💸 The Tape

For decades, a visit from the DEA was the worst thing that could happen to a cannabis business. Last week in Mississippi, it was just another Tuesday.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has begun conducting on-site inspections at marijuana dispensaries that submitted federal registration applications following the Trump administration's rescheduling order — and the early reports from the ground describe something the industry has never experienced from this agency: a collaborative tone.

The Mississippi Medical Marijuana Association (3MA) told Marijuana Moment that two of its members — High Street Dispensary in Jackson and Legally Rooted in Meridian — were visited by federal officials last week, with both businesses reportedly told they were "among the first in the country" to receive inspections. DEA teams of five to six officials spent approximately six hours at High Street Dispensary, conducting full facility tours, reviewing documentation, and asking detailed questions about everything from operating hours and product variety to security systems and inventory tracking.

The most remarkable detail wasn't what the agents asked. It was how they asked it.

David Fowler, owner of High Street Dispensary, described the DEA officials as "very cordial" and said they "did not come in overbearing." He characterized the interaction as cooperative, noting the agents acknowledged they were "new to this whole process too" and had an attitude of "we're gonna work on it together."

Read that again. The DEA — the same agency that has enforced cannabis prohibition for over half a century — walked into a marijuana dispensary and said, essentially, let's figure this out together.

A Dramatic Shift in Posture

To fully appreciate how extraordinary this is, you need to understand where the DEA was just 18 months ago.

Under the Biden administration, the rescheduling process that began with an HHS recommendation in August 2023 was met with institutional resistance from the DEA at nearly every turn. After the Attorney General issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in May 2024 and the public submitted over 43,000 comments, the DEA convened a formal administrative hearing — then promptly allowed it to stall for 15 months during an interlocutory appeal that the DEA Administrator never bothered to resolve.

The agency was accused of slow-walking the process, and the characterization was difficult to dispute. Witnesses had been identified. Prehearing statements had been submitted. And then — nothing. For over a year, the most consequential cannabis policy proceeding in federal history sat frozen while the agency that was supposed to be running it showed no urgency whatsoever.

Behind the scenes, the dynamics were even more adversarial. The Biden-era ALJ hearing was plagued by allegations of improper communications and witness selection issues that led to litigation before a single day of testimony occurred. NDASA — the drug testing industry trade group now suing to block rescheduling — had been designated to participate and planned to provide expert testimony opposing the move. The hearing process felt designed less to reach a conclusion than to prevent one.

Then came the Trump executive order in December 2025, directing the Attorney General to complete rescheduling "in the most expeditious manner." Even then, the DEA did nothing for months — until President Trump himself publicly complained about being "slow-walked" during an Oval Office ceremony in April 2026. Four days later, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed the rescheduling order, bypassed the stalled hearing entirely, and moved state-licensed medical cannabis to Schedule III effective immediately.

The DEA that showed up in Mississippi last week is operating under a fundamentally different directive than the one that sat on the Biden-era hearing for over a year. The agency isn't just processing applications — it's conducting inspections, gathering operational data, and engaging with cannabis businesses as legitimate registrants rather than enforcement targets. That shift didn't happen organically. It happened because the White House made it happen.

What the Inspections Look Like

The documentation requests from the Mississippi visits provide the clearest picture yet of what DEA federal oversight of cannabis businesses will entail. According to 3MA, agents requested license transfer and ownership change documentation, communications with state regulators regarding violations, complete owner information including Social Security numbers, full inventory lists (required every two years), vendor lists and ordering processes, METRC purchase histories, employee records, training documentation, complete security plans, and a narrative of business history.

They also required that a sign be displayed outside the dispensary stating the facility is under 24-hour surveillance.

It's a thorough but not unreasonable compliance framework — one that mirrors what state regulators already require in most markets and aligns with the oversight applied to other Schedule III controlled substances like ketamine and certain prescription medications. For well-run dispensaries already operating under robust state compliance programs, the federal layer adds documentation and reporting requirements but shouldn't require fundamental operational changes.

Where the Broader Rescheduling Process Stands

The inspections are happening against the backdrop of an accelerating — and contested — federal rescheduling timeline.

The April 22 order from Acting AG Blanche moved state-licensed medical cannabis and FDA-approved cannabis products to Schedule III immediately, using the Section 811(d) treaty authority under the UN Single Convention. Over 400 operators have submitted DEA registration applications, Trulieve is now trading on the NYSE, and multiple MSOs — including Curaleaf, Verano, and Glass House — are executing reverse stock splits and deconsolidation transactions to position for their own exchange listings.

The next critical milestone is the DEA administrative law judge hearing beginning June 29, which will consider whether all marijuana — including recreational — should also move to Schedule III. The hearing is expected to conclude by July 15 under Acting AG Blanche's order, making it an extraordinarily compressed timeline for what could be the most consequential scheduling proceeding in the CSA's history.

Meanwhile, the legal challenges continue building. NDASA, MMJ International Holdings, SAM, and attorneys general from Indiana, Nebraska, and Louisiana have filed a consolidated lawsuit in the D.C. Circuit challenging the medical rescheduling order, along with a motion for stay seeking to freeze the entire process. The petitioners argue Blanche bypassed required formal rulemaking procedures — a claim built on the D.C. Circuit's own 1977 NORML v. DEA precedent.

The IRS and Treasury have announced forthcoming guidance on 280E tax relief for Schedule III medical operators. The ATF has drafted updated gun purchase forms acknowledging medical marijuana's legal status. And the DEA is preparing to release additional registration forms for manufacturers, distributors, and testing laboratories — expanding the federal framework beyond dispensaries into the full cannabis supply chain.

The Bottom Line

The DEA showing up at cannabis dispensaries with clipboards instead of warrants is perhaps the most visceral illustration of what rescheduling actually means in practice. For an agency that spent decades treating every cannabis operation as a criminal enterprise, conducting collaborative compliance inspections with state-licensed businesses represents a fundamental institutional transformation — one that didn't come from within the agency, but was imposed on it by executive directive.

Whether that transformation survives the legal challenges now working through the D.C. Circuit depends on how the court evaluates the procedural pathway Blanche used. But on the ground in Mississippi — and presumably in other states where inspections are beginning — the DEA is treating cannabis businesses as what federal law now says they are: legitimate Schedule III registrants deserving of oversight, not prosecution.

The June 29 hearing begins in 11 days. The legal challenges are pending. And the DEA is already on the ground, inspecting facilities and building the federal compliance infrastructure that could define cannabis regulation for the next generation.

The agency that once kicked in doors is now knocking politely. In cannabis policy, that's not just progress — it's a revolution.

Source: Marijuana Moment

📈 Dog Walkers

$CMND ( ▼ 0.96% ) Patents Addiction Treatment

Clearmind Medicine just added another brick to its intellectual property wall — and this one covers territory far beyond alcohol.

The clinical-stage biotech announced it has been granted U.S. Patent No. 12,350,242 titled "Binge Behavior Regulators" by the USPTO, covering compositions and methods using its lead molecule MEAI (5-methoxy-2-aminoindane) to regulate binge behaviors — including excessive drinking, eating, and gambling.

That scope matters. While Clearmind's clinical program is currently focused on CMND-100 for Alcohol Use Disorder, the patent extends protection across a broader range of compulsive behaviors — effectively reserving intellectual property rights for potential future indications that could significantly expand the molecule's commercial addressable market.

CEO Dr. Adi Zuloff-Shani said the grant brings Clearmind's global portfolio to 32 patents, reinforcing the company's position in psychedelic-derived therapeutics and advancing protection for both CMND-100 and the broader CNS pipeline.

For a company whose Phase I/IIa trial recently met its primary safety endpoint and is evaluating eligibility for FDA Breakthrough Therapy Designation, building durable IP around multiple indications is exactly the kind of forward-looking strategy that creates long-term optionality. The science advances one trial at a time, but the patent portfolio is quietly building the commercial moat around whatever comes next.

$TRIP.CSE ( 0.0% ) Shed Lb’s

The post-Ozempic problem just attracted an unlikely player: a psychedelics company with a coca leaf extract.

Red Light Holland announced that Magdalena Biosciences — a joint venture held through its subsidiary Filament Health and Jaguar Health (NASDAQ: JAGX) — has reported positive preclinical results showing that a novel coca leaf extract prevented weight gain in mice on a high-fat diet without reducing food intake or increasing physical activity.

The thesis is commercially compelling. Millions of patients on GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Zepbound lose significant weight while on treatment — but commonly regain it after stopping, as the appetite-suppressing effects diminish. Magdalena is developing the coca leaf extract as a post-GLP-1 weight maintenance therapy under the FDA's Botanical Drug Guidance — targeting what could become one of the largest unmet needs in metabolic medicine as GLP-1 adoption scales globally.

The 20-day preclinical study was conducted in Alberta in collaboration with the Borgland Lab at the University of Calgary, with coca leaf sourced from ENACO, Peru's state coca commercialization company, under Nagoya Protocol compliance. Indigenous Andean communities have used coca for centuries to manage hunger and fatigue — a traditional knowledge base that Magdalena is now advancing through a modern regulatory pathway.

CEO Todd Shapiro called the results "a clear example of the broader value created through our acquisition of Filament," noting that the deal gave Red Light exposure to a botanical drug program addressing "a large and growing unmet need in weight management" beyond Filament's core psilocybin manufacturing capabilities.

It's early-stage — preclinical mice data is several years and many millions of dollars from an approved therapy. But a naturally derived botanical candidate targeting the GLP-1 off-ramp, developed under FDA guidance, is the kind of differentiated pipeline asset that attracts attention in a market obsessed with weight loss solutions.

🗞️ The News

📺 Trade To Black

Curaleaf CEO: Cannabis Revaluation Is Coming | Trade to Black

• Institutional Capital Watch: Curaleaf CEO Boris Jordan says firms like BlackRock and Fidelity are paying attention to cannabis but still need additional regulatory clarity — including guidance from the IRS, FinCEN, and the outcome of the DEA hearing — before making meaningful equity investments.

• Uplisting Strategy: Jordan explains why patience may be more valuable than speed on Curaleaf's path to a major exchange listing, even as Trulieve has already made the leap to the NYSE and Glass House has filed its own application.

• Consolidation Coming: The conversation points to M&A among top-tier MSOs — including Curaleaf, Trulieve, GTI, Verano, and Glass House — as a major theme ahead, driven by Schedule III economics, capital markets access, and the competitive advantages of scale.

• Normalization Phase: Jordan believes the industry is finally approaching a period of regulatory and financial normalization, with the DEA hearing, Treasury guidance, and exchange uplisting momentum collectively creating conditions that could fundamentally re-rate cannabis equities.