What Investors Really Think About Rescheduling
In our latest Trade To Black podcast presented by Flowhub, hosts Shadd Dales and Anthony Varrell tackle cannabis branding with Jason Harris of Jerome Baker Designs. They then welcome Fred Gomes of ATB Cormark Capital Markets. We unpack a survey that found investors had assigned a 65% probability to full rescheduling within six months and a 67% probability to broader US exchange uplistings, the first time uplistings crossed the 50% mark in survey history.
Harris traces his start to an apprenticeship under pipe-making pioneer Bob Snodgrass in Eugene, Oregon, before entering the business in 1991. He sees a glass piece as both art and craft, an expression of the person who owns it, and one of the purest ways to taste cannabis.
He also recounts Operation Pipe Dream, the 2003 federal crackdown in which he and 55 others were arrested. Harris calls it a scare tactic that changed no laws, noting that his former employees went on to launch roughly 30 companies of their own.
Jerome Baker now licenses its name for cannabis products and recently launched in New York. The brand focuses on long-flowering haze varieties that most growers avoid, and on a select group of dispensaries it can reliably restock. Harris plans to expand in California, Nevada and Michigan and sees consumption lounges as the brand’s natural future.
In segment two, Gomes breaks down ATB’s latest Cannabis Investor Sentiment Survey about rescheduling, conducted just before the ALJ’s stay. Investors assigned a 67% probability to U.S. uplistings, the first time that figure has topped 50%. Yet while 47% are more bullish than six months ago, only 29% increased their positions. Roughly 40% expect MSOS to hit $10 or more if rescheduling happens.
Gomes argues the federal hemp ban is an underappreciated catalyst, pointing to Ohio, where a state ban helped drive more than 30% growth in September. M&A has jumped from 24% to 56% as investors’ top capital allocation preference. Since 70% of respondents had expected rescheduling before the midterms, Gomes now sees the first quarter of 2027 as the base case.
