💸 The Tape

DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge Derek Julius issued a 13-page order Thursday directing dozens of corrections to the official transcript of the marijuana rescheduling hearing. The fully corrected version goes public on DEA's website by August 26.

A transcript correction order is the sort of procedural housekeeping that normally warrants a sentence. This one deserves more, for two reasons: the record it's fixing is about to become the entire evidentiary basis for a scheduling recommendation, and at least two of the corrections materially change what witnesses said.

What the order actually does

The mechanics are straightforward. Corrections will appear in red text on the electronic version, with strikethroughs marking deleted material — meaning the public gets to see exactly what changed rather than a silently cleaned-up document. Per tribunal practice, personally identifiable information — email addresses, phone numbers, residential and business addresses — gets redacted from the public version.

The correction list covers all 11 days of hearing, and reveals the draft transcript runs at least 2,470 pages.

The two that matter

Bury the squirrel. Two corrections change substance.

First: a speaker was transcribed as stating "This is a medication." The corrected version shows they were asking "This is a medication?"

One punctuation mark converts a declarative assertion into a skeptical question. In a proceeding whose central legal issue is whether cannabis has a currently accepted medical use in the United States, the difference between a witness affirming that something is medicine and a witness questioning whether it is medicine is not cosmetic. If a party had cited that line in a brief — and final briefs were filed earlier this week, before this order — they cited testimony that didn't exist.

Second: the statement "there's adulterants" becomes "there's no adulterants."

That's a complete reversal. Product safety and adulteration were live themes throughout, particularly from opposition parties arguing cannabis lacks accepted safety for use under medical supervision. A witness saying adulterants are present and a witness saying they aren't are opposite pieces of evidence on a contested question.

Neither correction is likely to flip the outcome. But both illustrate the risk in a proceeding where the record is the whole case — and where, notably, no supporters of reform were permitted to participate as designated parties to catch errors cutting the other direction.

Why the record carries so much weight here

Context matters. DEA Administrator Terrance Cole invited only organizations and people opposed to marijuana reform as designated participants — Smart Approaches to Marijuana, NDASA, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, DUID Victim Voices, Kenneth Finn, Phillip A. Drum, and the states of Idaho, Indiana and Nebraska — on grounds that supporters aren't "adversely affected or aggrieved." Reform advocates held a press conference outside DEA headquarters saying they'd been shut out. The hearing was not livestreamed, despite requests from Marijuana Moment, a congressman and other outlets.

So the transcript isn't merely a record of the proceeding. For everyone excluded from it, the transcript is the proceeding. Getting it right is the only accountability mechanism available.

Where the substantive fight landed

The final briefs, filed this week, tell you what Julius is now weighing.

DEA — defending the move — argued cannabis no longer fits Schedule I because it has a currently accepted medical use and accepted safety under medical supervision. It cited over 30,000 practitioners treating more than six million patients across 43 jurisdictions, said it must give significant deference to HHS's ten-month scientific study, and argued abuse and dependency profiles align better with Schedule III than Schedule II or I. It asked Julius to "expeditiously recommend" the transfer.

Opponents argued the two-part test federal officials used improperly departs from the prior five-part test, that cannabis lacks accepted medical value, and that reform would undermine drug testing of safety-sensitive workers. That first argument is their strongest procedural attack — though DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel concluded in 2024 that the five-part test was "impermissibly narrow," and DEA has since used the two-part approach on other substances.

Next steps

Here's the sequence from here.

By August 26, the corrected transcript posts publicly.

Then Julius deliberates. He considers final briefs and hearing testimony, then issues a recommendation on scheduling status. No deadline has been announced — and DEA asked for speed, which suggests the agency doesn't expect it automatically.

The recommendation is not the decision. Julius recommends; the DEA Administrator decides. Cole — the same administrator who invited only opponents — holds final authority. That's the single most important structural fact in this process, and it's why a favorable recommendation guarantees nothing.

Litigation runs in parallel. Multiple lawsuits challenging rescheduling have been consolidated by a federal appeals court, filed by state attorneys general, legalization opponents, and a cannabis-focused biopharmaceutical company. A prior Biden-era hearing process stalled entirely last year amid litigation over alleged improper communications and witness selection — precedent worth remembering.

Congress is a wildcard. A congressional committee voted to block officials from further rescheduling steps, though bipartisan lawmakers say that provision won't be enacted.

The read

None of this touches what's already done. Attorney General Todd Blanche's April order reclassifying state-licensed medical cannabis to Schedule III is in effect and generating real consequences: IRS tax guidance coming, DEA registration open for state-legal businesses, ATF revising gun forms to recognize medical cannabis, and CRS confirming certified patients have new possession protections.

This hearing concerns the broader move — adult-use included. That's the part still unresolved.

A corrected transcript is a small thing. But in a proceeding with no livestream, no reform participants, and a decision-maker who structured it that way, an accurate 2,470-page record is most of what the public gets.

Source: Marijuana Moment

📈 Dog Walkers

$GTBIF ( ▲ 2.0% ) Expands In Florida

Green Thumb Industries (CSE: GTII) (OTCQX: GTBIF) opened RISE Dispensary Port St. Lucie today at 2092 NW Courtyard Circle, its 24th Florida location and part of a national footprint now exceeding 120 owned and managed stores. A grand opening event follows September 7.

This is the company's first dispensary in St. Lucie County, which President Anthony Georgiadis called one of Florida's fastest-growing regions — serving patients across the Treasure Coast. The shelf carries the full house portfolio: RYTHM premium flower, vapes and concentrates, Dogwalkers pre-rolls, Good Green and &Shine flower, and Doctor Solomon's tinctures and topicals, all supplied from Green Thumb's production facilities in Ocala and Homestead. First-day profits go to Arc of the Treasure Coast, which supports people with disabilities through inclusive programming and advocacy.

The cadence is what's notable. Port Charlotte opened August 10. Port St. Lucie opens August 22. Two new Florida markets in under two weeks, both in underserved coastal counties.

That pace fits the Q2 numbers. Green Thumb reported comparable sales down 1.1% across 103 stores, with all growth coming from new doors and new markets. Florida is also where licensed operators compete hardest against unregulated hemp THC — the legislature adjourned in March without acting, and the next session doesn't convene until January 2027.

Vertical supply from Ocala and Homestead protects margin on every unit sold. Twenty-four doors in a medical-only state is a considerable bet on what Florida eventually becomes.

📺 Trade To Black

Trump Nominates Heidi Overton as FDA Commissioner | TTB Weekly Recap

• Trump nominates Dr. Heidi Overton to run the FDA — a role that will directly shape the CBD regulatory pathway, the hemp THC framework, and medical cannabis oversight following Schedule III.

• Curaleaf goes formal on Aurora. Curaleaf (TSX: CURA) (OTCQX: CURLF) launched its hostile bid for Aurora Cannabis (TSX: ACB) (NASDAQ: ACB) at an implied $4.00 per share — with Aurora's board urging shareholders to take no action while its Special Committee reviews.

• Georgia's medical program is surging. Patient counts jumped over 22% in a single month since SB 220 took effect.

• Earnings and EU-GMP moves. Vext Science (CSE: VEXT) posted steady Arizona results with Ohio as the next catalyst, and Decibel (TSXV: DB) delivered another strong quarter behind Qwest and General Admission. TerrAscend (TSX: TSND) announced a share repurchase program, Tilray (NASDAQ: TLRY) leaned further into beverage diversification, and Canopy Growth (NASDAQ: CGC), Village Farms (NASDAQ: VFF) and SNDL (NASDAQ: SNDL) all made EU-GMP moves.