Cannabis stocks have, for the last five years or so, represented one of, if not the worst-performing, niche categories on any exchange.
Ever since the heady ‘Green’ IPO rush of the late 2010s and early 2020s, MSOS’ stocks tracked by New Cannabis Ventures have plummeted -87.1% in value, while the wider Global Index fell by -85.2% over the same period.
Effectively banned from listing on US blue chip exchanges like Nasdaq, any US operators willing to fight their way onto the public markets have been limited to smaller platforms, offering limited access to institutional capital, poor liquidity, and leaving these stocks exposed to the volatility of sentiment-driven retail investors.
Access to these top-tier exchanges has long been the holy grail for investment-starved cannabis operators. Yet, with almost every layer of the US financial regulatory system operating under federal law, it has remained just out of reach.
Ever the disruptor, the Trump administration’s order to move medical cannabis to Schedule III has, for the first time in US history, cleared a path for domestic cannabis operators.
With more than half a dozen leading MSOS now positioning themselves to uplist their stock onto major exchanges, the long-coveted institutional capital will finally be available. The question now is, will any of them want to buy cannabis stocks?
Trulieve makes history
On June 10, 2026, Trulieve Cannabis Corp (TRLV) listed on the New York Stock Exchange, becoming the first US ‘plant-touching’ cannabis company in history to do so.
So what exactly has changed? While cannabis remained in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), a company whose primary business is growing and selling cannabis could not accurately state that it complied with federal law, and thus couldn’t meet the listing requirements for both NYSE and Nasdaq.
Schedule I determines that a substance has ‘no accepted medical use’, and as such, no lawful commercial framework could be built around it.
Attorney General Todd Blanche’s order on April 22, 2026, which moved cannabis under a state medical licence, and any FDA-approved cannabis drugs, to Schedule III, reversed that finding, formally recognising medical value and unlocking DEA registration for commercial operators for the first time.
However, with adult-use cannabis remaining under Schedule I, only operators willing to bifurcate their operations, wall off their medical business, and register their medical facilities with the DEA have a legitimate route to listing their stock.
This is exactly what Trulieve did. On June 3, one week before trading began, Trulieve transferred its operations in states with both medical and adult-use programmes into a newly created entity, Harvest Enterprises LLC.
Read the full article at Business of Cannabis
