Why Green Thumb Industries' stocks stumbled today

September 3, 2025 — 04:45 pm EDT Written by Eric Volkman

Key points

• Many representatives of the cannabis industry do not believe that de facto legalization is near.
• In a recently published survey, two-thirds stated that such a movement will not occur this year.
• The bleak results of this new survey did not instill much optimism on Wednesday. Among the sector losers was Green Thumb Industries, whose value plummeted more than 7%, on a day when the S&P 500 index closed in positive territory with a 0.5% increase.

Few chances of reclassification in 2025?

Shield Compliance, a company specialized in compliance management for financial institutions serving the cannabis sector, published its 2025 financial services survey yesterday.

Image: Getty Images.

Although the survey was more focused on the financial aspects of the business, it raised the big question of our era for cannabis companies: if marijuana is reclassified (effectively, legalized), when will it happen? Specifically, Shield Compliance asked industry respondents what the chances were that the reclassification would occur before the end of the year.

Participants were asked to rate these possibilities on a scale from 0 (not at all likely) to 100 (very likely). On average, the 88 people who responded rated the probabilities at just 34.

A push for legalization is needed

At least there are few doubts about how much this type of movement would help the industry. In another question, 97% responded that the reclassification and the derived tax relief measures were at least “somewhat important” for the long-term viability of the business. More than 61% marked the highest category, “extremely important.”

Although there is much public support for the reform of marijuana laws in this country, the strict federal statutes governing the sale and consumption of this drug have been in place for decades. As such, there is a natural inertia to not change them. Until we see a change, we can expect companies like Green Thumb to continue fighting.

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The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Nasdaq, Inc.