| While there seems to be industry consensus that President Joe Biden’s three-step cannabis reform plan and acknowledgement that the United States’ cannabis laws have been a “failed approach” was significant, opinions diverge from there. It’s been more than a month since Biden’s announcement that he would pardon thousands of people with past simple federal cannabis possession offenses, urge governors to do the same at the state level and launch a scheduling review of cannabis’ Schedule I placement on the Controlled Substances Act, but cannabis business owners, legal experts and advisers are still grappling with the uncertainty of what rescheduling or descheduling would actually mean for state-legal cannabis markets. There is cautious optimism, and there is concern. Since the news broke, Cannabis Business Times editors have reached out to more than 20 industry stakeholders to get their take, outlining possible outcomes of how regulations would change if cannabis were rescheduled as a Schedule II through V substance or removed entirely and how cannabis cultivators and publicly traded companies are assessing the situation. CBT’s Cannabis Conference also hosted a webinar last week with a panel of experts who weighed in on how future federal decisions may impact the industry. Today’s newsletter features another perspective from Rezwan Khan, president of DNA Genetics and executive chair and president of trade association Global Alliance for Cannabis Commerce, who explains in a column why he believes “rescheduling is recriminalizing; descheduling is decriminalizing.” As the review process takes shape and more information becomes available, CBT will continue to follow this story, and we’d love to hear from you. Send me a note with your take and predictions at msimakis@gie.net. - Michelle Simakis, Editor-in-Chief | 