The executive order (EO) of December 18 to reclassify cannabis to Schedule III is a monumental decision that will fundamentally reshape the market.
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Shane Pennington, a partner at Blank Rome, and Dan Ahrens, a managing director and fund manager at AdvisorShares, spoke with the Investing News Network (INN) on the issue. According to them, the immediate horizon is defined by three distinct legal, financial and clinical caveats that will determine the next stage of the industry.
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Shane Pennington suggests that the most efficient path forward is for the administration to simply cancel or withdraw the pending ALJ hearing altogether by citing the lack of constitutional Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) and documented ex parte communications, and move directly toward a final rule based on the HHS’s already established medical record.
By withdrawing the hearing, the Department of Justice effectively moots the current interlocutory appeal, allowing the DOJ to issue a Final Rule relatively quickly.
However, Pennington, who represented the sole pro-rescheduling industry party and filed the interlocutory appeal that stalled the DEA’s hearing, acknowledges inevitable post-rule litigation. “Something this big was going to get challenged, and will get challenged regardless, in federal court,” he explained to INN during a one-on-one interview, adding that proper APA procedure carries no risk to timeline speed since the comment and hearing opportunities are already complete.
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"Is 2026 the Year the Cannabis Industry Matures?" by Meagen Seatter was published in Investing News Network on January 9, 2026.