When Trump signed that executive order on December 18, my team was watching the market ticker in real time. Stock prices jumped. Then they cratered. The whiplash tells you everything about where we actually stand.

Look, rescheduling from Schedule I to Schedule III is real. It matters. But it's not the silver bullet anyone's pretending it is.

Here's the actual relief: Section 280E. This IRS rule has been killing us for years. It says cannabis businesses can't deduct normal operating expenses—rent, payroll, utilities—because marijuana's technically a Schedule I drug. Meaning we pay taxes on gross revenue while regular businesses pay on net profit. The math is brutal. A study by Whitney Economics found cannabis operators paid $2.3 billion in excess federal taxes in 2024 compared with ordinary businesses. Costar

Once we're Schedule III? That goes away.

Kim Rivers, Trulieve's CEO, said the order "acknowledges the medical benefits of cannabis, supports licensed and regulated operators, and allows law enforcement agencies to prosecute bad actors." PR Newswire She's right on the enforcement piece—this isn't legalization. It's just moving us from the heroin category to the Tylenol-with-codeine category. Both are controlled substances. One just admits we have medical value.

But here's what still isn't fixed: credit cards. Curaleaf said rescheduling "eliminates onerous tax penalties and creates opportunities for expanded investment into state programs that will create jobs and tax revenue for local communities." Costar Fine words. But financial institutions still won't touch us because federal liability concerns don't disappear overnight.

Friday's still the cash apocalypse at my stores. That's not changing next quarter.

The other big angle is research. Boris Jordan, founder of Curaleaf, pointed out that while everyone talks about Schedule III from a tax perspective, his company is already funding studies overseas and running clinical trials in the UK. MJBizDaily He's positioning for FDA-approved cannabis medicines. That's a different business than retail. That takes a decade and hundreds of millions in capital.

For operators like me running dispensaries? We get easier research access. That's useful. But most patients aren't waiting for FDA trials. They're buying flower at my store next Friday.

What rescheduling doesn't fix is the market getting demolished by oversupply. Washington state cannabis retailers are offering discounts as high as 39% on flower. Arizona hit 37% in some months. MJBizDaily When margins compress that hard, no tax relief hits fast enough.

2025 was difficult for the entire sector. Higher costs with price compression in most markets created historic challenges for operators. Cannabis Business Times That's the real state of the industry. We're fighting each other on price while the tax code—finally—gets friendlier.

The immediate wins: when the rescheduling officially happens (still unclear on timing), 280E relief comes into play. That's real money back in operations. Kim Rivers has been cultivating a close relationship with the Trump administration, specifically through a personal connection with Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles, and told CNBC she's interpreting the White House's language as a signal that the administration intends to rein in a chaotic market rather than expand it unchecked. CNBC

For now, rescheduling is a validation. It says the federal government finally admits cannabis isn't heroin. That matters for optics, research, and eventually banking reform.

But for those of us running retail? We're still in a cash business competing on discounts in oversaturated markets. The executive order moved the ball forward. It just didn't move it far enough.