Daily Recap
By now you know that President Donald Trump is considering reclassifying cannabis to a Schedule III, consistent with a campaign pledge he made over 50 weeks ago.
What many people don’t know is what exactly that’ll mean for the world’s grooviest plant, which is why we rely on legal experts such as Sugar Shane Pennington, as well as Eric Berlin at Denton’s, who took time to dig into some of these pressing issues.
They include implications for the current state-legal adult-use and medical markets, nuances in the removal of IRC 280E, concerns that big pharma will take over, and the impact on everything from security to legislation to banking and capital markets.
Hemping & Hawing
A Republican congressman is circulating a draft bill to regulate consumable hemp products, offering a potential alternative to the outright THC ban that some of his colleagues are pushing.
The draft legislation from Rep. Griffith (R-VA) would affirmatively allow the sale of consumable hemp products to adults 21+, including edibles, beverages and vapes.
Of course, another way to look at it is that if it gets you high, it’s cannabis, not hemp, but logic and common sense are precious commodities when it comes to lawmakers.
A Word from our Greatest American Heroes 🫡
Mas Mass Grass
Massachusetts’ cannabis market has generated over $1.16B in sales so far this year, a 10%+ increase from the same period in 2024. The numbers put the state on pace for $1.7B by year’s end, keeping Massachusetts among the top markets in the country.
Stocks & Stuff
It was green day in Cannaland as the August to remember continued. U.S. canna ETF MSOS gained 5% to close at levels last seen prior to last November’s election and is now +44% YTD. The road to redemption is long, we know, but these steps help.
Below, we’ll synthesize the sector, talk through what S3 would and wouldn’t do, if and when, contextualize the field position as we continue to Mind the Gap, note pending measures to combat debanking, and spy the tail risk if and when S3 paints the tape.
All that and more, just scroll down.
SPY 0.00%↑ QQQ 0.00%↑ IWM 0.00%↑ MSOS 0.00%↑ ETF Notional: $67M
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