Multi-state operator Curaleaf, released record results for Q4 and 2020 and announced plans to move into the European market. The results enforce its position as a leading player in the U.S. as more states legalize REC and the push for federal reform intensifies.
WeedWeek

The Wakefield, Mass.-based company reported total revenue of 230.3M for Q4, up 205% year-over-year and total annual revenue of $626.6M, up 184% year-over-year. 

• Curaleaf also announced a definitive agreement to acquire London-based EMMAC Life Sciences Group, which it describes as Europe’s largest vertically integrated independent cannabis company.  Curaleaf said it would pay $286M for EMMAC, 85% in stock and 15% in cash.
• The results open what stock analyst Alan Brochstein anticipates will be a “very solid earnings season” for American operators.
  New Cannabis Ventures
• Separately, VC firm Arcadian Capital is pushing forward with a lawsuit (Paywall) against Curaleaf for an unpaid finder’s fee related to Curaleaf’s 2020 acquisition of vape brand Select. Curaleaf didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
  Law360

Quick Hit

1. A lawsuit accuses Canadian operator Canopy Growth and several partners of a complex stock pumping scheme. Former Canopy subsidiary RIV Capital said the suit was “entirely without merit.” Canopy told MJBiz it doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

Here’s what else is happening:

• It’s not clear what New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s metastasizing scandals will mean for the state’s REC push.
  Times Union, Marijuana Moment
• With weeks left in the New Mexico legislative session, REC legalization could come down to the wire.
  Albuquerque Journal
• U.S. News wonders which PotCos are most likely to merge. 
• Cannatech player Dutchie made Fast Company‘s list of 10 most innovative North American companies.
• A new study found teens who vape cannabis are at greater risk of lung injury than those who smoke cannabis or tobacco, or those who vape nicotine.
  The University Record (U of Michigan)
• A study suggests cannabis extracts might relieve some symptoms associated with Covid-19.
• Another study looks at growers’ “giant carbon footprint.”
• The Thai green rush is on as the government promotes cannabis and hemp as cash crops. 
  Reuters
• Mexico’s long awaited REC bill inched closer to enactment.
  Reuters
• CBS meets Maryland’s Hope Wiseman, 29, the youngest Black woman in the country to own a dispensary.

After an ignominious departure, chronicled at length in Politico, MedMen co-founders Adam Bierman and Andrew Modlin are working in cannabis again. MJBiz scoops that they’ve found a new professional home at Coastal Dispensary which holds licenses in SoCal and along the central coast.  

• Coastal is co-owned by Josh Ginsberg who co-founded Denver chain Native Roots.
• “It’s building the retail identity. I think it’s putting together the brand and stuff like that. They’re trying to grow and scale,” said a former Coastal contractor.
• The reaction from industry professionals have been mixed. Some are outraged after they left MedMen in dire straights, others say Bierman and Modlin should be welcomed back.
• MJBiz couldn’t reach them for comment.

Time to burn? Read all about it. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and his colleagues Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) are working on a bill to end federal marijuana prohibition.

However, in a Senate evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, there could be significant differences between the bill progressives want and a bill that has a chance of becoming law. The gap between the ideal and the reality has split legalization supporters in Washington.
WeedWeek 

Virtually all legalization supporters, including industry groups, claim to support social justice and equity measures as part of legalization. The question dividing advocates in Washington is whether legislation like the SAFE Banking Act — which does not include any social justice elements — is worth supporting if full legalization isn’t immediately realistic. 

Read the whole thing.

What’s happening:

• Jason Wild, whose cannabis investments helped his hedge fund JW Asset Management return 146% last year, shared his six favorite pot stocks. “I’m as bullish as ever” on U.S. operators, he said. (Paywall) 
  Business Insider
• Detroit is the latest jurisdiction to see an equity-related lawsuit.
  The Detroit News
• MSO Columbia Care anticipates 2021 revenue of more than $500M. 
• After a slow down, data firm BDSA saw substantial sales growth in January, powered by demand for flower.
  New Cannabis Ventures
• Peter Thiel-backed medical psychedelics company Atai Life Sciences raised a $157M Series D at a valuation around $2B.
  Bloomberg
• Union organizing is surging among cannabis employees.
  MJBiz
• The New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled that an insurer must compensate a man who sustained a workplace injury, for his MED costs.
  AP  
• Pushes to limit the THC content of cannabis products are gaining momentum.
  Forbes
• An ad campaign from Jay-Z’s Monogram brand points out that REC is illegal in states where law-abiding citizens can have sex with farm animals.
  Fast Company
• Investing Daily discusses the rise of the celebrity canna-preneur. 
• Charlotte’s Web made a deal to enter the cannabis industry (paywall) upon legalization. Meanwhile, there will be a concert to honor Charlotte Figi, the girl who inspired the CBD movement before she died at 13.
  Law360, CNN
• Canna Tech Today finds six must-follow weed-fluencers.

New doings:

• With New Jersey now legal, several big MSOs are targeting the northeast.
  Bloomberg 
• Marijuana Moment asks if Vice President Kamala Harris has reversed her pro-legalization stance. 
• A California bill would block employers from testing most employees for cannabis use. 
  Sacramento Bee
• THC-infused beverage sales are way up, boosted by the convenience factor.
  MJBiz
• Canadian player Canopy Growth filed a prospectus to raise $2B, believed to be the largest ever filed by a cannabis company.
  MJBiz
• Virginia lawmakers voted to legalize REC, though the market, the first in the former Confederacy, won’t open until 2024.
  Politico
• Jackie Bryant visited Huckleberry Hill Farms, one of the first in California to have a tourism license.
  SFGate
• Mashable has a deep dive into “nanotech” gummies, essentially products with higher bioavailability that can accelerate onset.
• Chris Roberts investigates the strange world of digital weed NFTs.
  Forbes
• The first human study to look at MED as a treatment for PTSD has been approved.
  Forbes
• Seth Rogen’s Houseplant brand, is rolling out its first U.S. products in California.
  NBC

Over at Green Market Report, Artery Pay executive Ashley Elsner dives into the case which led former Eaze CEO Jim Patterson to plead guilty to federal bank fraud, “in connection with credit card processing for cannabis products on the Eaze platform.”

• Two associates of Patterson are currently on trial for related charges.
• Elsner argues that cannabis businesses need to care since participating in a state-legal enterprise does not excuse companies from following the law, “Cannabis protections from federal prosecution do not extend to other crimes.”
• She also explains how to avoid getting into trouble.
• Eaze has not been charged, denies wrongdoing and says it cooperated with authorities.

Read the whole thing.

Separately, a federal judge in Oregon threw out a lawsuit against Eaze and a subsidiary, related to payments for billboard ads. (Paywall)
Law360

The future is notoriously difficult to predict, especially when it involves the legislative process.

• In November, voters in all five states with cannabis on the ballot elected for reform, generally reflecting public opinion. But the next round of legalization is taking place in markets where legalization has to win approval from lawmakers.
• Numerous governors feel pressure to legalize REC, propelled by the belief that pot taxes can relieve Covid-related economic concerns. And they don’t want to lose the revenue to their neighbors. But each state has its own moving parts which could delay or derail the process.
  WeedWeek 

These five states appear most likely to legalize in 2021.

Tax experts are sounding the alarm that California regulators have stepped up their tax enforcement with audits and steep bills in store for some businesses. 
MJBiz

• The pile up owes to various factors kicking in three years after the state REC market opened.
• Numerous audits are reportedly already underway.
• “It should be no surprise these are beginning, and they will be very productive for the state of California,” predicted CPA Patrick Finnegan, a former state auditor. “It’s going to be a turkey shoot.”
• One attorney estimated the city of Oakland alone is owed more than $10M.
• PLUS: The head of the IRS said he would “prefer” it if the industry could pay its taxes electronically.
  Marijuana Moment

More happenings:

• A study found middle-aged adults claim 20% less in workers comp in states where REC is legal. “It suggests people who use cannabis have a better work capacity and that they’ll make fewer mistakes,” one of the authors said.
  NorthJersey.com
• The idea of cannabis potency limits is gaining some traction amid concerns of mental illness and teen use. Industry group U.S. Cannabis Council opposes them.
  Bloomberg
• A California cannabis business owned by two feuding partners will remain in receivership despite one of the men facing criminal charges for allegedly soliciting his partner’s murder, a California court ruled. (Paywalled) Read more at Voice of San Diego.
  Law360
• Washington state’s supreme court effectively decriminalized all drugs.
  Fox
• A report projects the legal industry’s water use to double by 2025.
• Scotts Miracle-Gro’s hydroponics brand Hawthorne Gardening launched a $2.5M social justice fund.
• Morocco is set to legalize MED production.
  Reuters
• Marketing tech firm Fyllo tapped Twitter’s head of brands Katie Ford as COO in a bid to bring cannabis ads to mainstream platforms.
• NGO Students for Sensible Drug Policy named alumnus Jason Ortiz as its executive director.
• In the forthcoming movie Clerks III, Jay and Silent Bob run a dispensary.
  NJ.com
• PR agency Grasslands talked to former WeedWeek California editor Donnell Alexander about weed, WeedWeek (and other things too.)