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Terry Mendez, CEO of Safe Harbor Financial, put it bluntly: cannabis businesses are hanging on by razor-thin margins while waiting for clarity that never seems to arrive. “A government shutdown risks freezing the already slow gears of federal regulatory progress,” he said, pointing to delayed DEA and FDA reviews, halted public comment windows, and yet another pushback on rescheduling.
US: Government shutdown stalls cannabis progress
Another budget brawl in Washington, another round of collateral damage for the cannabis industry. This time, the gears of federal rulemaking were already creaking forward at a snail’s pace (Trump’s promise of looking at cannabis rescheduling), and now they risk seizing up entirely.
Terry Mendez, CEO of Safe Harbor Financial, put it bluntly: cannabis businesses are hanging on by razor-thin margins while waiting for clarity that never seems to arrive. “A government shutdown risks freezing the already slow gears of federal regulatory progress,” he said, pointing to delayed DEA and FDA reviews, halted public comment windows, and yet another pushback on rescheduling. For an industry that have been waiting a federal change for years, the shutdown undermines confidence at every level, from investors to lenders to the banks still nervous about touching the sector, comments Terry.
Anthony Coniglio, CEO of NewLake Capital Partners, sees the same pattern. “A shutdown would not only halt critical functions across federal agencies but also stall the long-awaited progress on cannabis rescheduling efforts,” he said, adding that the 450,000 Americans employed in the legal cannabis industry are effectively sidelined while lawmakers trade barbs.
For now, the shutdown leaves cannabis rescheduling and banking reforms in the same holding pattern they’ve been in for years. Industry leaders say that stability, rather than sweeping change, is what’s needed most.
