The National Cannabis Industry Association’s State Regulatory Committee announces the 2025 CannaStar Award winners, recognizing states and leaders for meaningful progress in cannabis regulation and program implementation across the United States.

State-level cannabis regulation remains a moving target or more accurately, 50 moving targets. While nearly every state now operates some form of regulated medical or adult-use cannabis program, each continues to navigate its own policy constraints, enforcement realities, and market pressures.

Entering 2026, the National Cannabis Industry Association’s State Regulatory Committee (NCIA SRC) is recognizing jurisdictions that moved beyond framework-building and delivered practical outcomes—whether through equitable license issuance, clear youth protections, effective responses to federal conflict, or thoughtful stabilization of mature markets.

By highlighting both expected and unexpected successes, the Committee aims to support cross-jurisdiction learning, reduce unnecessary regulatory friction for operators, and advance cannabis systems that function in practice for regulators, businesses, and consumers alike.

Without further ado, here are the 2025 NCIA State Regulatory Committee CannaStar Award winners.

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Best Social Equity Program: New York 

New York earns the 2025 CannaStar for Best Social Equity Program based on one critical metric: licenses are actually being issued, and at a meaningful scale.

New York’s Social and Economic Equity (SEE) framework has produced tangible outcomes, with equity applicants receiving a majority share of adult-use licenses and a growing number of equity-owned dispensaries operating statewide. Unlike many programs that stall at scoring or conditional approval stages, New York’s equity licensees are increasingly transitioning into active businesses, creating real-world case studies for other states to examine.

The Committee acknowledges that New York’s rollout has not been without challenges. Early conditional cultivators and farmers experienced delays and uncertainty that slowed parts of the supply chain for several years. Even so, New York’s willingness to course-correct and its demonstrated ability to move equity applicants into the marketplace distinguish it from peer programs that remain largely aspirational.

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Best Regulator: Maryland 

Maryland earns the 2025 CannaStar for Best Regulator for prioritizing experienced, outcomes-driven leadership during a critical market expansion phase. Maryland stands out in 2025 for its leadership transition to a regulator with proven experience managing complex cannabis market rollouts at scale.

With the appointment of Tabitha Robinson as Director of the Maryland Cannabis Administration, the state signaled a clear commitment to professionalized, outcomes-driven cannabis regulation at a pivotal moment for its adult-use market. Maryland’s program is rapidly maturing, with strong early sales performance and one of the most ambitious equity-focused licensing efforts in the country.

Robinson brings direct institutional knowledge from her prior leadership roles at the New York State Office of Cannabis Management, where she helped operationalize one of the nation’s largest social equity licensing frameworks. Her experience navigating high-volume licensing, equity verification, and market stabilization in New York positions her uniquely to guide Maryland through its next phase of growth while avoiding many of the pitfalls seen in earlier state rollouts.

The Committee views Maryland’s selection of an experienced, equity-literate regulator as a strong example of how states can accelerate program maturity by investing in leadership with proven, transferable regulatory expertise.

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Best Protection for Minors: Missouri

Missouri earns the 2025 CannaStar for Best Protection for Minors for establishing clear, enforceable safeguards in the intoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoid market. Missouri stands out in 2025 for taking a clear, enforceable approach to youth protections in the rapidly evolving hemp-derived cannabinoid market.

As intoxicating hemp-derived products (including delta-8 and other THC analogs) proliferated nationally, Missouri moved to close a common regulatory gap by advancing age-gating and consumer protection requirements that mirror adult-use cannabis safeguards. Missouri’s approach focuses on preventing youth access without relying on vague guidance or inconsistent local enforcement, instead establishing clear age thresholds and compliance expectations for retailers.

Rather than treating hemp-derived intoxicants as an entirely separate consumer product category, Missouri’s framework acknowledges their functional similarity to regulated cannabis products and applies proportionate protections accordingly. This clarity benefits regulators, retailers, and law enforcement alike, while reducing the likelihood of youth exposure through loosely regulated channels.

The Committee views Missouri’s actions as a practical model for states seeking to protect minors without overcorrecting in ways that destabilize lawful hemp businesses or create enforcement ambiguity.

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Best Challenge to the Feds: Texas

Texas earns the 2025 CannaStar for Best Challenge to the Feds for advancing a constitutional case that directly confronts federal cannabis prohibition’s conflict with state law. Texas stands out in 2025 for producing the most consequential constitutional challenge to federal cannabis prohibition to date, one that directly tests how federal law treats state-legal cannabis consumers.

A Texas-raised case has challenged the federal prohibition on firearm possession by “unlawful users” of controlled substances under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3), arguing that the statute cannot constitutionally be applied to individuals who lawfully use cannabis under state law. The challenge builds on recent Supreme Court Second Amendment jurisprudence and exposes a core tension between federal prohibition and state-regulated cannabis markets. That case, United States v. Hemani, will be heard by the Supreme Court of the United States on March 2.

While the Supreme Court has not yet issued a final ruling resolving this conflict, Hemani places cannabis squarely within the broader constitutional debate over federal overreach and individual liberties, moving the issue beyond administrative reform and into the highest-stakes legal arena.

The Committee views this category as recognizing not just litigation success, but strategic legal pressure that forces federal cannabis policy contradictions into the open. Although the Second Amendment context did not originate as a cannabis reform effort, it has become one of the most direct vehicles for challenging the federal government’s continued treatment of cannabis consumers as criminals despite widespread state legalization.

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Best Tax Rate Reform: California 

California earns the 2025 CannaStar for Best Tax Rate Reform for taking a corrective step that stabilized its legal cannabis market through coordinated advocacy and legislative action. 

In 2025, California took an important corrective step to stabilize its legal cannabis market by rolling back a scheduled increase to the state excise tax, an outcome made possible by sustained, coordinated advocacy from cannabis businesses across the state. After years of mounting pressure on licensed operators, the cannabis industry banded together and lobbied aggressively to reverse an excise tax hike that would have further widened the price gap between the legal and illicit markets. The increase had raised the cannabis excise tax from 15% to 19% effective July 1, 2025. On September 22, 2025, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill (AB) 564, which rolled back that increase and restored greater predictability to the tax structure. The 15% rate is locked in through June 30, 2028.

By maintaining the excise tax at a fixed rate rather than allowing it to escalate automatically, California acknowledged the real-world impact of cumulative taxation on licensed businesses. While the change did not resolve the state’s broader tax burden or eliminate structural challenges facing operators, it provided immediate and meaningful relief at a critical moment. Businesses gained greater certainty in forecasting costs, improved ability to price products competitively, and increased capacity to remain compliant in an already challenging operating environment.

The Committee views California’s action as an important example of what can be accomplished when cannabis businesses work together toward a shared policy goal. Rolling back the increase was not an expansion of the market, but it was a necessary recalibration—one that helped prevent further erosion of the legal cannabis industry and demonstrated the power of collective, unified advocacy.

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Best Medical Cannabis Program Preservation: Utah

Utah earns the 2025 CannaStar for Best Medical Cannabis Program Preservation for maintaining a deliberately patient-centered medical cannabis program that has remained insulated from adult-use pressure and excessive taxation. Since its inception, Utah has treated medical cannabis as a regulated healthcare access system, not a transitional retail market.

Utah’s medical cannabis program is structured to limit tax exposure for patients. Medical cannabis purchases are exempt from Utah’s state sales tax, and the state has not imposed any retail-level excise tax on medical cannabis patients. Instead, Utah relies on fixed licensing fees and regulatory assessments applied to operators, rather than percentage-based excise or gross receipts taxes tied to transaction value. This fee-based approach avoids the compounding tax effects seen in other states where medical programs become revenue-generating mechanisms rather than patient services.

Because Utah does not levy a point-of-sale excise tax or gross receipts tax on medical cannabis, patients are shielded from price inflation driven by tax stacking. This structure is particularly significant given Utah’s narrow qualifying conditions, limited product formats, and physician-driven access model, where patients are already navigating higher barriers to entry than in many medical states.

By maintaining a low-tax, fee-based regulatory structure, Utah has preserved relative pricing stability for patients relying on cannabis to manage chronic pain, PTSD, neurological disorders, and terminal illnesses. Operators are likewise able to plan within a predictable cost framework without passing fluctuating tax burdens downstream to patients.

Beyond tax policy, Utah has exercised notable regulatory restraint. The state has avoided abrupt program changes, resisted commercial expansion pressures, and continued to administer the program through a public health lens rather than an adult-use-adjacent marketplace. In the absence of any adult-use legalization pathway, Utah’s consistency has prevented the erosion of medical access that often occurs when programs are overshadowed by broader consumer markets.

The Committee views Utah’s approach as a clear example of medical cannabis preservation through intentional design. By exempting medical cannabis from sales tax, declining to impose retail excise or gross receipts taxes, and relying instead on fixed regulatory fees, Utah has protected the medical program’s core purpose while ensuring long-term stability for both patients and licensed operators.

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Best Cannabis Legislator: Jeremy Cooney

Senator Jeremy Cooney earns the 2025 CannaStar for Best Cannabis Legislator for his sustained, hands-on leadership in refining New York’s cannabis framework beyond initial legalization.

Throughout the 2025 legislative cycle, Senator Cooney played a central role in refining licensing structures, addressing persistent gaps in the medical cannabis program, and clarifying statutory authority to support functional adult-use retail operations. His work reflects a clear understanding that legalization is not a finish line, but the beginning of an ongoing process requiring legislative maintenance, course correction, and responsiveness to real-world implementation challenges.

Rather than treating cannabis policy as a one-time political achievement, Senator Cooney has consistently focused on making the program workable for regulators, compliant for operators, and credible for communities. His engagement with state agencies, licensees, and patient advocates demonstrates a commitment to translating legislative intent into administrable law.

The Committee recognizes Senator Cooney for exemplifying the kind of legislative stewardship cannabis programs need to succeed long-term: attentive, iterative, and grounded in operational reality.

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Best Hemp Legislator: Morgan Griffith

Representative Morgan Griffith earns the 2025 CannaStar for Best Hemp Legislator for advancing comprehensive federal legislation to bring clarity and consistency to hemp regulation.

In 2025, Rep. Griffith introduced an extensive hemp reform bill aimed at addressing regulatory fragmentation that has plagued the hemp-derived products market since passage of the 2018 Farm Bill. The legislation acknowledges that years of ambiguous federal guidance have left states, businesses, and consumers navigating conflicting standards around product safety, THC thresholds, enforcement authority, and interstate commerce.

Rather than pursuing prohibition-by-confusion, Rep. Griffith’s approach recognizes hemp as a legitimate agricultural and consumer products sector that requires clear federal rules to function responsibly. The proposal seeks to establish more consistent definitions, guardrails, and enforcement mechanisms, providing states and regulators with tools to protect public safety without dismantling lawful hemp markets.

The Committee recognizes Rep. Griffith for advancing a serious, substantive effort to bring coherence to hemp regulation at the federal level, and for engaging with the realities of a rapidly evolving marketplace that can no longer be governed by regulatory silence.