This week’s minor milestone in the crawl to rescheduling cannabis is only big news for big ballers
It’s no surprise that Bloomberg broke the story: “US Health Officials Urge Moving Pot to Lower-Risk Category: Change would remove drug from most restricted designation.”
The news may raise the eyebrows of weed speculators, but for anyone who doesn’t have cannabis stock investments, it’s just the latest lurch forward in prohibitionist America, with no end in sight beyond the orgy of policy whims and paralyzing political compromises comprising the current crooked confederation of state programs modeled after preceding neighboring failures.
As other outlets noted several paragraphs down into stories about this alleged “biggest thing, ever” since that first Bloomberg headline dropped Wednesday, “much more needs to happen before tangible effects are felt – including a separate U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration review and, possibly, a judicial review.” In other words, we’re still nowhere close to seeing cannabis actually reclassified to Schedule 3 from its current Schedule 1 status alongside heroin.
Biden administration officials may have recommended the overdue change, but nothing substantial has happened on the political front just yet. Rather, the only impact of this overcooked nothing burger is in the stock market, where cannabis companies enjoyed a reported 20% boost from the hype. That’s why the story’s being served so shamelessly by big media ops, no different from their cheering on high monthly sales numbers. That and because it’s a slow news week heading into a holiday.
There’s not much left for me to add. Talking Joints Memo is committed to impugning the Cannabis Control Commission in Massachusetts, but for federal updates, any of the aforementioned mocked outlets and many others have worthwhile and thorough accounts.
There’s also lots of buzz on social media and among industry stakeholders; a lot of people think the gesture is purely political, with Biden looking to build favor with the vast majority of Americans who support federal legalization. Others say it’s barely worth the conversations this week’s headlines are spurring.
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