Ep 9: The Cannabis Shift: Stop Waiting, Start Building — The Shift

with Filip Gacic · The Shift, a podcast by Headquarters

Host Filip Gacic breaks down three signals shaping cannabis: why DEA rescheduling keeps dragging on and what operators should do instead of waiting, Germany's quiet rise into a pharmaceutical-grade powerhouse, and the widening split between consumer and pharmaceutical cannabis.

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Auto-generated from the episode audio and lightly edited for readability.

0:07 If you've been following the cannabis industry over the past few years, you've probably heard one phrase more than any other. DEA rescheduling. Every few months, there's another headline, another hearing, another prediction that this is the final moment. And yet here we are still talking about it. Now don't get me wrong, this is an incredibly important story. So why is it taking so long? Does the delay itself tell us something about this industry? According to Business of Cannabis, the DEA officially opened administrative hearings on June 29th to consider moving cannabis from schedule one to schedule

0:53 three under the Controlled Substances Act. Now, that sentence may not sound exciting, but it's actually a pretty significant moment because for decades, cannabis has been classified alongside substances that under federal law are considered to have no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Moving cannabis to schedule 3 wouldn't legalize it federally. It wouldn't suddenly make recreational cannabis legal across America, but it would recognize a very important distinction that cannabis has accepted medical uses under federal standards while remaining

1:38 a controlled substance. Now, here's where the story gets interesting. People hear the words DEA hearing and they immediately think, great, this is almost over. But is it though? Because government processes, especially ones involving multiple federal agencies, rarely move quickly. And when you're talking about something that affects healthcare, banking, taxation, research, law enforcement, and an industry worth billions of dollars, it's probably supposed to move slowly, whether we like it or not. According to researchers at the drug enforcement and policy center at the Ohio State University Mortz

2:23 College of Law, the recommendation to move cannabis to schedule 3 followed a scientific and medical evaluation by the Department of Health and Human Services, which concluded that cannabis is a currently accepted medical use under the Controlled Substances Act. Now, think about that for a second. That's not coming from a cannabis company. This is not coming from an advocacy group. That's referencing the federal scientific review that helped start this process. But here's the question I keep coming back to. If the science has been reviewed, if the recommendations have been made, why are we still having hearings?

3:09 Well, because science is only one part of public policy. Law is another, politics is another, procedure is another, and all of those things have to work together before a decision like this becomes a reality. Now, what should operators actually take away from this? The cannabis industry has spent years waiting for one medical headline, one announcement, one government decision that's supposedly going to change everything overnight. But successful businesses don't operate that way. They don't build their strategy around what regulators might do six months from now. They build around today's reality. They focus on

3:55 profitability, operations, customer service, inventory collections, compliance, the things that keep a company alive regardless of what Washington decides next. So what's the shift? The shift is this. Regulations create opportunities, but great businesses aren't built by waiting for regulations. They're built by executing every single day. And that's a lesson that applies well beyond the cannabis industry. Now, what's happening across the pond? Well, Germany is quietly building something very different. And honestly, I don't

4:40 think enough people are talking about it. If I ask someone to name the biggest cannabis market in the world, most people will probably say California, maybe Canada, some might even say New York. But if we're talking about where the biggest opportunity may be over the next decade, Germany deserves to be in that conversation. In an article titled Canopy Growth Builds European Cannabis Momentum, the company is continuing to expand its European strategy with Germany at the center of that expansion. The report explains that Germany's regulated medical cannabis market has become a major focus because of expanding patient

5:27 access and an increasingly mature pharmaceutical distribution system. Now, is Canopy Growth the story or is it Germany? Because one of the largest cannabis companies in the world decides to prioritize a market. People should ask why. And here's another interesting point. According to newsfeed citing figures released by Germany's Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices, Germany imported more than 50 metric tons of medical cannabis in just the first quarter of 2026. That's a remarkable volume for a market that many people still describe as emerging.

6:13 Think about that for a second. That's not hype. That's supply. That's logistics. That's pharmacies. That's patients. That's real business. And I think that's the biggest difference between Europe and the United States right now. Because in the United States, the conversation often starts with politics. Who's going to legalize next? What will the DEA do? Will Congress act? And in Germany, the conversation is increasingly becoming, how do we serve more patients? How do we improve supply chains? How do we meet pharmaceutical standards? That's a completely different mindset. There's another reason this matters. And companies aren't investing millions of

6:59 dollars because they expect one good year. They're investing because they believe this market will continue growing for many years. Markets don't attract this level of investment by accident. They attract it because businesses see stability, predictability, and long-term opportunity. So, here's a question I'd leave you with. Is Germany simply becoming Europe's biggest cannabis market or is it becoming Europe's cannabis business hub? Because those aren't necessarily the same thing. One sell one sells products, the other attracts companies, investments, talent, innovation. And if you ask me, Germany is starting to look

7:45 like it's doing all four. Could it be the next global leader in cannabis? May not be the country making the loudest headlines, but the one quietly building the strongest foundation. I'll leave you with that. All right. Pharmaceutical cannabis. And I know the moment you say that, some people immediately tune out because it sounds technical. It sounds medical. It sounds like something happening in laboratories, not in the real cannabis industry. But I actually think that's wrong because this week we saw a story that tells us something very important about where cannabis is going. According to Globe Newswire, Beverage Group

8:32 acquired exclusive global rights to Cannepil, a cannabinoid-based epilepsy therapy with existing patient access in Europe and potential US development. Now, let's pause there because the interesting part is not just the company. The interesting part is the category. This is not a lifestyle brand. This is not a celebrity pre-roll. This is not another beverage trying to look cool on the shelf. This is a cannabinoid-based medicine being tracked like pharmaceutical intellectual property. And that is a very different category. According to MG magazine, Cannepil is described as a proprietary cannabinoid-based investigational

9:19 therapeutic for drug-resistant epilepsy and the licensing agreement was made with Argent Biopharma. That matters because when cannabis moves into pharmaceutical language, the whole business model changes. You're no longer talking only about branding. You're talking about clinical pathways, regulatory approval, patient access, manufacturing standards, reimbursement, data, and intellectual property. That is a completely different level of seriousness. Now, investing.com reported that Cannepil is approved for distribution in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Australia,

10:07 and that it is manufactured under European Union good manufacturing practice standards. Again, listen to this. Ireland, the UK, Germany, Australia, EU-GMP standards. This is not the old cannabis conversation. This is not when will legalization happen. This is how do cannabinoid therapies fit into modern health care systems. And that's where I think the industry needs to pay attention because there are really two cannabis industries developing the same time. One is consumer cannabis brands, retailer, flower, vapes, edibles, beverages, marketing, customer loyalty, and the other is medical and pharmaceutical cannabis. patients,

10:54 doctors, clinical evidence, regulatory agencies, pharmacies, insurance, and long-term treatment pathways. Both can exist, but they are not the same business. And if you try to analyze them the same way, you'll miss the bigger picture. According to RT News, Splash acquired worldwide rights to develop and sell Cannepil for drug-resistant epilepsy and related neurological conditions with an initial 20-year license term. and sublicensing rates. So, does that tell us something? This is not being treated like a short-term product launch. This is being treated like a long-term pharmaceutical asset. So, for years, cannabis companies wanted to prove that cannabis could be a serious industry.

11:42 Now, some parts of the industry are moving into a space where seriousness is not optional. You either meet the standards or you don't. And I think that's healthy because if cannabis wants to be taken seriously in medicine, it has to operate like medicine. That means evidence, standards, consistency, patient safety, regulatory discipline, not hype, not slogans, not trust us, actual systems. So what's the shift? The shift is cannabis is no longer moving in one direction. It is splitting into categories and pharmaceutical cannabis may become one of the most important ones. Not because it's the loudest part of the industry, but because it may become one of the most credible. I think this is a good

12:27 one to end today's episode. Um, thank you all for watching. Uh, have a great rest of the day and I'll see you on the next one.