Cannabidiol Board Beginning at 10:00am on Friday, March 27 the first Medical Cannabidiol Board meeting of 2026 will be held virtually using the information below: * For those who wish to participate in the public comment period virtually, please send an email to medical.cannabis@hhs.iowa.gov expressing your interest. You will use the zoom or…
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Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana Launches Statewide Town Hall Tour
Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana Launches Statewide Town Hall Tour By Jason Karimi | WeedPress | February 7, 2026 Scottsbluff to Lincoln: Advocates Take Patient Access Conversation Across the State Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana (NMM) is hitting the road this week with a statewide town hall tour aimed at updating patients, families, and community members on…
For The Record (2026), By Jason Karimi
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Chapter 9: The Record vs. the Narrative
Table of Contents Preface Chapter 1 — The First ArrestEarly rupture, authority, and the beginning of resistance Chapter 2 — Before the File Was Opened Gifted education, faith, discipline, and early legitimacy Chapter 3 — Becoming a ProblemWork, exhaustion, collapse, and the cost of visibility Chapter 4 — Learning the Language of PowerCourts, probation, jail, campaigns, and proximity to decision-makers…
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Chapter 10: What Remains
Table of Contents Preface Chapter 1 — The First ArrestEarly rupture, authority, and the beginning of resistance Chapter 2 — Before the File Was Opened Gifted education, faith, discipline, and early legitimacy Chapter 3 — Becoming a ProblemWork, exhaustion, collapse, and the cost of visibility Chapter 4 — Learning the Language of PowerCourts, probation, jail, campaigns, and proximity to decision-makers…
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Chapter 8: What the Media Gets Wrong
Table of Contents Preface Chapter 1 — The First ArrestEarly rupture, authority, and the beginning of resistance Chapter 2 — Before the File Was Opened Gifted education, faith, discipline, and early legitimacy Chapter 3 — Becoming a ProblemWork, exhaustion, collapse, and the cost of visibility Chapter 4 — Learning the Language of PowerCourts, probation, jail, campaigns, and proximity to decision-makers…
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Chapter 7: Why I Never Left
Table of Contents Preface Chapter 1 — The First ArrestEarly rupture, authority, and the beginning of resistance Chapter 2 — Before the File Was Opened Gifted education, faith, discipline, and early legitimacy Chapter 3 — Becoming a ProblemWork, exhaustion, collapse, and the cost of visibility Chapter 4 — Learning the Language of PowerCourts, probation, jail, campaigns, and proximity to decision-makers…
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Chapter 6: Staying Power
Table of Contents Preface Chapter 1 — The First ArrestEarly rupture, authority, and the beginning of resistance Chapter 2 — Before the File Was Opened Gifted education, faith, discipline, and early legitimacy Chapter 3 — Becoming a ProblemWork, exhaustion, collapse, and the cost of visibility Chapter 4 — Learning the Language of PowerCourts, probation, jail, campaigns, and proximity to decision-makers…
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Chapter 5: The Apprenticeship
Table of Contents Preface Chapter 1 — The First ArrestEarly rupture, authority, and the beginning of resistance Chapter 2 — Before the File Was Opened Gifted education, faith, discipline, and early legitimacy Chapter 3 — Becoming a ProblemWork, exhaustion, collapse, and the cost of visibility Chapter 4 — Learning the Language of PowerCourts, probation, jail, campaigns, and proximity to decision-makers…
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Chapter 4: Learning the Language of Power
Table of Contents Preface Chapter 1 — The First ArrestEarly rupture, authority, and the beginning of resistance Chapter 2 — Before the File Was Opened Gifted education, faith, discipline, and early legitimacy Chapter 3 — Becoming a ProblemWork, exhaustion, collapse, and the cost of visibility Chapter 4 — Learning the Language of PowerCourts, probation, jail, campaigns, and proximity to decision-makers…
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Chapter 3: Becoming a Problem
Table of Contents Preface Chapter 1 — The First ArrestEarly rupture, authority, and the beginning of resistance Chapter 2 — Before the File Was Opened Gifted education, faith, discipline, and early legitimacy Chapter 3 — Becoming a ProblemWork, exhaustion, collapse, and the cost of visibility Chapter 4 — Learning the Language of PowerCourts, probation, jail, campaigns, and proximity to decision-makers…
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Chapter 2: Before the File Was Opened
Table of Contents Preface Chapter 1 — The First ArrestEarly rupture, authority, and the beginning of resistance Chapter 2 — Before the File Was Opened Gifted education, faith, discipline, and early legitimacy Chapter 3 — Becoming a ProblemWork, exhaustion, collapse, and the cost of visibility Chapter 4 — Learning the Language of PowerCourts, probation, jail, campaigns, and proximity to decision-makers…
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“For The Record” Chapter 1: The First Arrest
The following 8,580 word book is ten chapters long and written for future advocates. FOR THE RECORD How Power Actually Works—and Why Documentation Outlasts the Narrative By Jason Karimi Table of Contents Preface Chapter 1 — The First ArrestEarly rupture, authority, and the beginning of resistance Chapter 2 — Before the File Was Opened Gifted…
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On Independence, Accountability, and Why I Don’t Build My Work Around Approval
On Independence, Accountability, and Why I Don’t Build My Work Around Approval By Jason Karimi At 19, I ended up in a homeless shelter. Not because I committed a crime.Not because I was addicted.Not because I couldn’t work. I was there because I stood up in court for religious cannabis rights, made the front page…
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Why WeedPress Chooses to Be a High-Heat, Contrarian Watchdog
Why WeedPress Chooses to Be a High-Heat, Contrarian Watchdog By Jason Karimi | WeedPressJanuary 24, 2026 WeedPress was not created to be polite. It was not created to echo press releases, recycle activist talking points, or play nice with institutions that have repeatedly failed cannabis patients, small operators, and civil liberties. WeedPress exists to document,…
Commentary
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I Spent 17 Years Arguing for Federal Cannabis Legitimacy. Now Small Operators Are About to Learn What That Means.
I have spent most of my adult life arguing that state medical cannabis programs could not survive forever as legally tolerated gray markets.¹ They needed federal recognition. They needed treaty analysis. They needed administrative pathways. They needed constitutional pressure. They needed people willing to say the uncomfortable thing before the institutions were ready to admit…
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Leadership Matters: Strategy Failure — Not the Supreme Court — Doomed Legalization in South Dakota
Editors note: This piece analyzes past campaign strategy using publicly available court records and election results. When South Dakota voters approved Constitutional Amendment A in November 2020 to legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana, many supporters saw it as a historic victory for reform. But what followed — a legal challenge and a ruling from the…
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Deadwood Was South Dakota’s Origin Story
Deadwood Was South Dakota’s Origin Story HBO’s western is not just about one outlaw camp. It is about the culture of theft, violated Lakota land, gold obsession, and rough power that helped shape the state By Jason Karimi | WeedPress March 26, 2026 HBO’s Deadwood is not a documentary. It is something more dangerous to…
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Ziggy Marley’s “Racism Is A Killa” Uses Satire as a Public-Health Warning
Ziggy Marley’s “Racism Is A Killa” Uses Satire as a Public-Health Warning By Jason Karimi | WeedPress March 26, 2027 In the video for “Racism Is A Killa,” Ziggy Marley does not treat racism as a private flaw or a bad opinion. He frames it as a social sickness, and satire is the instrument that…
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The District Math: How Primary Elections Actually Decide Legislative Power in South Dakota
The District Math: How Primary Elections Actually Decide Legislative Power in South Dakota By Jason Karimi | WeedPress February 23, 2026 If HB 1065 was a diagnostic, district math is the operating manual. Political influence in South Dakota is not determined by statewide sentiment alone. It is determined district by district — often by a…
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From Diagnosis to Discipline: Building Primary Leverage in South Dakota’s Medical Cannabis Politics
From Diagnosis to Discipline: Building Primary Leverage in South Dakota’s Medical Cannabis Politics By Jason Karimi | WeedPress February 16, 2026 HB 1065 advancing is a test for the medical cannabis movement in South Dakota. If a restriction bill can clear committee 8–3 and advance toward the House floor with minimal electoral anxiety, the movement…
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WeedPress Is Mapping the Battlefield While Others Debate the Map
WeedPress Is Mapping the Battlefield While Others Debate the Map WeedPress Policy SeriesBy Jason Karimi ⸻ There are two kinds of publications in contentious policy environments. Some debate what the terrain should look like. Others study what the terrain actually is. WeedPress was built to do the second. While many cannabis commentators remain focused on…
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HB 1065 Heads to the Floor: The Primary Gap in South Dakota’s Medical Cannabis Politics
HB 1065 Heads to the Floor: The Primary Gap in South Dakota’s Medical Cannabis Politics As restriction legislation advances, the absence of effectively deterrent electoral pressure reveals a leverage problem within the state’s cannabis movement. As House Bill 1065 advances to the South Dakota House floor, the moment calls for structural reflection rather than rhetorical…
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Discipline Forged Under Scrutiny: Why the Hard Path Produces the Most Careful Lawyers
Discipline Forged Under Scrutiny: Why the Hard Path Produces the Most Careful LawyersBy Jason Karimi | WeedPress | February 14th, 2026 ⸻ Some of the most disciplined lawyers are not the ones who glide through clean transcripts and uninterrupted résumés. They are the ones who had to fight to be admitted. They understand that the…
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Outline of Cannabis Federalism: Constitutional Architecture in a Post-Prohibition Era
New book in monograph form incoming. Estimated release date: July 4, 2026 Cannabis Federalism: Constitutional Architecture in a Post-Prohibition Era Subtitle: A Structural Analysis of Vertical Preemption, Horizontal Protectionism, and Patient-Centered Regulatory Design By Jason Karimi Proposed Table of Contents Preface From Conflict to Architecture Brief, measured acknowledgment of the volatility of the cannabis policy…
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The “Lazy but Ambitious” Minority: Why 15–20% of People Are Wired Differently — and How That Can Be a Strength
The “Lazy but Ambitious” Minority: Why 15–20% of People Are Wired Differently — and How That Can Be a Strength By Jason Karimi A growing body of productivity and behavioral-psychology content points to a counterintuitive personality pattern: a significant minority of people — often estimated informally at 15–20% of the population in coaching and productivity…
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Why I No Longer Testify at Most Hearings
Why I No Longer Testify at Most Hearings Seventeen Years, Four Bills Passed, and Managing Campaigns and Staff Have Taught Me Institutional Architecture Is Not a Two-Minute Topic By Jason Karimi | WeedPress | February 12, 2026 This week’s attempt to repeal South Dakota’s medical cannabis laws leaned on ignorance of the federal architecture and…
Patient Perspectives
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I Spent 17 Years Arguing for Federal Cannabis Legitimacy. Now Small Operators Are About to Learn What That Means.
I have spent most of my adult life arguing that state medical cannabis programs could not survive forever as legally tolerated gray markets.¹ They needed federal recognition. They needed treaty analysis. They needed administrative pathways. They needed constitutional pressure. They needed people willing to say the uncomfortable thing before the institutions were ready to admit…
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Stork Just Sent a Researcher to WeedPress: What Academic Tools Mean for Cannabis Policy Analysis
Independent statutory deep-dives are showing up alongside peer-reviewed literature in researchers’ workflows. It’s not every day your analytics dashboard lights up with a referrer you’ve never seen before. Today, May 5, 2026, WeedPress received a visit from paper-box.co — the domain tied to Stork (storkapp.me), a specialized publication-tracking and research intelligence platform used by academics,…
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The South Dakota Board of Pharmacy and the April 2026 Federal Partial Rescheduling: An Implementing Role in a Layered Statutory Framework
The federal government’s April 2026 partial rescheduling of marijuana—placing FDA-approved products and marijuana subject to a qualifying state-issued medical marijuana license into Schedule III while leaving most adult-use marijuana in Schedule I—has created new conformity pressures for mature medical cannabis states.¹ South Dakota illustrates one variant of this federalism challenge. Unlike states with a single…
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The Post-Announcement Phase of Cannabis Rescheduling: What the June DEA Hearing Means, What States May Have to Change, and What to Watch Next
The most important cannabis-law story in the country is no longer the announcement that part of the marijuana market has been moved into Schedule III. It is the implementation phase that follows. In April 2026, the Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration took the unusual step of immediately placing state-licensed medical marijuana and…
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South Dakota Medical Cannabis Prices vs. Colorado and Washington: Why Patients Pay WAY More in the Mount Rushmore State
South Dakota’s medical cannabis program was designed to provide safe, legal access for qualifying patients. Yet current dispensary prices for flower — the most common form of medicine — remain dramatically higher than in mature recreational markets like Colorado and Washington. This price gap directly burdens patients, limits access, and undermines the voter-approved goal of…
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605 Cannabis LLC, Public Oversight, and Program Integrity: A Public-Records Timeline for South Dakota’s Medical Cannabis Program
South Dakota’s medical cannabis program was created by voters to serve patients. It is also a regulated industry. That means licensed establishments, establishment agents, compliance officers, campaign leaders, committee members, and public-facing executives do not operate in a purely private sphere. When a licensed cannabis business is inspected, suspended, sued, settled with, politically active, represented…
WeedPress: The Paper Trail 