Crash Test Dummies

The back-test continues for U.S canna

Daily Recap

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer reaffirmed his commitment to expeditiously advance the SAFE Banking bill and plans to attach legislation on expungements—the HOPE Act—and gun rights for medical marijuana patients (the GRAM Act).

A key House committee approved a bipartisan bill Wednesday that would prevent the denial of federal employment or security clearances based on past marijuana use. The CURE Act passed 30-14 and marked the first time a standalone cannabis bill has ever moved through a Republican-led chamber.

House Democrats reintroduced the Marijuana Legalization And Expungements Bill (the MORE Act) to federally legalize, tax and regulate marijuana, which has provisions that would also expunge prior cannabis convictions. There are 33 initial cosponsors—all of them Democrats—in a move that may prove more symbolic than substantive.

Do the Right Thing

When SAFE failed in 2021, a small group of people led by Weldon Angelos got to work in an attempt to bridge the partisan divide. We revisit those efforts here but suffice to say the results have been a long time coming. The first bit in the screenshot below is from February 2022 (worth a read) and the second was the ‘breaking news’ yesterday:

Schedule III, SAFE Banking, the CURE Act—the current trifecta on our horizon—are important incremental steps toward ending the War on Drugs but they’re not the dub we need or what the people in prison deserve. Please help us support Weldon and Mission [Green] as he really is the man in the arena and those arenas ain’t cheap.

Stems & Seeds

In other news, a UN agency said that the drug war has a ‘major human rights impact’ and is urging countries to adopt a public-health approach. This came as a new report indicates that wealthy countries have given over $1B to support the same drug war.

New York's chaotic cannabis launch has become a cluster bomb for licensees and the state’s testing failures are exposing legal weed consumers to unsafe cannabis, which is obviously a ‘very serious health threat.’

[^ ~26% of the ~$100B U.S TAM is currently legal; 90% of tested illicit market grows contain dangerous pesticides and an unknown amount of the emulsification agents used in illicit market vapes contain vitamin E acetate + other harmful ingredients]

[^ over time the entire price curve of cannabis will come down, which is the only way to truly compete with an illicit market that is currently 3X the size of the legal mkt]

Mississippi released it’s revised MMJ industry rules, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis thinks pot is a menace to society while his biggest backer is working to legalize it and the Goldilocks reform set-up is being bashed by some bears with hair of their own.

ATB recapped it’s NYC event—not to be confused with Whale Watching—and guess who’s back (back again), shorting stocks, pressing them? We review the latest data, dig deeper into the price action, sniff at the specter of a shutdown, tickle technical levels and review a few random thoughts. All you gotta do is scroll down…

But first, this deserves a read:

About Damn Time, by Verano President Darren Weiss

The HHS recognition that cannabis should no longer be classified in the same category as heroin is an event to be celebrated but the trajectory of U.S. policy deserves to be mourned.

SPY 0.00%↑ QQQ 0.00%↑ IWM 0.00%↑ MSOS 0.00%↑ PT: $100M

Top Stories