Vermont Senate Democrats Revive Cannabis Descheduling Bill Amid Wave of License Closures

The reintroduced regulation measure arrives as at least a dozen Vermont cannabis licenses have gone inactive over the past two weeks, per state records.

FILE — statehouse · B.D. Gilfry / CC BY-SA 2.0

Vermont Senate Democrats have reintroduced a bill aimed at descheduling and regulating cannabis, according to the Brattleboro Reformer. The report did not detail the bill's specific provisions, timeline, or sponsors beyond identifying it as a Senate Democratic initiative.

The legislative push comes amid a notable string of license deactivations logged in the state license roster over the past two weeks. Businesses including Sweetspot Vermont LLC (DBA Sweetspot Farms/Sweetspot Dispensary), Simpson Brook Retail LLC (DBA Bushy Beard Dispensary), Satori VT Holdings LLC (DBA The Herbal Collective), Snowbird Botanicals, Bernis Dobis LLC (DBA The Hashstead), Backcountry Botanicals, Birdseye Botanicals, Vermont Greenery, Rebel East VT, All Bliss Cannabis, Rhize Cannabis Company, and Craft Cannabis Co. Manufacturing all had licenses recorded as no longer active between July 25 and August 6, 2026.

The numbers

Despite the cluster of closures, Vermont's adult-use market still shows 108 open retail licenses, 311 open cultivation licenses, 90 open manufacturing licenses, and 2 open labs, according to state license statistics. The stats show zero pending applications logged in the current dataset.

Monthly sales figures for the state have held in a narrow band, ranging from roughly $0.0121 billion (about $12.1 million) in February 2026 to about $0.01326 billion (about $13.3 million) in May 2026, the most recent month recorded. Sales in December 2025 were about $0.0129 billion, suggesting relatively flat month-to-month revenue even as individual operator licenses have lapsed.

With 108 retail licenses still listed as open statewide, the dozen recent deactivations appear to represent a modest share of the overall retail and cultivation footprint rather than a broad market contraction, though the concentration of closures within a two-week window may warrant continued tracking.

What to watch next

It remains unclear whether the reintroduced descheduling and regulation bill is connected to the operational pressures reflected in the closure filings, or whether it addresses unrelated statutory or criminal-code provisions. Further reporting from the Brattleboro Reformer or state legislative records would be needed to clarify the bill's content and its potential effect on licensees. Whether the recent wave of closures continues, and how it intersects with Vermont's steady but flat monthly sales trend, are both details to watch as the legislative session proceeds.