News

Oh Canada. We barely got to know you. 

Marijuana businesses and investors seeking higher returns and more potential are looking beyond Canada’s relatively small and highly regulated market, according to analysts covering the still-nascent industry.

“Many investors we have spoken to have begun to rotate capital from Canada to the U.S. on the fear that Canadian players will be unable to capture growth south of the border,” CIBC World Markets analyst John Zamparo wrote in a research note about Canopy Growth’s conditional acquisition of New York-based Acreage Holdings for an industry-record $3.4 billion.

Read More »

Ouch . . . Again

Presidential hopeful John Hickenlooper blasted for what some call cannabis revisionist history. 

A fundraising appeal from the former two-term governor appeared as though he were taking credit for the state’s legalization of marijuana in 2014 as well as some of the incremental changes that preceded the full-on legalization.

“While I was Governor, Colorado became the first state to legalize marijuana. And we worked to address the social and racial inequities that plague marijuana sentencing,” one of the images from the post said.

“This seems like an egregious revision of history to claim you were at all progressive on social justice issues related to cannabis,” tweeted Jake Browne, a former marijuana critic for the Denver Post.

Read More »

There’s a new czar in town . . .

Gov. Jared Polis recently hired Ean Seeb, a founding partner at a cannabis business consulting firm, to serve as his special adviser on cannabis. Seeb will serve as the governor’s adviser for marijuana bills going through the legislature and be a liaison with the department of revenue, which oversees marijuana enforcement, among other state agencies.

Read More »

Sales record shattered

Marijuana dispensaries racked up over $114 million in sales in March alone as the cannabis industry continues to break sales records.

Full Story »

Sales may have received a boost from the so-called Bomb Cyclone. 

Read More – Marijuana Business Daily Chart of the Week »

Where is that marijuana tax money going? 

Aurora

It only took four decades, but Aurora has opened a new recreation center paid for by cannabis revenues for a long-awaited rec center in Aurora.  More »

Boulder

Marijuana tax revenues help Boulder County Schools expand the number of school nurses by one-third and add about a dozen nurses to the district’s high schools. More »

Turning over a new leaf

So far 323 citizens have taken advantage of Denver’s “Turn Over A New Leaf,” a program that helps erase low-level marijuana convictions.  It is estimated that 13,000 people are eligible.

Read More »

What a long, strange trip its been

U.S. Sen./presidential hopeful Michael Bennet joked on Seth Meyers that Denver decriminalized psychedelic mushrooms, fearing that Colorado is running out of marijuana.

“And by the way, we’re not out of marijuana in Colorado,” Bennet said.

“That’s what it says on the state flag now, right?” Meyers said.

“Yeah, exactly,” Bennet replied.

Read More »

 

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

The Cannabis Trade Federation launched a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force that includes, among others, NAACP’s president and CEO, National Urban League’s CEO,  former Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) and a former director of the ACLU’s Washington, D.C. office.

Californication

California-based Pure Harvest Cannabis Group has finalized plans to open a retail dispensary off  I-70 in Denver.

Trying to level the playing field

Totum Advising Group LLC, an LGBTQIA and woman-led cannabis consulting firm in Tampa, has partnered with a Colorado minority-focused business and management firm to raise $20 million in venture capital. The capital will go into real estate, technology and biotechnology, specifically focusing toward the elevation of minority-owned businesses within the legal cannabis market for the Denver-based capital venture fund.

Read More »