Daily Recap
Pennsylvania lawmakers are feeling optimistic about their chances of legalizing adult-use marijuana in the 2025 session, and the governor plans to once again call for the reform as part of his next budget proposal.
Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) said that he will put adult-use canna legalization in his budget request—as he did his last two budgets—and lawmakers and advocates are confident the third time may be the charm.
Cheese Please
The minority leader of Wisconsin’s Senate said this week that she plans to introduce a medical marijuana legalization bill in the coming legislative session, building on past efforts that have fallen short in the face of pushback from Republican lawmakers.
Sen. Dianne Hesselbein (D) believes the measure has a realistic chance at passage in given recent Democratic pickups in the Senate ended the GOP’s supermajority control of the chamber.
“With 18 Republicans and 15 Democrats, I think they’re going to need our votes to get anything done in the state Senate.”
Mace is the Place
A Republican senator in South Carolina prefiled a bill for the 2025 session that would legalize medical marijuana in the state. The legislation, from Sen. Tom Davis (R), brings back a proposal that passed the Senate last session but wasn’t taken up in the House.
Davis told reporters that cannabis “can be a therapeutic benefit in many respects, and a lot less intrusive way than opioids or the pharmaceuticals.”
Three Letter Agency
The DEA made a major blunder in its subpoena request for witnesses in the upcoming cannabis rescheduling hearing. Still, an administrative law judge appears to be giving the agency another shot.
DEA Chief ALJ John J. Mulrooney issued an order granting the DEA just one of its four subpoena requests made Dec. 13 for FDA officials to appear as witnesses for the hearing’s testimonials that are scheduled to run from Jan. 21 through March 6.
Stocks & Stuff
After setting a new all-time low yesterday, U.S. cannabis ETF MSOS bounced 7% today on a combination of factors—and perhaps a whiff of hopium. Some of the individual names traded better, let by TerrAscend, which rallied 24% on the session.
Below, we’ll top-line the landscape, talk some truth about the current state of affairs, offer perspective on tax liabilities, flag a few outliers and otherwise try to keep it real.
All that and more, just scroll down.
I’ll be offline Dec. 20th through New Year’s. Healthy & safe holidays to you and yours.
SPY 0.00%↑ QQQ 0.00%↑ IWM 0.00%↑ MSOS 0.00%↑ ETF Notional: $54M
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