Mary Jane’s Last Dance

The Biden Administration needs to deliver.

Daily Recap

President Biden recently reaffirmed his commitment to federal cannabis policy reform but activists contend that rescheduling alone won’t help those who have been most harmed by prohibition.

The President responded to a sign held by a cannabis activist last week that stated “no one should be jailed” and he assured the crowd that he was “taking care of that”—but the only way for Biden to “fulfill his promise” is to remove cannabis from the CSA.

This, of course, has already emerged as a central plank for Biden-Harris 2.0.

Amish Upon a Star

A top Pennsylvania House Democratic committee chairman says it’s “high time” to legalize cannabis and lay the groundwork for state businesses to export cannabis to other markets if federal law changes—and he sees a “real opportunity” to do so, even as his Republican counterpart is downplaying that possibility this session.

“Pennsylvania, if we want to get in front of things, it’s high time that we legalize adult-use cannabis, tax it and create the industry here.” - Jordan Harris (D)

Disaster Recovery Plan

Gov. Kathy Hochul has told New York officials to come up with a fix for the way the state licenses cannabis businesses amid widespread frustration over the plodding pace of the state’s legal rollout and the explosion of unlicensed dispensaries.

The governor ordered a top-to-bottom review of the state’s licensing bureaucracy, which is weeks after she declared the rollout “a disaster” and called off a meeting when she learned the Control Board was prepared to hand out only a few licenses.

Mr. Tax Man 🎶

The IRS has issued a new memo clarifying rules for reporting large cash payments between marijuana businesses, which the agency says should not automatically be considered “suspicious” just bc of the federally prohibited nature of the industry.

“The memorandum provides guidance on many of these issues in a question-and-answer format. We are working on additional guidance on questions related to cash couriers and armored cars who transport cash between growers/manufacturers and dispensaries/sellers.” -Special Agent Carl Hanratty

Stocks & Stuff

After a two-session 22% sprint, U.S. canna ETF took a breather and finished 4% lower on moderate volume. Canadian canna stocks, meanwhile, were firm once more as traders/ investors revisit our northern neighbors ahead of potential regulatory change.

Below, we’ll chew through today’s price action, keep an eye on this week’s catalysts, update our technical status, sniff at the options market and touch on a few rentals.

All that and more, just scroll down.

SPY 0.00%↑ QQQ 0.00%↑ IWM 0.00%↑ MSOS 0.00%↑ PT Notional: $145M ($99M)

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