**Warning: these are hot takes. These are ideas and opinions, hence the word “predictions.”
1. Cannabis Therapeutic Research will headline 2023 with one MASSIVE BREAKTHROUGH.
- The Cannabis Research bill will help lead to advanced opportunities, research, and potential use cases. Hooray for science!
2. Sensors and automation will be a MAJOR asset for Internal Operational Efficiencies.
- The days of growth at all costs are gone. Welcome to the constant headlines of sensors, automation, and calculated return on investment. Sensors measure cannabinoids in real-time in the cannabis industry. Expect many more use cases quickly.
3. The South will headline the next wave in cannabis.
- Maryland (I agree it’s not ‘the South,’ but Google says it is), Virginia, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, and Texas—yes, Texas—will all make cannabis noise this year. One industry leader expects the South to be the biggest region of them all.
4. Texas will follow Minnesota with a hemp-derived ruling.
- Texas surprises everyone and skips expanding the medical market. Texas government passes an executive measure where non-marijuana-derived cannabinoids can be sold as long as they are below the 0.3% threshold. When they remove smoking flowers as a medicine—and marijuana, in general—conservatives are more likely to accept it.
5. A lawsuit against the federal government will be announced.
- With Safe Banking dead, MSO will form a super PAC and sue the federal government to remove 280E.
6. Chapter 11 will hit at least ONE Publicly Traded Company.
- While previously they haven’t been able to, given the size of these companies, they will adjust to the ruling to allow this. This will give way to the next issue.
7. Safe Banking will NOT happen in 2023, as removing 280E will be the new frontline “conversation.”
8. Unfortunately, at the end of 2023, people will still be incarcerated for cannabis.
9. Cannabis gets RESCHEDULED as Schedule 3.
- Schedule 3 has different quota limitations, opening research up further without trying to change any laws.
10. Maxing THC is a thing of the past.
- As we learn more, consumers recognize that there are better products for themselves than high THC percentages. Products quickly shift toward other plant characteristics.
11. Rarer cannabinoids and terpenes take the main stage.
- These characteristics are driven by the above and lead to more consistent reporting, research, and consumer adoption.
12. THC synthetically created from CBD becomes the main ingredient for all form factors besides flower in the recreational cannabis market.
- Minnesota already allows hemp-derived delta-9 to be sold in the traditional markets if it is below the 0.3% threshold. Michigan, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, and several other states allow recreational cannabis companies to incorporate other cannabinoids, such as CBD and CBG, from the hemp industry into finished goods and products sold at recreational dispensaries. Due to hemp’s federal legality, small farmers can cultivate the plant on a significantly larger scale than even the largest licensed cannabis cultivation operation. The agricultural industry is a game that is best won with scale, and hemp will be able to manufacture THC derivatives from CBD at fraction of the cost at which cannabis operators can manufacture it.
Editors’ Note: This is an excerpt from our Monthly Playbook. If you would like to read the full monthly playbook and join the thousands of others you can sign up below.
