Health vs. Wealth

Big Pharma knows cannabis is medicine.

Daily Recap

A coalition of 45 cannabis advocacy and medical groups—including Americans for Safe Access, the U.S. Pain Foundation, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Epilepsy Foundation of America and more—are calling on congressional lawmakers to ensure that state medical cannabis programs remain protected under the pending legislation.

“Medical cannabis programs have become a lifeline for millions of Americans, including many of the 30 million Americans living with one of 7,000 known rare diseases (95% of which have no FDA-approved treatment available) as well as the one-third of Americans who live with chronic pain and the 10% of Americans living with debilitating, intractable pain.

In fact, research generated from the state programs suggests medical cannabis may help some patients reduce or avoid certain high-risk medications, including opioids, contributing to lower rates of overdose and medication-related complications.”

Make it Make Sense

While the U.S. government still officially considers cannabis a Schedule I drug with no accepted medical use, federal agencies are increasingly breaking with that position. In one notable example, an entry in a Department of Agriculture (USDA) plant database describes the use of Cannabis sativa as having “medicinal” uses.

USDA’s identification of cannabis as a “medicinal” plant seems to conflict with its federal Schedule I status, a category reserved for substances with “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”

And that’s just the tip of the efficacious iceberg.

Inspector Hemp

Congressional lawmakers sent another clear signal that they intend to halt federal protections for intoxicating hemp-derived THC products when a bill that closes the so-called “hemp loophole” passed the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee.

Although the redefinition of hemp proposed by U.S. Sens. Mitch McConnell and Jeff Merkley would not take effect for one year, it would effectively ban 90% of hemp products on the market, hemp advocates warned.

Rainy Season

Recent immigration raids on SoCal cannabis facilities have shaken California’s already beleaguered marijuana industry as leaders worry about a renewed federal assault on farms and dispensaries that could scare workers into staying home and further cripple the state’s multibillion-dollar industry.

Industry leaders and advocates have been huddling about how to react to the federal immigration raids this month that led to the arrests of 361 allegedly undocumented immigrants. The raid became a chaotic, violent mess in which at least one person lost their life and U.S. citizens were detained, including a CSU professor.

Stocks & Stuff

It was a volatile day on Wall Street as rumors floated that President Trump was going to fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, until POTUS walked it back. There is also a lot of noise around the Epstein files, and the political ramifications thereof.

Still, stocks finished higher—well, most stocks, anyway. Cannaland continued to brave vicious crosscurrents and the unknown ramifications of the Glass House raid despite the optimism last week after the POTUS letter and amplification on Schedule III.

Below, we’ll take a walk on the wild side, chew through a litany of grievances, explore why no (Glass House) news maybe good news, touch on the lingering misperceptions surrounding the ETF, check in on Germany telehealth, and keep it real, as we do.

All that and more, just scroll down.

SPY 0.00%↑ QQQ 0.00%↑ IWM 0.00%↑ MSOS 0.00%↑ ETF Notional: $16M

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