Rescheduling happened. It also didn't. Depending on who you ask — and where your business sits — federal cannabis policy either just took its biggest step forward in fifty years, or it drew a new line that leaves more operators behind than it lifts up.
Recorded live on Day 1 of Cannabis Law Institute 2026, this panel doesn't try to resolve that tension. It maps it — and it's led by four practitioners who've each spent years on a different side of the same fight: litigation, policy, regulation, and the balance sheet. More on who they are in a minute. First, here's why you'll want to press play.
What They Get Into
This isn't a recap of the DEA's order — it's a working session on what it actually means for the people building in this industry. Expect the panel to dig into:
- What Schedule III does and doesn't cover — and why "partial rescheduling" is the more accurate term
- The widening gap between medical and adult-use operators, and who gets left on the wrong side of it
- Social equity programs under new pressure, and what a "next chapter" for equity could look like
- 280E, real audit activity, and the creative (and not-so-creative) accounting moves operators are trying
- Hemp's uncertain future and what a federal ban would mean for access, especially in states without adult-use or medical programs
- Enforcement risk that goes beyond cannabis — including the intersection of DEA action and immigration enforcement
A quick heads-up: this panel doesn't sand down its language or its opinions. If you're looking for a buttoned-up policy briefing, this isn't quite that — it's a candid, sometimes blunt conversation among people who've spent careers in the fight. We think that's exactly what makes it worth 50-some minutes of your time. Just know going in that it includes strong language and pointed political commentary.
Meet the Panel
That candor comes from real experience. Here's who's in the room.
Lauren Rudick (moderator) is the founder and managing principal of Rudick Law Group, PLLC, an all-women firm with offices across six states and an international presence, including Colombia. A self-described "recovering litigator" who now works as a dealmaker, Lauren built her practice around bridging legal strategy and business reality for emerging industries. She sits on the board of directors of Breeders Best, and spent six years as Treasurer and Director of INCBA. Years ago, she led a federal constitutional challenge against the DEA, DOJ, and then–Attorney General Jeff Sessions seeking to reschedule cannabis — a case ultimately dismissed on procedural grounds, but not before both a federal district court and a court of appeals acknowledged, for the first time, that cannabis is medicine.
Jason Ortiz is Director of Strategic Initiatives for the Last Prisoner Project, working to free those still incarcerated for cannabis offenses and reunite them with their families. He's also Vice President of the Latino Cannabis Alliance, formed in direct response to the first ICE-enforcement-related death on a state-legal cannabis farm. He previously served as executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy and president of the Minority Cannabis Business Association.
Cat Packer is Director of Drug Markets and Legal Regulation at the Drug Policy Alliance and a special advisor to the Cannabis Regulators of Color Coalition. She's also a policy practitioner in residence at Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law Drug Enforcement and Policy Center. Cat was the first executive director of the City of Los Angeles's Department of Cannabis Regulation — a tenure she clocks, to the day, at four years, ten months, and eight days — and now calls herself a "regulator in recovery."
Mitzi Keating, a CPA and the sole non-attorney on the panel, is a Partner at Citrin Cooperman and founder of the firm's cannabis advisory practice, which she launched roughly a decade ago. She works both sides of the table: advising operators nationally and consulting with regulators on investigations — ownership transfers, 280E exposure, and the financial mechanics that keep cannabis businesses (or don't keep them) compliant.
Watch It, Then Come Find More of It
View Progress Without Parity: Federal Cannabis Policy at a Crossroads on YouTube
This was one panel from a full day of non-CLE CLI2026 sessions we're releasing outside of the INCBArchives®, INCBA's on-demand cannabis CLE catalogue. Follow our YouTube channel for the rest of the non-CLE CLI2026 lineup.
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