Carm Grisafi

Not spiking the football (and obv neither is the market) but two items dropped today that, read together, are worth noting for anyone tracking cannabis rescheduling. First: The Medicare CBD pilot launching April 1 will allow full-spectrum products, meaning trace THC is included. The government could have narrowed this to CBD isolate. They didn't. That's a quiet but meaningful acknowledgment of the entourage effect - that the combination of cannabinoids produces better clinical outcomes than CBD alone. You don't design a Medicare pilot around full-spectrum products without believing the THC interaction matters therapeutically. And before anyone says 'the hemp industry just lobbied for this' - Charlotte's Web would have taken isolate coverage and celebrated. The full-spectrum spec is a clinical design choice, not a lobbying win. Second: Rep. Reschenthaler (R-PA) introduced H.R.7987 today, creating a safe harbor for national securities exchanges to list cannabis companies and prohibiting federal adverse action against businesses that serve cannabis operators. Here's the dot-connect: Schedule I is defined as 'no currently accepted medical use.' The federal government is now covering full-spectrum cannabinoid products (including THC) for seniors through a physician-recommended Medicare pilot. You cannot hold both of those positions simultaneously forever. HHS already formally concluded in 2023 that cannabis has accepted medical use. The EO directed the AG to expedite rescheduling. The pilot is now building the real-world evidence record that makes DEA resistance increasingly indefensible. The rescheduling isn't done. 280E relief isn't here yet. But consider what today actually represents: on the same day a federal health agency quietly acknowledged that THC has therapeutic value by designing a Medicare pilot around it, a Republican congressman introduced legislation to let cannabis companies list on national exchanges. One is the scientific predicate. The other is the capital markets infrastructure. You don't build the second without the first eventually following. Cautious optimism is the right posture. But the architecture is taking shape

A senior advisor to President Trump tells us the president is “very disappointed with Bondi’s inaction on cannabis rescheduling.” According to the advisor, Bondi says the delay is due to the DEA’s need to ensure everything is done in a legally valid manner, while continuing to imply a final order could be published within days, something she first said more than a month ago. The advisor says Trump wants the order posted before the forthcoming CBD Medicare program launches and is telling Bondi to do what it takes to get it done. The advisor also says it’s possible Bondi could be removed following Noem, citing rescheduling and other issues.