12-19-25 *INTERVIEW* Marijuana Activist Mason Tvert on the Rescheduling of Marijuana

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
President Trump signed an executive order yesterday that would reclassify
or move to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule three drug.
It's currently Schedule one, like heroin or LSD. Joining us
on the Kway Common Spirit Health Hotline with Colorado Leads
Colorado Leads spokesperson and cannabis advocate Mason Mason. Appreciate your
time as all. Rays All right, there we go, Hi Mason,

(00:22):
appreciate your time as always. I think we want to
get right into this when we talk about this executive
order in its current form, what does it do well.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Essentially, it expedites the reclassification of marijuana from Schedule one
to Schedule three. It directs the Attorney General to move
as fast as legally possible to do that. This is
a process that was initiated under the Biden administration a
little while back and has been held up largely in
part by the DEA. So this will hopefully get that

(00:55):
process back on track and move it forward relatively quickly.
It also calls for some reevaluation of of of hemp,
specifically CBD products, which is you know, just recently the
federal government changed the definition of hemp, which will take
effect next year, would ban a lot of products that
are made with hemp. This will result in full spectrum

(01:17):
CBD products being looked at as potentially be regulated and
could be a bailout for for a lot of folks
in the hemp industry in that sense. And it also
calls for a pilot program through Medicare that could result
in certain CBD products being covered for for people to
get a reimbursement to particularly older Americans.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Mason from the from the retail side, and I'm not
I'm not a customer, i don't know much about this market.
But from from the retail side, we have lots of
marijuana businesses operating in Colorado. So from the perspective of
a of a customer, and actually I'll ask you two
different ways. From the perspective of a customer, once it's rescheduled,

(02:00):
from schedule one to schedule three, what difference would a
customer notice? And then from the schedule from the perspective
of someone who owns a business, what would the key
differences be for the business?

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Sure, well, from a customer's perspective, nothing will be particularly noticeable,
at least not in an acute fashion, not immediately. Essentially,
the biggest impact this is going to have, breakly is
that currently state legal cannabis businesses are subject to a
particular section of the IRS tax Code that requires them

(02:31):
to pay taxes at a far greater effective rate than
other legal businesses. They're not able to take standard business
deductions like other businesses can, and as a result, currently
cannabis businesses are paying seventy to eighty percent effective tax
rates compared to normal businesses that are paying somewhere like
thirty to forty and so it'll be significant for those businesses. Now,

(02:53):
customers won't necessarily see that, but what this could do
is it will result in businesses having more funds that
they're able to reinvest in product development and other sorts
of things that could ultimately trickle down that you would
see as a customer.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
So the tax code is a big thing for businesses.
But I know banking has been a huge conversation that
marijuana dispensaries have really been pushing for. In the difference
of how they're able to bank is as possibly a
step closer to different banking operations for marijuana businesses, are
we still very far off from that.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Unfortunately, it doesn't do anything specifically in the law that
would improve the situation with banking. I mean, the issue
with banking is that even when the federal government has
told banks it's okay to serve cannabis businesses and given
them guidance on how to do it, banks want to
see a statutory change in law. They do not want
to work with companies that are breaking a law. And

(03:50):
even though marijuana is being moved from Schedule one to
Schedule three, it'll still be illegal at a federal law,
so it's unlikely to really change how banks approach it.
Of course, it will really have a major political cultural
impact and be a huge step towards broader reform and
that sort of change that banks need to see. But
when it comes to the tax situation, that's something where

(04:14):
the law specifically says companies can't take tax deductions on
business expenses if it's related to a Schedule one or
Schedule two substance. Because it's now Schedule three, that is resolved. Unfortunately,
when it comes to banking, that's just a mere matter
of it's illegal, and they don't want to do business
with people who are doing something illegal, So this does

(04:35):
not really change that. Fortunately, a lot more banks are
doing business Candadis companies than ever before, but there will
still need to be worked done there.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
Yesterday Mason, President Trump spent almost all of his time
during this actually rather lengthy event leading up to his
signing the piece of paper talking about medical research, medical
aspects of this, maybe how it can help veterate. That
was a very prominent thing as well. One of the
other things that he mentioned is the increasing potency of

(05:06):
marijuana over the years, And he actually came out and
said something like, you know, we're doing this for medical research,
but I don't like drugs and I don't really want
people to use it. What is your take. I'm going
to focus specifically on the increase in marijuana potency over
the years, and what do you want people who might
try marijuana who haven't used it before perhaps to know

(05:30):
about that?

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Sure, well, potency is something that ultimately is THHC, and
there have been cannabis products and cannabis flowers with higher
levels lower levels since its existence. Unfortunately, because of marijuana prohibition,
it really resulted in like an evolutionary effect where marijuana
with more THHC was more valuable, so it resulted in

(05:53):
people breeding out lower THHC strains of marijuana. But ultimately
it's it's just like alcohol. There's lower potency products, there's
higher potency products. And the critical thing is that people
understand that there are these different types of products and
that they know what they're getting. And that's a really
big benefit of marijuana being legal and regulated is that

(06:15):
it's got packaging. You can see how much THAC is
in it. You can make your decisions on how to
consume it and how much to consume based on having
that information. Whereas when it's illegal, it's in the illicit market,
people don't know what they're getting. I'd be like walking
into a liquor store and everything just being in a
playing clear bottle with nothing you know to identify what
it is. So ultimately, THHD is THHC. There's higher potency products,

(06:38):
lower potency products. People need to be aware of the
effects that they can have on them, and they need
to know what they're getting so that they can make
safe decisions.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
Folkesperson for Colorado Leads, it's Mason. Appreciate your time as
always in your insight on this topic. We really appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
Thank you for having me