Idaho cannabis activists appeared in great shape to land their medical cannabis legalization petition on the 2026 ballot when they submitted signatures to Secretary of State Phil McGrane’s office on July 2.
The Natural Medicine Alliance of Idaho (NMAI) had collected more than 150,000 signatures and only needed less than half – 70,725 – to be determined as valid to secure a position on the state’s November 2026 ballot.
The thoughts of one of the nation’s last medical cannabis holdouts finally loosening its prohibition policies took center stage as the No. 1 most-read article in Cannabis Business Times this month.
“Polling found 83 percent of voters in Idaho support a medical cannabis program,” NMAI organizers said when they submitted their signatures, suggesting that the proposal would have been a shoo-in for passage had it gone to the voters.
Twelve days later, McGrane’s office announced that state election officials determined only 58,024 signatures were valid – a 61% disqualification rate – and that NMAI’s campaign was unsuccessful. NMAI organizers later said they don’t plan to seek legal recourse.
Meanwhile, other articles CBT readers did not want to miss this month included those on federal legislation to offset the government’s forthcoming intoxicating hemp product ban; the reintroduction of a bill to federally legalize cannabis; and a potential snafu in Virginia’s adult-use cannabis sales bill that was incorporated into the state budget.
In the No. 2 spot, a pair of bipartisan U.S. House lawmakers introduced the Lawful Hemp Protection Act to change the definition of hemp and divert the federal government’s product ban that’s scheduled to go into effect on Nov. 12, 2026, by instead replacing the ban with a regulated and taxed system.
In the No. 3 spot, 17 U.S. senators reintroduced the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act to remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act – thereby decriminalizing it – and establish a taxed and regulated federal marketplace.
And in the No. 4 spot, Virginia lawmakers who spearheaded the state’s adult-use dispensary sales bill that will allow the commonwealth to commence a regulated program for businesses responded to what they called “inaccurate reports” that suggested language in the budget bill accidentally legalized underage possession and distribution from July 1, 2026, to July 1, 2027, until their sales bill officially goes into effect.
Also of high interest to CBT readers this month was a press release that, in uncommon fashion, drew significant traffic to rival the Top 10. The release announced a new statewide coalition, Oklahomans for Safe Access, that formed to welcome federally legal medical cannabis and advance patient-centered policies in the Sooner State.
Don’t miss out on the rest of our Top 10 stories from July 2026.
