Hemp Industry Is Front & Center While MSOs Await Rescheduling Fate
In today’s Trade To Black podcast, presented by Flowhub, Anthony Varrell flies solo — with Shadd Dales returning from Vegas — welcoming ATACH President Michael Bronstein for the Insiders Edge segment on a busy week for hemp policy, the Texas THC ban, and earnings season.
Opening the show, Varrell previewed a pivotal earnings week featuring Green Thumb, Trulieve, Verano and Curaleaf. He expects Trulieve’s gross margin to climb toward 63–64% on its medical-only footprint, continued top-line growth from Green Thumb driven by Minnesota, Ohio and Virginia, European strength and improved U.S. profitability from Curaleaf, and a strong print from Verano — which he argued is grossly undervalued regardless of a Doug Cass tweet floating high-level takeout talks that Varrell doesn’t see materializing soon.
In segment two, Bronstein dug into Texas, where a state rule taking effect July 31 removed Delta-8, Delta-10, THCA flower and THCP from the market. He welcomed the removal of synthetic intoxicants but sharply criticized the criminal-possession penalties riding alongside it, arguing enforcement should target large violators rather than individuals. He and Varrell connected the ban to the Texas Senate race, where Democrat James Talarico — running against Attorney General Ken Paxton, who unseated John Cornyn in the primary — has made the issue a wedge, and discussed how a candidate’s cannabis stance now signals broader character to voters. On the federal side, Bronstein noted Cornyn and Tillis backing down cleared a path for Todd Blanche’s AG confirmation, which he framed as continuity that makes an expeditious rescheduling wrap-up more likely, while cautioning it has no direct bearing on the rescheduling decision itself.
Bronstein also broke down the CR’s proposed 30-day hemp-ban extension as a placeholder reflecting the Senate’s inability to agree on a regulatory package, with Ted Budd already moving to strip it. He and Varrell argued at length that the path forward must be a naturally-derived Delta-9 industry — low-dose gummies and beverages regulated federally, with synthetics and THCA flower gone — and that the current bills’ protection of synthetic conversion is the tell. They also unpacked the alcohol industry’s split posture on THC beverages, with retailers and distributors like Total Wine fighting for the category while beer manufacturers resist, and closed on Pennsylvania politics, where Governor Shapiro continues pushing legalization against treasurer Stacey Garrity.
Hear what else they had to say.
