💸 The Tape

The votes are there. The will to hold the vote is not.

That's the core frustration House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) laid bare on Monday — fittingly, on 4/20 — when he told reporters that enough bipartisan support exists in the House to pass comprehensive federal marijuana reform, if only Republican leadership would allow the measure to reach the floor.

"I've consistently supported the rescheduling of marijuana," Jeffries said. "It should not be classified as a Schedule I drug."

He went further, describing cannabis's current classification as a relic of "the failed war on drugs, which has resulted in the over-incarceration of millions of Americans since that failed war on drugs was first launched by Richard Nixon in the summer of 1971."

It's a statement that would have been politically risky a decade ago. In 2026, it barely qualifies as controversial — which is precisely the point Jeffries was making. The politics have moved. The policy hasn't.

The Bipartisan Paradox

Jeffries framed the issue as one where the votes exist but the procedural gatekeeping doesn't allow them to be counted. "This does seem to exist as a bipartisan issue, particularly amongst younger generations of Republicans and the entirety of the House Democratic Caucus," he said. "We know that the votes do exist to act legislatively."

The history backs him up — to a point. The House under previous Democratic majorities has twice passed bills to federally legalize marijuana and has on multiple occasions advanced legislation to ease the cannabis industry's access to banking services. But none of those measures have advanced under Republican control of the chamber, and the Senate — regardless of which party held the majority — has never passed legalization or banking legislation either.

That track record creates a familiar cycle: reform passes the House when Democrats control the agenda, dies in the Senate or under Republican House leadership, and the industry remains stuck in federal limbo while 38 states have legalized some form of cannabis.

Jeffries signaled that if a legislative path doesn't open in the current Congress, Democrats will be "in a position to do something about it in the next Congress" — a thinly veiled reference to expectations that the party could reclaim the House majority in November's midterm elections.

Booker Keeps the Pressure On

Jeffries isn't the only senior Democrat keeping cannabis reform in the spotlight. Last week, Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) — one of the most vocal and persistent advocates for federal marijuana reform in Congress — reiterated his push for comprehensive legalization, continuing a years-long campaign that has placed him at the center of nearly every major cannabis policy debate on Capitol Hill.

Booker has long argued that federal cannabis reform isn't just a matter of industry regulation — it's a civil rights imperative. He has consistently highlighted the racial disparities in marijuana enforcement, pointing to data showing that Black Americans have been arrested for cannabis offenses at dramatically higher rates than white Americans despite roughly equal usage rates. For Booker, legalization without equity provisions, expungement, and reinvestment in communities disproportionately harmed by prohibition is incomplete reform.

His message last week echoed that theme, reinforcing the urgency of federal action at a moment when the administrative rescheduling process — moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III — remains unresolved and politically uncertain. Booker has previously expressed concern that rescheduling alone doesn't go far enough, arguing that it addresses some regulatory and research barriers but fails to resolve the fundamental conflict between federal prohibition and the state-legal markets operating across most of the country.

Together, Jeffries and Booker represent the clearest articulation of the Democratic position on cannabis: full federal legalization with social equity provisions, not just incremental rescheduling.

The Rescheduling Backdrop

All of this is playing out against the still-unresolved administrative process to reschedule cannabis. The DEA's proposed move from Schedule I to Schedule III — initiated after a recommendation from the Department of Health and Human Services — would represent the most significant shift in federal marijuana policy in decades, but it falls short of what legalization advocates want.

Schedule III classification would ease some burdens on the cannabis industry, most notably eliminating the punitive Section 280E tax provision that prevents marijuana businesses from deducting ordinary business expenses. It would also open doors for more federal research. But it would not legalize cannabis at the federal level, would not resolve banking access issues, and would not address the millions of Americans carrying criminal records for marijuana offenses.

For legislators like Jeffries and Booker, rescheduling is a step — but legislation is the destination.

The Appropriations Angle

Meanwhile, a less dramatic but potentially significant development is unfolding in the House Appropriations Committee, which this week is expected to issue a directive for federal agencies to study the "adequacy" of state marijuana laws and to assess methods for "preventing diversion" of state-legal cannabis into jurisdictions where it remains prohibited.

That language is worth watching. Depending on how it's interpreted and implemented, it could lay groundwork for federal acknowledgment of state-level regulatory frameworks — or it could be used to justify increased federal scrutiny of legal markets. The directive's framing will signal whether Congress is moving toward accommodation of state legalization or pushback against it.

Where This Leaves the Industry

For cannabis operators, investors, and advocates, the Jeffries and Booker comments reinforce a reality that has defined the industry for years: the political support for reform is broad, but the legislative mechanics remain broken.

The House can pass cannabis bills when the majority party wants to. The Senate has never mustered the votes or the will. And the executive branch's rescheduling process moves at a pace that makes glaciers look ambitious.

What's changed is the political cost calculus. Supporting marijuana reform is no longer a liability for most lawmakers — it's increasingly a liability not to. Public polling consistently shows supermajority support for legalization. State-level markets continue to expand. And the gap between what voters want and what Congress delivers grows wider with each session.

Jeffries is right that the votes exist. The question — as it has been for years — is whether the people who control the calendar will ever let them be counted.

Original Content: Marijuana Moment

📈 Dog Walkers

GLP-1’s Are Even Impacting POS In Dispo’s

The cannabis industry has navigated legalization battles, banking restrictions, and price compression. Now it faces an entirely different kind of disruption: Ozempic.

According to a Reuters report, the surging popularity of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs is quietly reshaping consumer behavior in the $40 billion U.S. cannabis market, forcing dispensaries and product manufacturers to rethink what they sell and how they sell it.

The connection centers on one of cannabis's most culturally embedded side effects: the munchies. Users on online forums are reporting diminished cravings while on GLP-1 therapies, along with uncertainty about how the medications interact with marijuana's appetite-driven aftereffects. Dispensaries, meanwhile, are noting shifting customer preferences as a result.

Stoops NYC, a dispensary in New York's Flatiron district, said it increasingly recommends lower-dose edibles, vapes, or tinctures to customers on GLP-1 medications. The reasoning is partly practical: GLP-1 therapies slow gastric emptying, which can delay the onset of edible effects and increase the risk of consumers dosing again too soon — leading to unexpectedly intense experiences.

Wendy Bronfein, co-founder of Curio Wellness, acknowledged the trend is accelerating, saying the company is "exploring ways to provide clearer guidance at the point of sale" as GLP-1 adoption grows.

The science is catching up to the anecdotes. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is sponsoring a clinical trial evaluating tirzepatide — the active ingredient in Eli Lilly's weight-loss drugs — as a potential treatment for cannabis use disorder. NIDA Director Dr. Nora Volkow noted that retrospective analyses of health records show patients prescribed semaglutide had significantly better outcomes related to cannabis use disorder compared to those on other treatments. A separate trial through Brigham and Women's Hospital is expected to launch later this year.

Consumer curiosity is already measurable. Data from cannabis education nonprofit Realm of Caring shows that since 2024, top queries on its hotline have included searches like "THC for weight loss," "weed strains that suppress appetite," and "edibles that don't make you hungry."

The behavioral shifts extend beyond appetite. Some consumers appear to be substituting cannabis for alcohol, while others are moving toward more intentional use focused on sleep or stress relief rather than recreational consumption.

Still, industry insiders urge caution. As Michael Flemmens of SōRSE Technology put it: metabolism, dosage, tolerance, and the specific GLP-1 drug involved all introduce variables that make generalizations premature.

The munchies may be fading. The market implications are just getting started.

🗞️ The News

📺 YouTube

Are We Finally Close to Cannabis Reform? | TTB Presented by Flowhub

What we will cover:

✅ In our latest Trade To Black podcast presented by Flowhub, hosts Shadd Dales and Anthony Varrell are digging into the latest stories in cannabis—and there’s a lot happening right now.

We start with a report suggesting Congress may actually have the votes to pass federal cannabis reform. It sounds promising, but as always in this industry, it raises the bigger question—does it finally get done this time?

From there, we shift to the hemp side of the business, where new USDA data shows U.S. farmers produced $739 million worth of legal hemp last year. At the same time, parts of that market are facing increased scrutiny, especially around unregulated products.

We also touch on Kazmira launching a new medical cannabis education platform, which points to where things could be heading on the healthcare side of the industry.

In our second segment, Dan from The Chart Guys joins us to break down cannabis stock performance following 4/20—and how the market reacted after reports that President Trump is pushing his Cabinet to finalize the rescheduling process.