The winners and losers of Biden’s big pardon messages

When my phone lit up with news of President Biden’s big cannabis industry news, I immediately realized that politics is a give and take game, so why now Joe? Why did President Biden choose Thursday to announce the pardoning of thousands of cannabis offenders and to tell his Attorney General Merrick Garland to expeditiously review the cannabis plant’s inclusion as a Schedule 1 drug?

Could it be a coincidence that Biden’s marijuana announcement coincides with the federal government’s announcement that they have enough evidence to charge Joe’s son Biden Hunter with federal crimes related to taxes and gun-sale charges? Throw up a good headline to cover up the stink coming for Hunter Biden’s laptop?

A group of Republicans formed an anti-legalization wave in the Senate this week based on family values ​​and “more research is needed” rhetoric. Is the push to “look at the schedule” a push for Big Pharma to get cannabis as a Schedule 2 drug and take control of the industry? Big money and lobbyists tend to get things done.

Researchers want to know!

Let’s break down the winners and losers of Thursday’s announcement from the White House.

As The Guardian summarizes:

“There are thousands of people who have already been federally convicted of possession of marijuana and who may be denied work, housing or educational opportunities as a result. My action will help mitigate the side effects resulting from these convictions,” Biden said in a statement released Thursday afternoon.

He urged all governors to do the same on state misdemeanors, saying, “Just as no one should be in a federal prison just for possession of marijuana, no one should be in a local jail or state prison for that reason, too.”

The President also called on the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attorney General to begin the administrative process to review how marijuana is scheduled under federal laws.

Marijuana is currently classified under Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act under federal law. This classification puts marijuana on the same schedule as heroin and LSD, and even higher than the classification of fentanyl and methamphetamine, two drugs that are fueling the ongoing overdose epidemic across the country.

As ESPN would say, who won and lost yesterday’s trade?

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winner

• People with federal marijuana convictions

While they may not get back time in life that simple marijuana chargers destroyed, they will have their records cleaned up in favor of jobs, apartments, elections, and a myriad of other avenues closed to “convicted felons.” Regardless of what you think of the rest of the statement, this is the best news in years for the marijuana industry and people convicted of common marijuana crimes since 1972. Win, win, win!

• Delta-8 and Delta-9 THC from hemp

While this may be the first step toward full cannabis legalization, and hemp-derived Delta-8 and 9 will face direct state legal competition from their cannabis cousin, that may be years away, and yesterday’s presidential announcement means no one with begin manufacturing Delta-8 and 9 will be illegal or banned at the federal level.

RELATED: Will Biden do anything about cannabis?

Outside of the cannabis industry itself, no one really cares about the origin details surrounding hemp Delta-8 and 9 and the “Real Deal” stuff. When the President takes steps to legalize cannabis, nobody backs up with a fine-toothed comb and tries to ban hemp products. The wave of federal legalization has begun and no one outside of the industry has the interest or time to reverse the Farm Act of 2018 and ban hemp products now.

As you’ll read later in this article, if this is a move by Big Pharma to seize control of the cannabis industry as a Schedule 2 drug, Delta-8 from Hemp could be the only game left in town gain!

• Websites and cheap licenses

Think about what Amazon did with bricks and mortar, and now apply that to cannabis. Have all brick and mortar stores gone? No, but has it ruined thousands of businesses?

If you have cannabis traffic on your site and you can get a cheap license in Oklahoma or Colorado, you know what? They are now taking market share from every MSO in America.

The MSO moat built on archaic federal laws is beginning to crumble, and you better be prepared for the 10 or 20 Amazons of Weed to show up and start with a legal license as soon as federal law allows. With a site with traffic and a cheap Rec license, all you need is inventory space and a UPS account, and you’ll start reducing Trulieve and Cufaleaf’s revenue right away.

RELATED: 5 surprising benefits of legalizing marijuana

The wisest investment for MSOs right now is to buy up every possible cannabis website for their traffic, and then convert that traffic into loyal customers when the moment comes. Start building your digital moats, not the ones with real sidewalks.

They’re listed as both winners and losers, and you’ll see why in a moment. Obviously, a big headline and tons of people will get legal relief they’ve needed for decades. This puts legalization at the forefront of every morning news feed and gets people excited about legal cannabis.

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loser

Yes, multi-state operators offering mid-tier weed, they’re in trouble. To emulate Jeff Bezos, your already shrinking margins are my opportunity. If you think numbers and margins have been bad for the last 5 months, wait until interstate trade starts and overserved states can ship to underserved states and small suppliers can now ship across America when they know how to bring traffic to their website. Your margins will become razor thin and your “legal moat” will begin to crumble with yesterday’s announcement.

Ironic I know. While enabling people to keep a clean record is a huge win, those programs put in place to help those affected by the War on Drugs (Biden is a big part of it, by the way) hang by a thread in some states. If this is a step towards interstate trade and full legalization, supply licenses for SE and EE applicants will lose 90% of their value over time. The moat and laws protecting MSOs all try to help SE and EE companies, but they are being crushed with full federal legalization. That didn’t happen, but after Merck Garland was asked to review schedule classification, the wheels are in motion.

The second part of the White House announcement should be of great concern to Weed. While the marijuana industry wants cannabis off the schedule, people like Steve DeAngelo have argued that switching the cannabis plant to a lower schedule 2 or 3 drug could be even worse, as the entire industry could be handed over to drug companies .

RELATED: Big Pharma Loses Billions With Every State That Legalizes Weed, So What’s Their Next Step?

Is Big Pharma behind this push by Biden? If you think Biden isn’t a fan of weed at all and that politics is all about money and maneuvering, maybe try reading behind the lines on this one. Class 3 or 4 is better than 1 for sure, but 2 can be terrible and the deep-pocketed big pharma lobbyists might be burning the Senate phones as we speak. A real Trojan horse if that’s the grand scheme.

This article originally appeared on Cannabis.net and has been republished with permission.