In today’s Trade To Black podcast presented by Flowhub, Shadd Dales and Anthony Varrell welcome NuggMD CEO Charlie Russell to break down two of the country’s biggest medical cannabis stories, in Georgia and Texas. In segment two, former DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge Chris Urben, now a managing director at Nardello & Co., explains how Chinese organized crime grows came to dominate America’s illicit cannabis market.
Off the top, we’re still waiting on the DEA as the rescheduling hearing remains paused over a GAO report. We walk through the four likely outcomes laid out by Doug Cass. They range from the judge lifting the stay to the judge reopening the record entirely.
In Georgia, the Access to Medical Cannabis Commission approved a rule allowing licensed producers to deliver to registered patients by USPS or private carrier, including to long-term care facilities. Deliveries could begin as early as October 28. The registry sits near 57,000 patients after SB 220 removed the old 5% THC cap and opened the door to flower. Russell says NuggMD’s doctors saw more patients in Q3 than in the previous six quarters combined. He ballparks the program’s potential at 250,000 to 350,000 patients, but flags a shipping wrinkle: private carriers routing packages through out-of-state hubs like Memphis could raise interstate commerce questions.
Texas’s Compassionate Use Program has grown past 135,000 patients but still covers less than half a percent of the state. Russell says registrations rose after the hemp-derived THC crackdown. What’s holding Texas back is retail access, with dispensary locations set to grow from three to 15 under a one-store-per-zone rule.
Russell also explains how Schedule III could move providers from recommending cannabis to writing prescriptions, likely pushing telehealth platforms toward specialists. He notes that dual licenses in Illinois now let patients save 30% or more in taxes.
Urben spent 25 years at the DEA and led Project Sleeping Giant. He says that starting in 2018, Chinese money launderers took over laundering for Mexican cartels and then funneled hundreds of millions into illicit grows in Colorado, Oklahoma, Northern California and Maine. Workers are smuggled in from mainland China, communications run through WeChat, which U.S. authorities can’t wiretap, and much of the product ends up on convenience store shelves.
His solution is a federal task force staffed with Mandarin speakers and data scientists, funding for overwhelmed states and racketeering prosecutions modeled on the takedown of Italian organized crime. He argues that regulation alone won’t push these networks out without national enforcement.
Tune in for the full conversation.
