Flatliners

A late pulse awakes the patient.

Daily Recap

The U.S. cannabis industry continues to grow, generating over $32B in annual retail sales as of 2024, per LeafLink. This marks an 11% YoY increase, with $2.8B in sales recorded in October alone. State-legal canna now operates in 41 states, with over 80% of Americans having access to it.

Despite challenges like price declines, margin pressures and operational inefficiencies, the industry is on track to reach $55B by 2030, driven by regional growth and federal policy changes, or that’s the plan.

About that even playing field…

The highly anticipated 2025 US Farm Bill, which has come under intense scrutiny from the country’s hemp industry, has been released by the Senate Agriculture Committee.

It’s primary goal appears to be closing a 2018 loophole which allowed a grey market of ‘intoxicating hemp’ substances to flourish (and bogart state-legal canna growth), while ensuring legitimate industrial hemp businesses will be allowed to operate.

The updated draft defines hemp to include ‘total THC’ levels, incorporating all variants like delta-8, delta-10, delta-9 and THCA, and keeping a 0.3% limit. It also introduced a new definition of ‘industrial hemp’, and parts of the plant used to create intoxicating compounds are not included.

Virtue Signals

Democratic congressional lawmakers are promoting a drug policy reform group’s call for President Joe Biden or future administrations to issue an executive order to ensure equity in federal marijuana laws and more broadly shift the country away from the drug war.

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, as well as Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) weighed in on the draft executive order that was released by the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) yesterday.

Mutumbo’d

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) “rejected” a request from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to provide witnesses for an upcoming hearing on the Biden administration’s marijuana rescheduling proposal, the drug agency says.

It’s not clear why HHS declined to provide witnesses. Marijuana Moment reached out to the department for comment, but a representative was not immediately available.

Stocks & Stuff

The sloe gin fizz continued in Cannaland for most of the session until an ALL-CAPS red headline crossed Bloomberg and briefly fluttered some pulses. U.S. cannabis ETF ended the session up 1%, although there was more movement under the surface.

Below, we’ll top-line the landscape, channel check state-level sales, spy the debt loads, search for growth, offer thanks, and otherwise keep it real as we navigate year-end.

All that and more, just scroll down.

note: if there’s news of note we’ll cover it otherwise have a Happy Thanksgiving.

SPY 0.00%↑ QQQ 0.00%↑ IWM 0.00%↑ MSOS 0.00%↑ ETF Notional: $110M

Top Stories