Rescheduling Cannabis and SAFER Banking: More Substance Than Show?

When Biden announced moves last year to reform cannabis, most thought it was just virtue signaling. Then, late last month, the Department of Health and Human Services surprised the entire industry with a recommendation to reclassify cannabis from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3 under the Controlled Substances Act. A few weeks later, the Congressional Research Service predicted the DEA would follow that recommendation “if past is prologue." And most recently, a perennially debated bipartisan bill that would open up banking options to the cannabis industry passed a key Senate committee for the first time. How long will the DEA process take? Will they follow HHS’s recommendation or go for a middle-of-the-road option? Will the SAFER Banking Act survive further votes in the full Senate and Republican-controlled House? How will this impact the nation’s $33 billion cannabis industry? Tune in as shareholder Joshua Weiss and policy advisor Osiris Morel discuss recent developments and predict where we go from here.