An email obtained by The Times shows that a committee leader, Rep. Sharon Wylie, an industry advocate, shared a draft of the bill with a cannabis lobbyist. “Thank you for being open to the compromise approach,” she wrote.
In an interview, Ms. Wylie said that “the jury is still out” on the potential harms of cannabis, and that regulated businesses bring revenue to the state.
Mrs. Davis doesn't give up. She plans to introduce legislation to another committee this month that would ban all concentrates over 35 percent THC, with exemptions for medical use.
“The industry needs limits,” she said.
METHODOLOGY
The New York Times examined sales data from two cannabis industry data companies, BDSA and Headset, for October 2023 to September 2024. Because the two companies' rankings differed slightly, the times looked at all brands included in the top 20 list from both companies – 24 Brands in total.
Reporters then found each brand's page on weedmaps, where available. Four were excluded because they were not present on weed maps, their listings lacked product-specific descriptions, or had very few products listed.
In November 2024, the Times downloaded Weedmaps' entire product catalog for each of the remaining 20 brands: a data set containing nearly 18,000 products. Times identified dozens of medical and health-related keywords that appeared in the descriptions. For each brand, reporters confirmed that the keywords were used to suggest products could help treat specific health conditions.
After contacting the brands for comment, the Times re-examined weed descriptions for all products in the initial analysis to determine if any of the health-related language had been removed.
Weedmaps listings do not necessarily include all products sold under a particular brand and may reflect some items that are no longer widely sold.
The Times conducted a separate analysis of health claims on Stiiizy's website, focusing on its guides to individual cannabis strains. Each guide included the strain's flavors, purported effects, and conditions it “helps” with. The Times identified 82 of these guides programmatically in December and January, based on the website's sitemap, and extracted terms listed in each.
Carson Kessler Reporting contributed, and Julie Tate contributed research.
