As of Tuesday, at the closing bell, Ayr Wellness Inc .had jumped by 23.3%, Curaleaf Holdings Inc. was up by 5.4%, Trulieve Cannabis Corp. was up by 12.2%, Green Thumb Industries Inc. rose 4.4%, Cresco Labs Inc. shot up by 10.4% and Verano Holdings Corp.was up by 3.1%.
In August, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommended a Schedule III classification for cannabis to the Drug Enforcement Administration, which is still reviewing the proposal. The details of the recommendation had not been publicly disclosed until now.
“Based on the totality of the available data … we conclude that there exists some credible scientific support for the use of marijuana in at least one of the indications for which there is widespread current experience with its medical use in the U.S.,” the report said. “The analysis and conclusions on the available data are not meant to imply that the safety and efficacy have been established for marijuana that would support FDA approval of marijuana for any particular indication. However, the available data do provide some level of substantiation to support the way marijuana is evidently being used in clinical practice.”
Members of the cannabis industry praised the release of the HHS document. If cannabis is rescheduled, it could help businesses in the cannabis industry avoid the higher taxes they currently pay under the 280E tax law passed during the drug wars of the 1980s, industry members have said.
The rescheduling of cannabis would be a historic move — coming more than 50 years after the Schedule I designation — that could open up cannabis to interstate trade as well as remove the 280E tax burden that prevents legal-cannabis companies from writing off normal business expenses, experts said.
