Cannabis news and notes: Today in weed

With only a few shopping days left until the big holiday, retailers everywhere are hoping to turn around what was an otherwise rough year. After both COVID and an economic recession, 2020 ended up dashing a lot of dreams. But, the cannabis industry saw some positives as well. Let’s take a look at the top stories going into the last shopping days before Christmas.

Snoop Dogg’s Casa Verde Capital closes on $100 million as the cannabis industry bounces back (Tech Crunch)

Tech Crunch writes: “Casa Verde Capital, the investment fund co-founded by cannabis connoisseur Snoop Dogg (also known as Calvin Broadus), has closed on $100 million for its second investment fund, according to documents filed with the SEC.

The fund, whose managing director, Karan Wadhera declined to comment for this article, has managed to raise more cash just as the market for cannabis-related products seems poised for another period of expansion.”

They also quote Karan Wadhera from last July: “What happened to the public perception of the cannabis industry is not too dissimilar to the dotcom bubble of the late ’90s, where there was a lot of hype — a lot of it driven by public companies — and a lot of speculative trading and valuations that weren’t really founded in reality. [We’re talking about] projections multiple years out into the future, and then crazy revenue multiples on top of that. Things just got really frothy, and that eventually burst, and last April or May was sort of the apex of that moment. It’s when things started to trade off. And it’s been those names, the public names in particular, that have been hit particularly hard.”

Telford girl's 'miracle' response to medical cannabis (BBC News)

The BBC writes: “Sienna Richardson, from Telford, was diagnosed with Landau Kleffner syndrome.

The family secured a prescription from a private practice for her - which her mother said had been a "miracle".

They are now campaigning with other families to ensure the treatment is more widely available on the NHS.

Sienna was diagnosed after her parents noticed problems with her speech and understanding.

Steroid treatments were not successful and, while surgery was an option, it could leave Sienna with paralysis of her left side.”

SPACs pump hundreds of millions of dollars into US cannabis industry through acquisitions (Marijuana Business Daily)

MJBizDaily writes: “Two cannabis special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), Silver Spike Acquisition Corp. and Subversive Capital Acquisition Corp., recently announced deals worth more than $2 billion, while two other SPACs have an additional $280 million that must be deployed in the next year.

Once the Silver Spike and Subversive deals close in the first half of 2021, the U.S. cannabis industry overall will get an injection of liquidity, since the companies said they plan to use some of their combined $662 million cash on hand and publicly traded currencies to consolidate smaller operators in California and marijuana-related technology companies.”

Will Israeli elections bury cannabis legalization? - analysis (The Jerusalem Post)

The Post writes: “Just last month, Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn announced that Israel was only around nine months away from fully legalizing and regulating recreational cannabis in Israel. However, after the Knesset decided to disperse at midnight on Tuesday, it is  practically certain that the cannabis legalization bill will not have enough time to get through a first reading in the Knesset plenum.

When asked whether the cannabis legalization bill still had any hope of passing, Nissenkorn’s spokesman told The Jerusalem Post that he did not see how it could move forward in light of the elections.”

2020: The Top Movers And Shakers In Cannabis (Benzinga)

Benzinga writes: “If 2020 has had any silver lining, the cannabis industry is one of the few local industries thriving after receiving “essential business” status in many states. It shows no signs of slowing down. Marijuana Business Daily reported that retail sales were up 40 percent compared to 2019. Legalization also pressed forward, and this year alone, Arizona and Montana voted to legalize recreational cannabis. South Dakota became the first state to legalize medicinal and recreational cannabis during the same election. In early December, The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act (MORE Act) passed the U.S. House of Representatives. Marijuana Business Daily reported that U.S. cannabis retail sales were up 40 percent compared to 2019

As a look back on the year, industry leaders deserve recognition for continuing to move the industry forward, develop new and innovative products, and are on the rise as people to pay attention to in 2021.”

Maine’s largest cannabis company sues to open state’s medical marijuana market to outsiders (Maine Press Herald)

The Press Herald writes: “The state’s largest cannabis company has asked the court to strike down the residency requirement in Maine’s medical marijuana law, making the same constitutional argument it used to successfully open the state’s recreational market to out-of-state investors earlier this year.

Wellness Connection of Maine and its parent company, High Street Capital Partners of Delaware, filed papers in U.S. District Court in Maine last week to overturn the state’s requirement that medical marijuana dispensaries be owned by Mainers. It is seeking an injunction to prohibit the state from enforcing that part of the law until the dispute is settled in court.”