“This move by Texas officials to expand psychedelics research while maintaining broad cannabis prohibition and considering banning hemp products as well isn’t just hypocritical. It’s illogical.”

By Adam Stettner, FundCanna

Texas just announced it will invest $50 million into studying ibogaine, a powerful psychedelic drug that remains illegal at the federal level. The goal? To develop it into a potential Food and Drug Administration-approved treatment for conditions like opioid use disorder, PTSD and depression; especially among veterans.

On the surface, this might sound like a bold and progressive move. But here’s the irony: at the very same time, Texas continues to criminalize cannabis and might soon even outlaw hemp-derived THC products.

Let’s break this down. Cannabis, a plant with centuries of use, decades of medical data and broad public support remains illegal for adult use in Texas. Despite overwhelming national support for legalization—a staggering 88 percent of Americans now back medical or recreational cannabis use)—the state has chosen to double down on prohibition, with lawmakers sending Gov. Greg Abbott (R) a bill that would outlaw consumable hemp products with any traces of THC. He has until Sunday to decide whether to allow that ban to take effect.

Even worse, prohibition isn’t stopping anything. The black market is thriving in Texas. Cartels and illicit operators flood the state with unregulated, untested cannabis. No taxes are collected, no consumer protections exist and legal hemp retailers are now being threatened. It is a misguided public safety argument deluded by a lack of facts and science, political conservatism, contradictory business objectives and outdated stigmas.

Meanwhile, ibogaine, a hallucinogenic alkaloid that can induce intense psychedelic experiences, is now the subject of a $50 million state-funded research push. The same lawmakers who claim cannabis is too dangerous and not well studied are throwing their support behind a compound with far less research and much more uncertainty with the intent of studying it.

This isn’t a critique of psychedelic medicine. Ibogaine may very well hold incredible therapeutic value. But if Texas is willing to support cutting-edge, controversial treatments for serious mental health and addiction issues, why not start with widely available data and access to cannabis? Cannabis has already been shown to help with chronic pain, anxiety, sleep, seizures and opioid dependency.

As for our brave veterans, 41 percent of our military veterans that use cannabis say their use is medicinal and nearly all Veterans that use cannabis say the plant has helped them. According to the VA, about 1.1 million vets live with PTSD and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Library of Medicine reports cannabis has been shown to assist Canadian veterans. Cannabis is federally legal in Canada, where the federal government has chosen to reimburse veterans for cannabis use for over 18,000 veterans, all of whom claim it has helped with pain, sleep, PTSD and emotional distress. NIH and Veterans of Foreign Wars have both quoted studies that show cannabis benefits veterans. THC has been shown to assist veterans with PTSD, anxiety, depression and nightmares.

This move by Texas officials to expand psychedelics research while maintaining broad cannabis prohibition and considering banning hemp products as well isn’t just hypocritical. It’s illogical. If Texas genuinely wants to support veterans, reduce opioid deaths and improve mental health outcomes for their citizens, it would be significantly more logical to first legalize and regulate cannabis. Doing so would generate tax revenue, reduce black market activity and provide immediate, research-backed relief to people in need.

Instead, Texas is sending mixed messages. On one hand, it claims to be forward-thinking and compassionate, funding research on experimental psychedelics. On the other, it continues to criminalize a plant that’s already helping millions of people nationwide.

You don’t need to be a doctor or a policy expert to see how backwards this is. It’s not about safety, science or public health. It’s about politics. And in the meantime, Texans are paying the price through lost tax revenue, criminal convictions and lack of access to safe, legal cannabis medicine—something nearly 85 percent of the country already has.

If Texas really wants to be a leader in the future of plant-based medicine, here’s a thought: start with cannabis.

Adam Stettner is an entrepreneur, financial executive, and founder/CEO of FundCanna, a leading provider of financial solutions for the cannabis industry. With over 30 years of experience in business and capital markets, throughout his career he has funded over $20 billion to consumers and businesses nationwide, he is a vocal advocate for balanced, logical, data-driven policy and law in emerging or underserved industries.

Federal Bill Would ‘Effectively’ Ban All Consumable Hemp Products—’Including CBD’—Congressional Researchers Say

Image element courtesy of AnonMoos.

[PRESS RELEASE] – EDMONTON, Alberta, June 19, 2025 – Aurora Cannabis Inc., a leading Canada-based global medical cannabis company, has become aware of a second instance of misinformation posted on the news website Investing.com. 

On June 18, 2025, Aurora advised the market that an article posted on Investing.com incorrectly stated that Aurora had agreed to acquire New Zealand-based MedLeaf Therapeutics. Later in the day on June 18, 2025, a second article was posted on Investing.com that incorrectly states that Aurora has entered into a strategic partnership with MediPharm GmbH for the distribution of medical cannabis in Germany and other EU markets.

The company categorically denies both Investing.com articles. Aurora has not entered into any such agreements, has had no discussions with MedLeaf Therapeutics or MediPharm GmbH with respect to any business combination transaction or strategic partnership, and has not made any statements or filed any information pertaining to any such transactions.

The erroneous articles posted on Investing.com state that they were generated “with the support of AI” and reviewed by an editor. The company is launching an investigation into the genesis of these articles.

Editor’s note: MJBizDaily also reported on June 18 that Aurora Cannabis spent $215 million to acquire MedLeaf Therapeutics but has since taken that article down and redirected the link to its homepage.

In the meantime, Aurora confirms that it is not in possession of material non-public information and advises investors that Investing.com should not be considered a credible source of information regarding the company. Any information regarding material corporate transactions will be announced directly by the company to the market as soon as it is appropriate to do so.

Before the market opened on June 18, Aurora filed the company’s financial statements and management’s discussion and analysis for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ending March 31, 2025. All information pertaining to these disclosures is available on the company’s website at www.auroramj.com and on SEDAR+ and EDGAR.

Despite efforts in the Ohio legislature to pass a bill to significantly change the state’s voter-approved marijuana law, last-minute disagreements between the House and Senate Republicans seemed to have derailed that plan for now—with House lawmakers signaling that a deal won’t be struck before the summer recess.

After taking public testimony and adopting certain changes to the Senate-passed legislation, SB 56, in recent weeks, the House Judiciary Committee ultimately declined to advance the proposal as scheduled at a Wednesday hearing, making it so the measure couldn’t advance to a floor vote planned for that day. Evidently, the revisions didn’t sit well with key senators, according to several legislators.

“Apparently the Senate changed their mind,” Rep. Jamie Callender (R), a pro-legalization lawmaker, told News 5 Cleveland.

Changes approved at a hearing late last month, for example, rolled back some of the strict limits included in a version of the measure passed by the Senate in February, including a criminal prohibition on sharing marijuana between adults on private property.

“They wanted to make a mandatory jail sentence for passing a joint between friends,” Callender, who has spent weeks working on additional changes to the legislation, said. He also complained about the Senate’s proposal to put all cannabis tax revenue in the state’s general fund, which would have prevented local municipalities from getting a share of those dollars as is currently the law.

“The Senate had proposed taking that tax away, and the House has fought really hard to keep that in,” the lawmaker, who was one of the first people to buy legal recreational marijuana products in Ohio when sales launched last year, said. “We finally had that negotiated so it would stay in.”

In March, a survey of 38 municipalities by the Ohio State University’s (OSU) Moritz College of Law found that local leaders were “unequivocally opposed” to earlier proposals that would have stripped the planned funding.

While some have characterized the Senate’s pulled support as a spontaneous wrinkle in an agreed-upon deal between the chambers, Senate President Rob McColley (R) said “there was a misunderstanding as to where we might have been on the bill as both chambers.”

House Speaker Matt Huffman (R), who formerly served as Senate president, said he was “pretty disappointed” the Judiciary Committee wouldn’t be taking up the legislation on Wednesday due to the other chamber’s disagreement.

“To my surprise, there was a whole new set of issues, additional issues, which were raised Monday night by the Senate regarding what we were trying to do,” he said.

Where that leaves the legislation is yet to be seen. But while McColley said he would still “like to get something done by the end of June” and believed Huffman felt the same, the House speaker tempered those expectations, saying he’s “not very optimistic” about that prospect.

“I just told my caucus: ‘We’re not going to just say OK because we’re so anxious to pass the marijuana bill,’ which I’d like to get it done, but we’re not going to give up House priorities to do that,” Huffman said.

“I thought we were on a path, this time last week, to pass it [this week]. That was the kind of clear indication we had,” Huffman said. However, despite that clear indication, he also said “There was no agreement [with the Senate] to pull out of.”

“We were hoping that there would be, anticipating there would be, sounded like we might have—but it’s not correct to say that there was an agreement that anybody pulled out of,” he said.

Sen. Steve Huffman (R), a relative of the speaker and main negotiator on the Senate side of the marijuana debate, disagreed on that point.

“We were in an agreement,” he said. “I believe that things are still being worked out, and I have the utmost confidence that we will resolve this by next Wednesday.”

Callender said he doubted that, stating that he expected that the Senate would continue to hold the line on attempts to revise the law in a way that conflicts with the will of voters who approved legalization in 2023.

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Marijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.

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Meanwhile in Ohio, adults are now able to buy more than double the amount of marijuana than they were under previous limits, with state officials determining that the market can sustainably supply both medical cannabis patients and adult consumers.

A budget measure from Gov. Mike DeWine (R) is also a potential vehicle for changes to the state’s marijuana law. As proposed, it would remove local tax allocations of medical marijuana revenue and double the state cannabis tax rate to 20 percent—though legislative leaders have said they will be removing the tax increases.

Meanwhile, DeWine in March announced his desire to reallocate marijuana tax revenue to support police training, local jails and behavioral health services. He said funding police training was a top priority, even if that wasn’t included in what voters passed in 2023.

Ohio’s Senate president has also pushed back against criticism of the Senate bill, claiming the legislation does not disrespect the will of the electorate and would have little impact on products available in stores.

Separately, lawmakers are considering legislation to restrict intoxicating hemp products.

DeWine has repeatedly asked lawmakers to regulate or ban intoxicating hemp products such as delta-8 THC.

California Is Using $30 Million In Marijuana Revenue To Support Research On Consumer Preferences, Crop Yields And Sustainability