In this pivotal Friday edition of the Trade to Black podcast, hosts Shadd Dales and Anthony Varrell are joined by Michael Bronstein of ATACH and Dan McDermitt from the Chart Guys to unpack a series of seismic developments across the cannabis and hemp industries: Texas may be on the verge of a hemp ban that could destroy an industry there overnight.
Texas’s sweeping hemp-derived THC ban threatens to dismantle a $4 billion industry almost without warning. With more than 8,000 licensed businesses and tens of thousands of jobs at stake, this move is being seen as a full-scale crackdown, and Bronstein provides an “insider’s edge” on why. Political forces, including Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and AG Ken Paxton, have fueled this prohibitionist swing.
Was this a foreseeable outcome of unchecked proliferation in the hemp market, including thousands of unregulated smoke shops? And did the advocacy groups do enough provide a united front? We’ll debate the issue, and talk about what this means for the future of hemp.
But the biggest irony? Many of these products were legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill signed by President Donald Trump, making this a dramatic reversal from that administration’s stance on hemp. And in a surprising juxtaposition, the state that just banned hemp also allocated $50 million for Ibogaine research, making it the largest publicly funded psychedelic initiative in US history.
In the markets, GTI has decided to sell its intellectual property to Agrify. We’ll break down the implications, since a strategic pivot to license GTI’s household cannabis brands to hemp operators, may create a symbiotic relationship with shared royalties.
Lastly, Dan from the Chart Guys highlights Village Farms (VFF) as the standout stock of the week, calling it a “lead bull” after strong earnings. Find out all the price action when you tune in to this episode.
