💸 The Tape

Smart Approaches to Marijuana has been the cannabis industry's most persistent antagonist for over a decade. Last week, a federal judge told them they didn't even have the right to be in the courtroom.

Judge Trevor N. McFadden of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed SAM's lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's Medicare-linked CBD pilot program on Friday, finding that the plaintiffs — SAM, allied prohibitionist organizations, individual activists, and biopharmaceutical company MMJ International Holdings — failed to demonstrate standing to bring the case. In legal terms, the court concluded their alleged injuries were "too distant from the policy to support federal jurisdiction."

It's the kind of dismissal that doesn't just lose a case. It questions whether you belonged in court at all.

What SAM Was Challenging

The lawsuit, SAM et al. v. Kennedy et al. (Case 1:26-cv-01081), targeted a first-of-its-kind Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) pilot program that provides eligible Medicare beneficiaries with access to hemp-derived CBD products at no out-of-pocket cost. The program — known as the Substance Access Beneficiary Engagement Incentive (BEI) — was designed to evaluate whether providing seniors with access to cannabinoid products could reduce reliance on more expensive pharmaceutical alternatives, particularly opioid-based pain medications.

The pilot launched on April 1, 2026, under the direction of CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, and represented the first time any federal health insurance program had provided coverage for cannabis-related products. It was a groundbreaking step — and SAM moved immediately to stop it.

The Legal Arguments

SAM and its 10 co-plaintiffs filed suit in late March seeking a permanent injunction to block the program. Their core arguments centered on procedural and statutory violations.

First, they claimed CMS bypassed the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) by implementing the pilot without going through the standard notice-and-comment rulemaking process that federal regulations typically require. Second, they alleged the program violated the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) by providing federal reimbursement for products that haven't received FDA approval. The plaintiffs pointed out that CMS had issued a final rule just the prior year explicitly barring cannabis and CBD products from Medicare coverage — making the pilot, in their view, a direct contradiction of the agency's own recently established policy.

SAM also argued that hemp-derived cannabinoid products have "established and documented health risks" for Medicare populations, are "pervasively contaminated and mislabeled," lack an FDA regulatory framework, and are produced by distilling cannabinoids from hemp into concentrated substances — making them, in SAM's interpretation, federally illegal Schedule I substances.

The First Loss: TRO Denied

SAM's legal troubles started before the case even got going. On March 31 — the day before the pilot was set to launch — a judge denied SAM's motion for a temporary restraining order, allowing the program to proceed on schedule. The denial meant the CBD pilot went live on April 1 as planned, with participating healthcare organizations already beginning to furnish eligible beneficiaries with hemp-derived products.

SAM subsequently filed an amended complaint and again sought emergency court intervention on an expedited track. But the fundamental problem — standing — was never resolved.

The Dismissal

Judge McFadden's ruling cut to the most basic question in federal litigation: do the people filing this lawsuit have the legal right to file it?

The answer was no. The court found that SAM and its co-plaintiffs failed to establish that they had suffered a concrete, particularized injury traceable to the CMS pilot program — the constitutional minimum required to sue in federal court under Article III standing requirements. Their alleged harms were too speculative, too generalized, and too disconnected from the specific policy being challenged.

For SAM, an organization that has built its identity around legal and political opposition to cannabis normalization, being told by a federal court that it lacks standing to challenge a cannabis program isn't just a procedural loss. It's a credibility problem.

The Bigger Picture: SAM's Diminishing Influence

The Medicare CBD dismissal is the second significant legal setback for SAM in recent weeks. The organization also filed a separate lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's rescheduling order that moved state-licensed medical cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III — a case that remains pending but faces its own procedural and substantive hurdles.

SAM's legal strategy appears to be evolving from policy advocacy into a last-stand litigation campaign, filing suits against multiple federal cannabis initiatives simultaneously. But the results so far suggest the courts aren't particularly receptive.

The organization's broader influence has been waning for years. When SAM was founded by Kevin Sabet in 2013, it positioned itself as a centrist, science-based voice arguing against legalization without advocating for criminalization. That framing was effective when cannabis reform was still a contested political question. In 2026 — with 40+ states having legalized some form of cannabis, a Republican president signing rescheduling orders, the DEA actively registering medical cannabis operators, and supermajority public support for legalization in national polling — SAM's opposition reads less like principled caution and more like institutional inertia.

The hiring of former Attorney General William Barr's law firm to challenge rescheduling added a layer of political irony that wasn't lost on observers — Trump's own former AG being used to sue Trump's own DOJ over a policy Trump himself ordered.

What This Means for the CBD Pilot

With the lawsuit dismissed, the CMS pilot program continues operating without legal impediment. Participating Accountable Care Organizations and oncology practices can furnish eligible Medicare beneficiaries with hemp-derived CBD products, with the program designed to gather data on patient outcomes, cost reduction, and whether cannabinoid access reduces dependence on conventional pharmaceuticals.

For companies positioning themselves in the pharmaceutical cannabinoid space — including those building EU GMP-certified manufacturing, FDA Drug Master Files, and clinical trial infrastructure — the pilot's survival is significant. It establishes a federal precedent for cannabinoid products within the Medicare system, however limited in scope, and creates a data-generating framework that could inform future policy decisions.

The Bottom Line

SAM set out to block one of the most innovative cannabinoid healthcare initiatives the federal government has ever launched. A federal judge said they didn't even have the right to try.

The dismissal doesn't mean SAM's arguments about product safety, FDA oversight, and regulatory process are entirely without merit — some of those concerns are shared by people who support cannabis reform. But when the courts won't even let you make the argument, the message is clear: the ground has shifted, and the organizations still fighting the last war are finding fewer and fewer venues willing to hear their case.

The cannabis industry keeps moving forward. SAM keeps filing lawsuits. The scoreboard is starting to tell the story.

📈 Dog Walkers

$CURLF ( ▼ 4.2% ) Stock Reverse Split

Curaleaf is making a deliberate play for the biggest prize in U.S. cannabis capital markets: a major stock exchange listing.

The world's largest cannabis company by revenue announced a 1-for-3 reverse stock split effective on or about June 5, 2026, reducing its outstanding subordinate voting shares from approximately 698.7 million to 232.9 million. The move is designed to boost the per-share trading price to meet minimum price thresholds required by major U.S. exchanges — and to get above limits set by certain retail brokerage firms that restrict trading in low-priced securities.

Chairman and CEO Boris Jordan was explicit about the intent: "This important step is part of Curaleaf's long-term effort to achieve the listing of our shares to a major U.S. stock exchange." He added that the company is preparing to "move quickly and decisively when that opportunity comes into view."

The timing is strategic. The DEA hearing on full cannabis rescheduling is expected to conclude in July, and Jordan referenced forthcoming U.S. Treasury guidance supporting industry normalization. If adult-use cannabis follows medical marijuana to Schedule III, the regulatory and compliance barriers that have kept cannabis companies off the NYSE and Nasdaq could begin to fall — and Curaleaf wants to be first in line.

An uplisting would be transformational. It would expose Curaleaf to a dramatically larger pool of institutional investors, many of whom are currently restricted from purchasing securities listed on the CSE or OTC markets. It would also improve liquidity, analyst coverage, and the company's overall cost of capital.

The reverse split has received conditional TSX approval, and shares will continue trading under the "CURA" symbol. All outstanding options and convertible securities will be proportionately adjusted.

The message is clear: Curaleaf isn't waiting for uplisting to happen. It's positioning to be ready the moment the door opens.

$VREOF ( ▲ 7.19% ) Acquires Yet Another Company

The rapidly acquisitive multi-state operator announced its intention to acquire Bridgewell Agribusiness, a privately held supplier of organic and non-GMO food and agricultural products to manufacturers and processors. The deal is based on a $40 million base purchase price, though after accounting for approximately $30 million in assumed debt and transaction expenses, the estimated closing consideration is roughly $10.3 million — paid entirely through an unsecured, subordinated convertible note that automatically converts into approximately 16.6 million Vireo shares on or after the second anniversary of closing.

Bridgewell operates as an intermediary between agricultural producers and food manufacturers, sourcing and supplying commodities and ingredients that meet organic certification and regulatory standards. It's a business built on supply chain logistics, compliance expertise, and agricultural commodity procurement — capabilities that arguably overlap with what large-scale cannabis operators already do.

For Vireo — which has completed a dizzying string of acquisitions including Schwazze, Eaze, Hawthorne, and the pending FLUENT deal — Bridgewell represents a diversification play into adjacent agricultural markets using equity rather than cash.

The transaction remains subject to definitive agreements and regulatory approvals. Whether it closes as described — or at all — is not guaranteed.

🗞️ The News

📺 Trade To Black

Virginia Blocks Cannabis Again, SAM Loses | TTB Weekly Recap

• Virginia Stalls Again: Governor Spanberger vetoed the adult-use retail bill, leaving the state in continued legal limbo — and pushing any new legislation to the 2027 session at the earliest.

• SAM Loses Ground: A federal judge dismissed SAM's lawsuit challenging the Medicare hemp/CBD pilot program, raising questions about the anti-cannabis organization's remaining influence as federal reform accelerates.

• Earnings Roundup: Updates covered from Safe Harbor Financial, Decibel Cannabis, Verano, Glass House, Planet 13, and Canopy Growth — alongside new CBG research and growing Pennsylvania legalization pressure.

• Separation Underway: The clearest theme emerging from earnings season is that disciplined operators with strong balance sheets, international growth, and execution are visibly pulling away from the rest of the pack.