Cannabis Musings - January 17, 2025

Motion practice shouldn't tear us apart.

Friends, you may have noticed a bit of a kerfuffle this past week over the approach towards the DEA’s administrative hearing about cannabis rescheduling. The folks at Cultivated Media (and friends of Cannabis Musings) did a nice job this morning summarizing the back-and-forth. In short, one group is aggressively taking the DEA to task for various shenanigans and got the judge to delay the hearing in order to file an appeal. The other group doesn’t like this approach and the delay it caused, and let the world know that. Responses followed, and it’s getting a little ugly.

As an ex-lawyer with a working understanding of the hearing and the whole rescheduling process (but certainly less than many of the people directly involved), it’s honestly hard to say whether one strategy is better than the other. Only time will tell. However, although I appreciate that, for optics, one constituency wants to disavow the strategy of the other constituency, it seems like a line has been crossed.

The last thing the cannabis industry needs right now is a civil war, what with the escalating battle with so-called “intoxicating” hemp, and the ongoing struggle with unlicensed cannabis. It certainly doesn’t do much good to impugn the character and capabilities of your cannabis bar colleagues in a public forum, claiming they don’t know what they’re doing (when they clearly have extensive experience with DEA administrative process). Particularly when, let’s be honest, no one involved in the hearing really does because it’s a novel process with little-to-no precedent.

We’re all on the same team here working towards the same goal. This industry isn’t strong enough to sustain a fissure, particularly over the process of an administrative hearing. Of course, lawyers are going to disagree about how to prosecute this case – az me fregt a sheileh, vert traif (“If you ask the Rabbi a question, he will surely find something wrong”) - particularly when they’re venturing into unknown territory. But it doesn’t help anyone to be battling over that strategy in public. No one wants to see their parents fighting.

Unfortunately, this has exposed a long-standing weakness in the industry. We’ve operated for years without a single, coherent, unified message, with multiple trade groups representing various constituencies. I attribute this mostly to the dearth of capital, but also to the fragmented nature of the industry that comes from federal illegality. We need to be united if we’re going to succeed, or at least not fail.

Be seeing you.

Upgrade now to Paid ($5 per month - Cheap!) and get your questions answered by the Law-Talking Guy!

© 2025 Marc Hauser. None of the foregoing is legal, investment, or any other sort of advice, and it may not be relied upon in any manner, shape, or form. The foregoing represents my own views and not those of Jardín.