Cannabis Countdown: Top 10 Marijuana Industry News Stories Of The Week

Cannabis Countdown: Top 10 Marijuana Industry News Stories of the Week

Welcome to the Cannabis Countdown. In this week’s rendition, we’ll recap and countdown the top 10 marijuana industry news stories for the week of September 2nd – 8th, 2019.

Without further ado, let’s get started.

10. Canadian Woman Nearly Gets Lifetime Ban for Crossing U.S. Border with CBD

Despite all the recent speculation that cannabis legalization is imminent in the U.S., the substance — and its extracts, including cannabidiol (CBD) oil derived from cannabis — is still considered a controlled substance under U.S. federal law.

An unsuspecting 21-year-old Canadian woman nearly learned that the hard way.

Read full U.S. Border CBD article

9. Ottawa Paid $75M for Veterans’ Cannabis Last Year, Could Pay $100M This Year

The federal government’s effort to rein in the cost of reimbursing veterans for their medical marijuana appears to have failed as new figures show Ottawa shelled out a record $75 million in the last fiscal year.

And that is only the beginning: the Veterans Affairs Canada figures show the government is on track to spend nearly $100 million this year as more and more former service members ask the government to pay for their cannabis.

Read full Veterans Cannabis article

8. Inside Facebook’s Campaign Against Hemp Advertising

Over the past few months, social media and search engine behemoths Facebook Inc FB and Google Inc GOOG have gone to great lengths to ban and censor CBD and hemp-related advertisements on their platforms — despite that the 2018 Farm Bill legalized the cultivation of hemp-derived CBD.

Facebook recently confirmed the ban, disabled advertising and “boost-post” privileges for mainstream brands like Dr. Bronner’s hemp-based soap company, and yet, has still not announced clear rules or reasoning for this decision.

Read full Facebook Hemp article

7. Black Market Pot Entered CannTrust Facility, Flowed into Legal Market Last Year: Sources

Senior operating staff working at CannTrust Holdings’ TRST CTST Pelham, Ont. facility late last year brought cannabis seeds from the black market into production rooms, leading to some illicitly-grown pot flowing into the legal market, according to internal company documents obtained by BNN Bloomberg and four sources directly familiar with the matter.

The documents suggest that, in an apparent effort to conceal the black market cannabis seeds from regulatory inspections and other staff members, some CannTrust employees changed the names of as many as 20 strains to those which the company was licensed to sell in the legal medical and recreational markets.

Read full CannTrust Black Market article

6. Curaleaf, Surterra Among Big Spenders on Federal Marijuana Lobbying

Multistate medical marijuana giants Curaleaf CURA CURLF ($400,000) and Surterra ($240,000) trail only the Cannabis Trade Federation ($482,500) in spending on lobbying, according to data published by the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics at OpenSecrets.org.

The National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) has spent $220,000, followed by Canndescent ($140,000), Tweed/Canopy Growth Corp WEED CGC ($130,000), Trulieve TRUL TCNNF ($80,000), Marijuana Policy Project ($75,000), Dama Financial ($60,000) and PharmaCann ($60,000).

Read full Marijuana Lobbying article

Source: Shutterstock

5. Top Canadian Cannabis Stocks by Market Share

Over the past couple quarters it is interesting to see Canopy Growth WEED CGC continue to lose market share along with Organigram OGI OGI.

Aphria APHA APHA managed to grow market share significantly in CY Q2  after a disappointing prior quarter. Aurora Cannabis ACB ACB has yet to report its Q2 results, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to us to see them achieve about 30% market share, overtaking Canopy for the first time ever.

Read full Canadian Market Share article

4. Illinois Licenses First Five Adult-Use Marijuana Retailers

Illinois awarded its first licenses to businesses that can sell recreational cannabis when it becomes legal in the state next year.

Of the five Green Thumb GTII GTBIF MMJ dispensaries now licensed to sell adult-use cannabis, three are in Chicago’s suburbs: 3C Compassionate Care Centers in Joliet and Naperville and The Clinic Mundelein. However, Naperville’s City Council is considering banning retail sales.

Read full Illinois article

3. Big Business is Making Moves Into Cannabis

Legal cannabis will make what Red Bull did to the soft drink industry seem like small potatoes. It’s not going to create just one new subindustry, like energy drinks. It will potentially create dozens.

The illicit recreational market is worth $200 billion globally. Ultimately, this will become a new legal industry with all sorts of subindustries – including dry flower, edibles, oils, vaping, and beverages.

• Anheuser-Busch InBev (the maker of Budweiser) and Tilray Inc TLRY announced they will create a joint research partnership.
• Molson Coors Brewing announced that its Canadian subsidiary will develop a cannabis-infused drink in Canada with HEXO Corp. HEXO HEXO.
• Constellation Brands STZ invested over $4 billion into Canopy Growth Corp WEED CGC, one of the largest publicly traded cannabis companies.

Read full Big Business article

2. Nevada Cannabis Industry Breaks $100 Million Mark in Annual Tax Payments

Nevada’s cannabis industry has broken a record for tax contributions — more than $100 million in revenue has been collected from dispensaries, cultivators, laboratories and producers in the fiscal year that just ended.

Marijuana tax contributions have increased by 33 percent year over year, from $74.7 million paid last fiscal year to $99.18 million in the 2019 fiscal year, with another $10 million fees on top of that.

Read full Nevada article

1. New BDS Analytics Report Forecasts CBD Sales to Reach $20 Billion by 2024

A new report from BDS Analytics titled “The Global Cannabinoids Market: Will CBD Overtake THC?” is forecasting that CBD sales will reach $20 billion by 2024.

This would account for nearly 44%  of the $45 billion total forecasted cannabinoid market (which includes legal cannabis).

Read full CBD Sales Report article

Image Sourced from Google