Cresco CEO Charlie Bachtell joined us this week to discuss the proposed rule on Schedule III and the company's recent earnings results. Cresco is active in Washington, and Charlie shared his perspective on Schedule III’s next steps, timing, and impact on Cresco's business.

We also dug into Cresco's progress. 2023 was the year of the core, and Charlie highlighted the tough decisions they made to cut costs and rationalize the footprint. He also explained Florida's importance and the efforts they are making to help pass adult-use legislation this fall. He closed by telling us, "Every year is now the year of the core; it is just who we are."

The episode concludes with another fun edition of Ask Grok.

Verano Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO George Archos joined the show to discuss the company's recent quarter. The business is beginning to generate significant cash flow, and George shared how he expects revenue to grow and opportunities to use the financial flexibility. We also asked about optimizing Florida assets ahead of the potential adult-use transition and M&A strategy.

The second half of the show is about free cash flow yields. Jesse provides an overview of the metric, and Toby shares how he uses it to analyze investments. The trio then discusses how GTI, Verano, and Ascend free cash flow yields compare and discuss optimizing cash flow and growth.

The episode concludes with everyone's favorite segment, Ask Grok.

Today, we heard the welcome news that the DEA is agreeing with the HHS recommendation to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III. Boris Jordan, Executive Chairman of Curaleaf, joins at the top of the show to share his thoughts on the next steps in the process, the timing of a final ruling, potential risks along the way, implications for institutional interest, and the specific impact of 280E on Curaleaf's business.

Hirsh Jain, founder of Ananda Strategy, joins for the second half and helps us better understand the similarities between cannabis's path to legalization and what happened with gay marriage. He also gives his perspective on the time frame for the DEA final ruling, advances in medical research, and how Schedule III may impact state election outcomes. We close by asking Hirsh his biggest concerns about this process and potential stumbling blocks.

This was an exciting day. Thank you to our regular listeners, and welcome to the new ears learning about this space.