New Poll Reveals Hemp Ban’s Real Impact
In the latest Trade To Black podcast presented by Flowhub, hosts Shadd Dales and Anthony Varrell open on the alcohol industry’s push to regulate hemp THC beverages, launch a new weekly polling segment with NuggMD, then welcome accredited cannabis investor Marc Cohodes for a wide-ranging take on the hemp-versus-cannabis fight.
First, we dig into an op-ed from the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America’s Dawson Hobbs backing the Beverage Regulatory Parity Act from Representatives Beth Van Duyne and Greg Landsman, which would regulate low-dose THC beverages — capped at five milligrams — like alcohol. Hobbs frames the choice as federal regulation versus an unregulated gray zone, urging the cannabis industry to get on board. We push back a bit: while beverages likely deserve a pathway, the alcohol lobby’s vast resources would do far more good aimed at regulating all THC in a three-tier system — especially given reporting that alcohol interests helped drive Texas’s hemp ban.
Next, we launch the Check-In Poll of the Week, presented by NuggMD, bringing verified consumer data to the show. The debut poll asked how state hemp-THC bans have affected access, and the results show a real mix: roughly half of respondents got their medical cannabis card as a result, 8% had trouble finding products, 20% reported no real impact, and 8% weren’t even aware the state-level changes were happening. It’s a snapshot of how unevenly this policy shift is landing across the patient population — though it lends weight to the idea that banning hemp pushes consumers back into regulated channels.
In segment two, Cohodes returns for the “Make Things Normal” segment to argue he doesn’t think the hemp ban actually goes through, expecting regulation instead. His blunt thesis: put hemp and cannabis on equal footing — one plant, one rule, one tax, strict age-gating — and let the best operators win. He walks through what a realistic framework could look like, argues interstate commerce is coming (pointing to Georgia’s move to allow shipping via USPS, FedEx, and UPS), predicts James Talarico unseats Ken Paxton in Texas, and defends Boris Jordan’s Aurora bid as a supply play. Shadd and Anthony also get his take on Glass House Brands’ (NYSE: GLAS) latest earnings — a quarter marked by margin pressure, though Cohodes points to falling per-pound production costs recovering toward pre-raid levels — and how it fits his broader thesis on the company.
Buckle up and hit play.
