Will Rescheduling Change the Cost of Capital?
In our latest Trade to Black podcast, presented by Flowhub, hosts Shadd Dales and Anthony Varrell kick off a brand new week starting in the psychedelic space, where FDA officials have laid out a new framework to make psychedelic therapies available to patients “more quickly,” according to reporting from Marijuana Moment. And later, Anthony Coniglio, CEO of NewLake Capital Partners (OTCQX: NLCP) breaks down where rescheduling stands.
In a piece published in the New England Journal of Medicine, four FDA staffers pointed to the country’s worsening mental health crisis and named psilocybin and DMT specifically as compounds worth pursuing, building on steps FDA and HHS announced back in April to accelerate access. It’s one more promising sign as companies like Compass Pathways and Definium Therapeutics near the finish line.
The guys also dig into striking numbers out of Washington: the Trump administration’s 2026 National Drug Control Strategy claims Chinese criminal groups now run more than 80% of Oklahoma’s thousands of marijuana and hemp farms, with the state’s 2023 production exceeding its entire licensed medical demand by at least 32 times — an estimated 85.5 million plants unaccounted for. They frame it as a failure of Oklahoma’s open licensing regime and an interstate-commerce problem feeding the national black market.
In segment two, Anthony Coniglio, CEO of NewLake Capital Partners (OTCQX: NLCP), joins to break down where cannabis rescheduling actually stands. It’s now been roughly a month since post-hearing briefs were due, and they get into the timeline question everyone’s asking — whether Judge Derek Julius issues his recommendation this week or the wait continues.
They also get into the interest rate environment and what it means for cannabis capital access. With the bond market pricing in a Fed hike this week, Coniglio shares his outlook on how many more rate moves to expect and walks through why rescheduling and monetary policy are two separate conversations: even if cannabis moves to Schedule III, that alone doesn’t mean borrowing costs come down while rates remain elevated. He argues the sector will keep carrying a significant risk premium until there’s a true federal framework, and that big banks will arrange bonds and M&A long before they lend off their own balance sheets. He closes on why he still sees 2027 as a potentially transformative year for the industry.
