The U.S. cannabis industry is poised for some historic gains with the upcoming presidential election, but that hasn’t translated into investor confidence or a leg up with capital raises, Jason Vedadi, the CEO of Arizona-based multistate operator Story Cannabis, told Green Market Report.
Vedadi began the conversation by noting how far into the mainstream the marijuana trade has made it, now that both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have formally gone on record supporting cannabis rescheduling, which once completed should save the industry billions a year in tax write-offs.
Jason Vedadi
“The most positive thing is that it looks like we’ve got, at least on the surface, pro-rescheduling out of both parties. We’re losing the prohibitionist lifestyle of prosecuting people over cannabis,” Vedadi said.
That said, Vedadi doesn’t think the cannabis industry will get everything it’s hoping for out of Washington, D.C., in coming months. Instead, he warned, it’s quite likely that the GOP will retake control of the U.S. Senate, so a Harris win would probably mean more partisan gridlock, including on measures such as the SAFER Banking Act.
On the flip side, if Trump wins, Vedadi acknowledged a new Republican administration could include some prohibitionists in the cabinet, much like former Attorney General Jeff Sessions during the first Trump presidency.
“I think you have some good and bad with both of ’em, where historically I think it’s just kind of been good or bad,” Vedadi said.
Either way, the upsides of rescheduling now being a near-certainty have yet to hit home with the investor class, Vedadi said when asked if Trump’s endorsement had given him more ammunition for fundraising.
“I think people are super tired, and the rug’s been pulled too many times,” Vedadi said, referring to how the industry has gotten its hopes up in prior Congressional sessions for substantive reform, only to be disappointed at the last moment, particularly with banking access.
“There’s just too much of a ‘see it to believe it’ in our industry now,” Vedadi said. “You’re seeing it in stock prices in particular. Pre-lame duck two years ago, these stocks were about double where they are now, and their company performances are almost all better today, with more positive outlook, with multiple catalysts, and we’re still not seeing what I think is rational valuation summary from public market perspective. So it leads me to believe that the general investing market is still kind of in, ‘Once you guys show us this actually happens, we’re going to come in, we’re not going to do it before.’”
Still, Vedadi says he’s “optimistic,” and believes that rescheduling and the accompanying 280E tax relief will arrive in the first half – or even the first quarter – of 2025.
“I’m pretty optimistic. I haven’t seen anything that tells me, ‘Boy, the DEA is really stalling,’” Vedadi said. “By actually having this hearing, I feel like that solidifies that they don’t want any kind of error in this. I feel like the government is actually not being disingenuous.”
Story Cannabis alone would save tens of millions of dollars per year in tax payments once 280E no longer applies to state-legal marijuana businesses, Vedadi said, and pointed out it would be even more for bigger MSO’s that have larger footprints. And the benefits of rescheduling and the 280E burden disappearing will be multifold.
“That allows us to drop our prices, bring our margins down, and not worry about how we have to actually make money by creating margins. So I think what you could do is effectively give up your tax savings, increase your revenue, and then pick up the whole black market … because you become more competitive,” Vedadi said.
Story’s next target, he said, is the Sun Belt, which is arguably the final frontier for legal marijuana. Vedadi said Story Cannabis is eyeballing entrances to Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina and Virginia now.
“We want to be an early established medical business before the state matures to rec,” Vedadi said. “We’re much more focused on the inception of a market than we’re the ones that are mature.”
[[{“value”:”Regardless of who wins the presidential election in November, Story’s CEO noted there’s “some good and bad with both of ’em.”
The post Story Cannabis CEO says investors still shy, despite rescheduling support from presidential candidates appeared first on Green Market Report.”}]] Read More