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A recent flurry of activity on Capitol Hill finds a group of Republican Senators penning a letter to express their trepidations to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) regarding the Biden administration’s proposed reshuffling of marijuana from a high-risk category to a less ominous one.
This missive, spearheaded by Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), raises apprehensions about the potential ramifications of the U.S.’s deliberations to reschedule marijuana on existing international treaties, seeking clarification from DEA Administrator Anne Milgram.
Acting under the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s banner, Romney, alongside his counterparts James Risch (R-ID) and Pete Ricketts (R-NE), shared their unease on Wednesday regarding ongoing deliberations at the DEA to relocate cannabis from the high-security confines of Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to the more lax Schedule III.
The current classification of cannabis under the stringent Schedule I of the CSA places it shoulder-to-shoulder with substances like heroin and ecstasy, depicting no recognizable medical utility and harboring a high potential for misuse. A move to Schedule III would position it in the pharmaceutical company of medications such as Tylenol and ketamine.
“Any endeavor to uproot marijuana’s existing status must be firmly anchored in substantiated facts and empirical evidence—not merely reflective of governmental whims—and must accommodate our treaty commitments,” proclaimed the senators in their written communication.
The stock market mirrors this political melodrama, with marijuana stocks basking in the limelight this year in anticipation of a verdict from the DEA that could usher in favorable tax perks for cannabis enterprises, among other prospective advantages.
This market frenzy sparked in August following hearsay that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) penned a recommendation to the DEA, nudging the agency to demote marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III.
Among the companies poised to profit are U.S. MSOs: Curaleaf Holdings (OTCPK:CURLF), Acreage Holdings (OTCQX:ACRHF), Cresco Labs (OTCQX:CRLBF), Green Thumb Industries (OTCQX:GTBIF), Trulieve Cannabis (OTCQX:TCNNF), Ayr Wellness (OTCQX:AYRWF), TerrAscend (OTCQX:TSNDF), Clever Leaves (CLVR), Flora Growth (FLGC)
Similarly, Canadian Licensed Producers including Canopy Growth (NASDAQ:CGC), Tilray (NASDAQ:TLRY), Cronos (CRON), Aurora Cannabis (ACB), SNDL Inc. (SNDL), OrganiGram Holdings (OGI), and Cannabis-related ETFs like AdvisorShares Pure US Cannabis ETF (MSOS), AdvisorShares Pure Cannabis ETF (YOLO), ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF (MJ), and Amplify Seymour Cannabis ETF (CNBS) stand to ride this wave.
