Recommendation to ease marijuana restrictions could have big impact on Colorado cannabis companies

Cannabis companies have been operating in Colorado for more than decade. But it's far from business as usual.

"Gas money, the car payment, the giant refrigerated trucks we have to have because edibles melt in the Colorado sun," said Buck Dutton, marketing vice president for Native Roots Cannabis. "None of that can be written off on our taxes."

Dutton says those limitations are a result of federal regulations around marijuana. Paired with a steady decline in marijuana sales since the pandemic, impacts on the industry are compounded.

"It's not just the big players that are suffering, not just the mom and pop (stores) that are suffering," Dutton said. "The entire cannabis industry is suffering. Right now, our profit margins are already razor thin because of the tax rates we have to pay to the federal government."

Like so many in the marijuana industry, they are paying close attention to a recommendation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to reschedule marijuana into a category of less dangerous drugs.

"If we could reschedule cannabis, we could start treating these businesses a lot more fairly," said Mason Tvert, spokesperson for Colorado Leads.

Colorado Leads is an alliance of Colorado cannabis businesses. Tvert says they're now looking to the DEA for direction on the future of cannabis classification.

"We should not have a Drug Enforcement Agency setting health policy in this country," Tvert said. "They are supposed to enforce the laws, not create them, and so we are hopeful the DEA will follow this recommendation."

For Dutton and other business owners, all they can do now is wait.

"This was extremely welcome news when we heard; however, we are not rolling out the red carpet," Dutton added.