Search Results: marijuana-com (32)

Dixie Brands, one of Denver’s early marijuana-infused product brands, has agreed to an acquisition deal with a private equity firm that specializes in cannabis mergers.

According to a joint announcement from Dixie and BR Brands, a branch of Connecticut-based marijuana investment firm Rose Capital, the transaction is valued at over $43.2 million and is expected to be finished by the third quarter of 2020.

Nearly a year ago, cannabis industry executive Jason Margolies went public regarding his fight with stage-four colon cancer, and the hundreds of friends and peers in the cannabis industry who had his back.

Now that fight is over: Margolies passed away on August 6 at the age of 43.

Known throughout the cannabis industry and beyond for his jovial personality and sense of humor, Margolies kept his spirits up after he was diagnosed with cancer in January 2018. Because he already suffered from an autoimmune disorder, doctors told Margolies there was only a 25 percent chance that his cancer would go into remission. But he remained upbeat, as did his friends.

Held annually since 2010 by Clover Leaf University, the Cannabis Business Awards celebrate some of the industry’s brightest companies and advocates. Although legalization continues expanding to new states every year, the national CBAs are still held in downtown Denver every December, with the latest edition taking place at the Hilton Denver City Center on Wednesday, December 5.

As they did at the 2017 CBAs, Colorado cannabis influencers owned the national competition this year, with nineteen individuals or organizations taking home twenty awards. Notable local winners include Governor-elect Jared Polis (Political Industry Representative of the Year), Wanda James (Most Influential) and activists Jason Cranford and Alexis Bortell (a teenager) for joining in former Denver Bronco Marvin Washington’s lawsuit against the Department of Justice over federal cannabis prohibition.

Thirty percent of marijuana businesses are audited each year by the IRS; adding to that pressure is the threat of new regulations the industry may have to adopt. To ease the load, Keegan Peterson founded Wurk, which helps marijuana companies keep track of all their business records — from payroll to scheduling — so that when the IRS or other agencies comes knocking, everything is in one convenient place.

Peterson started the company last year after a friend who owns a dispensary in town was talking with him about the problems that business owners face in the cannabis industry. “They want to be compliant; they just don’t have the tools to do so,” Peterson says. “We do our best to help facilitate that. The government gives you a Rubik’s Cube and says, ‘Hey, figure it out.’ Then they change it, and you have to figure it out again.”

A little known aspect of busts.
Here’s your weekly dose of cannabis news from the newsletter WeedWeek.
An investigation in Reason finds “ widespread, unchecked violence against pets during drug raids.” Two Detroit officers it found have killed more than 100 dogs each.

The owner of Med-West, a San Diego extraction company that was raided by local authorities in January is seeking a return of his frozen assets. $324,000 cash was seized during the raid. No criminal charges have been filed.

Police departments are becoming more tolerant of applicants’ past pot smoking.

Las Vegas police said they would still pursue possession arrests, though the district attorney said they wouldn’t be prosecuted.

With Trump’s election, federal inmates incarcerated for non-violent drug offenses fear their window to win clemency is closing. “Some of these people are bad dudes,”  Trump said at an August rally “These are people out walking the streets. Sleep tight, folks.”

CBS tells the story of Harry Anslinger, a leading figure in passing the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which made it illegal.

The New Yorker sent Adrian Chen to the Philippines, where President Rodrigo Duterte is waging a brutal drug war. The article is subtly titled “ When a Populist Demagogue Takes Over.

In California, police are concerned about home grows.

Time Magazine calls hmbldt vape pens one of the 25 best inventions of 2016.
Ozy discovers “ happy pizza” in Cambodia. A Barcelona cannabis club was closed by authorities. There’s a cannabis/comic book convention today in Colorado Springs.

Vice learns how to make “ the most potent weed oil.”

The Washington Post recommends four books to understand the new weed reality. They include Marijuana: A Short History, by John Hudak, Jesse Ventura’s Marijuana Manifesto, Sacred Bliss: A Spiritual History of Cannabis by Mark S. Ferrara and Cooking with Cannabis by Laurie Goldrich.

The New Yorker published a pot-industry cartoon. It isn’t especially funny.

It would be the first in the country.

Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek

Denver’s social use initiative is in the lead with some ballots still uncounted. If approved it would be allow bars and other businesses to apply for on-site pot consumption permits.

After Election Day, there are now eight more Senators and 68 more members of the House representing REC states, and six more Senators and 33 more members representing MED states. Marijuana.com predicts that it will be harder for them to reject cannabis reform legislation out of hand.

Massachusetts treasurer Deb Goldberg says she may need an extension of the October 2017 deadline to begin accepting license applications. Additional tweaks on taxes, edibles and DUI are anticipated.

How Florida’s MED program will work remains hazy.

Marijuana Business Daily calls it an $8 billion-night based on the combined annual sales projected in the newly legal states. Vox explains the votes. The New York Times has a round-up.

Rob Sands, CEO of Constellation Brands, whose portfolio includes Svedka Vodka and Robert Mondavi wine, said the company is interested in going green. “There are going to be alcoholic beverages that will also contain cannabis.”

The New York Stock Exchange accepted cannabis real estate investment trust (REIT) Innovative Industrial Properties’ listing. It will be the first cannabis REIT to trade on the exchange. It’s ticker will be IIPR.

Canadian producer Aphria announced a C$35M raise, the largest by a public company to date. Legal Canadian growers have raised more than C$313M in the last 13 months.

The New York Times profiles Denver-based Dixie Brands as it builds a national presence.  (For more on interstate trade, see my April story in The Washington Post.)

WIRED tells us to “Get ready for the Budweiser of bud.”

Adrian Sedlin, CEO of California grower CannDescent, told Fortune that leaving California companies without bank accounts is “ not a tenable position.

LAWeekly finds some psyched local cannabis executives. The San Jose Mercury News talks to some pumped-up Investors.

The company applied to trade on NASDAQ earlier this year but was rejected.

Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Download WeedWeek’s free 2016 election guide here.

Social network MassRoots, defaulted on almost $1 million in debt payments and laid off about 40% of its staff, according to SEC filings. This week Chairman and CEO Isaac Dietrich, wrote an upbeat letter to shareholders that did not reference either setback. The company has raised more than $5 million.

After retiring from the league he joined the industry.

Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Download WeedWeek’s free 2016 election guide here.

Cannabis activist and former NFL-player Eugene Monroe is part of a company suing Maryland regulatorsfor rejecting its permit application. Maryland lawmaker Dr. Dan K. Morhain faces an ethics investigation. He championed MED and serves as the medical advisor to a MED company.
Colorado Springs Mayor and legalization opponent John Suthers (R) told an Arizona audience todecriminalize, don’t legalize. Colorado Springs ordered 9 consumption clubs to “ cease and desist” operations.
The service also failed to protect customer information.
Here’s your daily round up of pot news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek.

Irvine, Calif.-based Weedmaps is full of bogus dispensary reviews, according to an investigation by the L.A. Times.

Reporter Paresh Dave looked at nearly 600 businesses reviewed on the site and found that 70% included reviews submitted from a single IP address (i.e. a single computer). A textual analysis found that 62% of reviews on the site are “fake.”

Weedmaps, a Yelp-like service with operations in several states, had stored the IP addresses of anonymous reviewers, in its publicly available code. A Weedmaps executive said the 62% figure is far too high, and emphasized that reviews are only part of the product.

And that’s the low estimate.

The following is excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Get your free and confidential subscription at WeedWeek.net.

The industry employs between 100,000 and 150,000 Americans according to the Marijuana Business Factbook. Ancillary businesses that don’t touch the plant account for about 40 % of jobs.

In Massachusetts, cities are awarding recommendations for state licenses to dispensaries that promise payments in return.

Canada’s Canopy Growth Corp. will list on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the first cannabis producer to trade on a major exchange. It also announced plans to start selling MED in Germany.

The IRS is auditing 30 Colorado pot companies, mainly related to large cash deposits. (Cannabis companies still struggle to find bank accounts.) Criminal charges may follow.

Lots from New Cannabis Ventures: Social network MassRoots is launching a dispensary finder to compete with Weedmaps and Leafly. Ackrell Capital, the investment bank, is starting a cannabis business accelerator called Cannavator in Oakland. Nationwide there are at least three others. Canadian grower Aphria raised $25M.

NCV founder Alan Brochstein is skeptical of Cultivation Technologies Inc. which has a big project planned in Coachella, Calif. A guest post at the site recommended that companies create budget brands for lower income customers.

Gateway incubator co-founder Carter Laren says start-ups still confront the “ghost of Nancy Reagan.”

Data firm Headset determined that the average user in Washington state spends $647 on legal cannabis per year. Marketwatch has more data from the study.

An investor is suing California edibles company Altai for spending his cash on private jets, luxury hotels and personal legal bills.

The publishing industry is putting out a slew of weed books, including the Complete Idiot’s Guide to growing.

Entrepreneur spotlights the industry in Boulder. Despite difficulties in Pueblo, Colo., businesses continue to invest big there.

A British Airways flight turned around shortly after departing London due to an unexplained cannabis smell.

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