Pennsylvania Legalization Gains Steam; Stocks On The Rise
On the latest Trade to Black podcast, Shadd Dales and Anthony Varrell delivered a packed Friday episode covering major cannabis industry developments. We’ll be covering Pennsylvania’s push toward adult use legalization with Trent Woloveck, Chief Strategy Officer at Jushi Holdings (OTCQX: JUSHF). He joins us to discuss the bipartisan adult-use cannabis bill just filed in the Pennsylvania Senate. Next up, Sammy J from C21 Investments (CSE: CXXI) and Dan Ahrens from AdvisorShares ETF $MSOS (NYSE: MSOS) return to talk cannabis price action.
Trent Woloveck, Chief Strategy Officer at Jushi Holdings, joined the first segment to discuss two major developments: rescheduling momentum at the federal level and a newly introduced adult-use legalization bill in Pennsylvania. Woloveck, who has worked in the cannabis sector since 2010, said this moment “feels different” from past reform efforts.
In Pennsylvania, Woloveck highlighted that bipartisan legislation to legalize adult-use cannabis was officially introduced in the state Senate, co-sponsored by Senators Dan Laughlin and Sharif Street. A corresponding House bill is expected shortly, with roughly 95–97% overlap in language. Pennsylvania faces a $2.5 billion budget gap, compounded by the recent loss of $3 billion in federal SNAP and Medicaid funding. Legal cannabis, he argued, could fill much of that shortfall quickly.
Dan Ahrens of AdvisorShares MSOS ETF, and Sammy J, VP of Corporate Development at C21 Investments, join the show in the second half to clarify public misconceptions about ETF trading activity. Both explained that recent ETF purchases—such as those involving Glass House—were driven by ETF inflows and automatic allocations, not active portfolio management decisions..
Sammy expanded on how ETF demand can drive up stock prices following headlines about reform, such as rescheduling rumors. He noted that institutional investors remain largely shut out of directly owning US cannabis equities due to custodial restrictions, so ETFs like MSOS remain the primary vehicle for large inflows. Dan confirmed that ETF rebalancing is done carefully, using limit orders, and not intended to move markets.
This, and we’ll also talk about the ICE-led raid of Glass House Farms in California in this Friday episode.
