Daily Recap
The Senate voted to advance RFK Jr.'s nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services today, teeing up a final confirmation vote as early as tomorrow.
Kennedy's path to confirmation was once considered to be among the most fragile of President Trump's nominees. The 71-year-old faced scrutiny from both sides of the aisle in recent weeks and he was grilled at a pair of fiery hearings last month over his controversial views on vaccines and abortion.
While he deflected on the issue of cannabis during the confirmation process, his views on the plant are long held and well-known. Tulsi Gabbard, who was confirmed today as the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) is also a longstanding fan of the plant.
MO Lester
Missouri’s cannabis industry began 2025 on a positive note with $123M in January sales. While that was 6% below December 2024’s record high of $131M, it is still a significant year-over-year gain vs. January 2024’s $110M.
In addition to these monthly totals, daily average sales in January 2025 were ~$4M per day, reflecting consistent consumer activity despite the seasonal normalization following December’s peak.
Scarlet Fire
The state of Ohio has made over $319M since adult-use cannabis sales began six months ago and that figure doesn't include medical sales.
As of Feb. 8, total cannabis revenues had reached over $2.4B but the Governor wants more. In 2026, he's hoping to raise the cannabis tax from 10 to 20% and use it for jail improvements, law enforcement and cannabis-related conviction expungements.
Taxidermy
Governors in at least three other U.S. states have proposed tax increases for legal canna products. In Maine, Maryland and Michigan, leadership has floated tax hikes for their programs—a trend that raises questions about balancing revenue goals against the need to bring consumers into the legal arena at affordable prices.
Stocks & Stuff
There’s nothing going on except the rent as the vapor thin conditions continued in Cannaland. U.S. cannabis ETF MSOS eked out a 1% gain on what was the lowest non-holiday notional volume since Sept. 15, 2020.
Below, we’ll top-line the space, weigh the deafening silence from the administration against the need to staff the agencies charged with effecting said changes, finger a few company-specific green shoots and explore potential frenemies in the farm bill.
All that and more, just scroll down.
Note: NYC meetings likely means no canna confidential tomorrow afternoon.
SPY 0.00%↑ QQQ 0.00%↑ IWM 0.00%↑ MSOS 0.00%↑ ETF Notional: $9M
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