Final Exams

Year-end test arrives on cue.

Daily Recap

As the legal US canna industry navigated the post-pandemic era into 2023, rays of light emerged as more States legalized, a Senate Committee reviewed + marked-up a long-stalled banking bill and the US gov’t began the process to reschedule cannabis.

What's in store for ‘24? Several industry leaders shared their thoughts + predictions and spoiler alert: we could see significant movement ahead of the election cycle.

“Rescheduling or a rescheduling/memo combo will result in a new wave of liquidity, a surge in M&A activities, equity issuance and refinanced debts that’ll bail out many who may not survive otherwise…by the time the ball drops at the end of ‘24 and welcomes in a New Year, we will look back at what has been a wild ride."

State of Play

From a practical standpoint, if cannabis were move from Schedule I to Schedule III, it would still leave a major legal disconnect between federal law and state-level cannabis infrastructures, leaving the FDA with a nearly insurmountable hurdle.

That means the industry needs the STATES Act, or something similar, in concert with rescheduling in order to become truly normalized in the U.S. That bill was introduced last week but it remains to be seen if it has the political appetite to pass in 2024.

Garden Party

New Jersey’s market for adult-use cannabis continues to expand as more dispensaries begin serving customers. The state sold $206 million worth of canna products in Q3 (including MMJ), bringing year-to-date revenue to $763M, the state said.

Stocks & Stuff

It was a quiet and nondescript Monday until there were about 90 minutes left in the session and U.S. canna decided to take a header. Volumes were anemic throughout, with $55M total notional volume across all U.S. plant-touching stocks and ETFs.

Below, we’ll recap some of the themes that emerged after speaking with U.S. cannabis analysts, including stocks for a trade vs. companies as an investment, dive deeper into the New York market + share the new canna comps for those who enjoy such things.

All that and more, just scroll down…

SPY 0.00%↑QQQ 0.00%↑ IWM 0.00%↑ MSOS 0.00%↑ PT Notional: $55M

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