Good morning.
Tickets to The Highrise next week are going quick. If you’ll be in NYC on the 22nd, get your tickets. Details below.
Let’s get to it.
-JB, JR
Today’s newsletter is 1,165 words or about a 9-minute read.
CULTIVATED CALENDAR
October 20 » Sweed x Cultivated Webinar: Turn Green Wednesday traffic into repeat customers
October 22 » The Highrise → Check out the second in our NYC series and apply to attend. Details on the website!
November 12 » Pot Policy and Politics → The second installation of the Midwest Cannabis Forum, this time in St. Louis. Ticket discounts through October 12.
COMING EVENTS → Las Vegas & Buffalo
Stay tuned for more Fall 2026 events coming soon!
Visit our revamped Events Page »
What’s the big deal
OH, DEA
DEA says GAO report shouldn’t delay cannabis rescheduling
What happened: The DEA told a judge it won’t object to adding a Government Accountability Office report to its rescheduling hearing record, but urged no further delay on the rescheduling decision.
Judge Derek Julius paused the proceedings last month at opponents’ request so parties could weigh in. The GAO found neither DEA nor FDA has written procedures for evaluating or scheduling drugs.
What they’re saying: “This recommendation is immaterial to the actual scientific processes and analysis these agencies used,” the DEA said, per Marijuana Moment.
The GAO report “does not present any new evidence salient to the issue before this Tribunal,” the agency said.
Why it matters: The hearings centered on whether to apply the federal Schedule III designation to all cannabis, not just medical. State-licensed medical cannabis already sits Schedule III.
Rescheduling, though far from legalization, would be a massive catalyst for the cannabis industry by getting rid of the 280E tax and potentially normalizing the industry’s access to the broader financial system.
Opponents led by NDASA, DUID Victim Voices and Dr. Kenneth Finn asked Julius on Tuesday to reopen testimony and discovery. Their target is the two-part medical-use test HHS used in 2023, which the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel endorsed in 2024.
The anti-cannabis group Smart Approaches to Marijuana and the states of Idaho, Indiana and Nebraska separately want supplemental briefing.
The hearing wrapped in July. Julius’s recommendation to the DEA administrator was supposed to be the last step before a final call on moving all cannabis to Schedule III.
What’s next: Julius decides whether to reopen the record. Everything else waits, and so does a consolidated legal challenge in the D.C. Circuit.
-JB
The Highrise is back. October 22 at The Greene Space, NYC
If you came to the first Highrise, you know what made it work.
The room was curated. The conversations were real.
On October 22, we are bringing Clint Kellum and John Kagia into the room together. Kellum runs California's cannabis market. Kagia just took over New York's. They do not often sit down to talk publicly about what they are seeing, where the markets are actually heading, and what federal policy means for the business. You will be able to ask them your questions directly.
We are also running a real conversation about price compression. Wholesale prices are falling in every mature market. New York is next. We have the cultivators, the distributors, the brands, and the data experts who can tell you what is actually happening and how to survive it.
And The Gotham Growth Project: The Gotham Growth Project is Gotham’s business development program supporting underserved entrepreneurs in the cannabis industry, with its inaugural cohort focused on Black founders. To culminate the program, each of the four participants will take the stage for a two-minute pitch, giving The Highrise audience a firsthand look at what they’ve built and where they’re headed.
October 22, 2026 at The Greene Space.
It’s the room you actually want to be in, with the people you actually need to talk to.
Applications are now open and close this week.
Presented by NABIS. Supported by Feuerstein Kulik, Dutchie, and Ruby Farms.
Quotable
“We want to make sure, one, that we legalize marijuana,” Wisconsin Democratic candidate for governor David Crowley said. “That will help bring in more dollars throughout the state.”
Crowley, who beat progressive Francesca Hong in a bitter primary, plans to use cannabis legalization to help pay for free pre-K programs throughout the state. He leads Republican challenger Tom Tiffany 49-46% in the latest polls.
Thought bubble
M&A
Canopy Growth says it has an EU-GMP facility, too
As a potential three-way bidding war brews for Aurora’s EU-GMP certified facilities, Canopy Growth apparently doesn’t want to be left out.
Canopy achieved an EU-GMP certification at its original Smiths Falls facility, it said in a press release on Tuesday. It’s a clear play for the export business.
The company might want some of the takeover attention Aurora’s getting. Or, it might just want shareholders to think it’s about to get that attention. Investors generally bid up share prices in takeover targets.
It also speaks to the next big narrative emerging for Canadian cannabis companies: Export markets. The Canadian consumer cannabis industry has matured and is relatively small compared to the US. But Canadian firms like Canopy and Aurora benefit from normal banking access, consistent federal regulations, and the ability to list their entire businesses on major exchanges.
That’s a much stronger regulatory position to be in than US firms, which trade over-the-counter in Canada and struggle to access cheap capital.
-JB
Science & research
Legalization lowers crime, RAND study finds
RAND researchers reviewed a decade of causal studies in the Annual Review of Criminology and found recreational legalization reduced crime overall, mostly by shrinking illicit market crime, while violent crime held steady and some property crimes may modestly rise. Adult cannabis arrests fell sharply, but youth arrests and racial disparities saw no comparable improvement.
Deal, launches, partnerships
STIIIZY expanded to 65 California dispensaries after opening seven stores since August, with four more slated for Bell Gardens, Moreno Valley, Hemet and LA’s Eagle Rock by year-end.
Fine Fettle will open its fifth Georgia medical dispensary Thursday in Macon, where its cultivation and manufacturing facility has operated for three years, with more stores promised for 2027.
One fun thing
The aptly named cannabis beverage brand Herb Light, which has 1 mg of THC per serving in what it calls a lager-like beverage, wants to hear your cannabis “horror stories” for a chance to win a weekend in a haunted AirBnB stocked with Herb Light beverages.
The ad relies on an old-school nod to B-movie horror icons getting too high and scared, with a dash of classic beer commercials. It’s fun, and a cool product idea as the Halloween party season ramps up:
What we’re reading
The secret to growing California’s best outdoor pot | GreenState
