California regulators have sued the parent company of Kushy Punch alleging the brand manufactured $64M in gummies at an unlicensed facility in Los Angeles.
WeedWeek

• The suit stems from a 2019 raid which yielded 58 pounds of concentrate and records appearing to confirm it had manufactured 3.3M gummies at the facility.
• After the raid, parent company Vertical Bliss had its license at another facility revoked. 
• The penalty could be as high as triple the $75,000 license fee for every day the unlicensed facility operated.
• The suit also claims the company was making a product called “Kushy Punch T.K.O.” containing more than the legal THC limit. 
• The brand didn’t return a request for comment.

Dante Jordan has an essay in Weedmaps about what the pandemic has taken from us:

I miss sharing weed. And so do you — I see it in your eyes (plus the fact that you’re reading this article). The coronavirus has changed everything in the world, and just because weed is essential doesn’t mean we’re untouched. Cannabis cafés have gone out of business, those fancy THC-infused dinners in Los Angeles are on hold, and Oregon dispensaries — where you could stick your nose into the jars — have shifted to a wafting model.

You can’t even let off a public weed cough without people side-eyeing you like you’re patient zero.

Read the whole thing.

Quick Hit

1. In his new memoir “Let Love Rule,” Lenny Kravitz writes about a youth saturated with weed and rock ‘n’ roll.
   Rolling Stone

Aurora Cannabis, one of Canada’s biggest players, had the ???? worst quarter ever for a cannabis company, losing US$1.42B on $53M in revenue Q2. The company has lost $2.47B on the year. 
Business Insider

• The stock ended the week trading at $5.05, its lowest point since August 2016.
• A Seeking Alpha analyst says the company is heading for “zombification.”
• The company’s recovery plan is to bet big on premium brands.
  BNN Bloomberg

In other Canadian corporate news:

• Several players, including Aurora, are ???? moving into the Israeli MED market.
  Business Insider
• Canopy Growth amended its proposal to acquire U.S. MSO Acreage Holdings once the law permits.
  Pot Network
• MJBiz suggests Canadian companies’ missteps offer insights for those set on global expansion.

The IRS has asked a federal judge to dismiss Harborside‘s court challenge of industry-loathed tax rule 280E.
WeedWeek

• Harborside is appealing a 2018 Tax Court decision which found it owes $11M in back taxes for operations between 2007 and 2012. 
• The Oakland-based retailer claims it should have been allowed to deduct more of its expenses. The IRS disagrees.
• More broadly, Harborside argues 280E is unconstitutional, essentially because it is being taxed for revenue while the Constitution allows taxes on income. Harborside says it was operating at a loss for much of the time in question.
• In its brief before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the IRS argues the government can tax gross income. It adds that Harborside’s Constitutional argument should have been brought before the tax court and not introduced on appeal.
• Harborside’s lawyer, James Mann told WeedWeek “We continue to be optimistic about the outcome [of the case],” he said. “I actually am confident we will prevail on both of the grounds of the appeal.”

Quick Hit

1. In a rare respite, a new California law means pot taxes won’t go up for a year. ????WW California has more.
   Sacramento Bee

Compass Pathways, the U.K.-based, Peter Thiel-backed medical psilocybin company soared in its NASDAQ IPO inaugurating psychedelics as the next big psychoactive business opportunity. 
WeedWeek

• After opening Wednesday at $17 per share the stock closed the day at $36.75 and the week at $43.17.
• Compass’ first backer, a German biotech entrepreneur named Christian Angermayer saw his 22% stake in the company climb to more than $300M.
  Bloomberg 
• Other companies to watch include Mind Medicine and Champignon Brands both of which trade for less than a buck in Canada.
• Like cannabis, psilocybin and MDMA are schedule 1 drugs, but for reasons that aren’t entirely clear, the FDA seems much more interested in advancing therapies derived from those drugs.
• Just like with cannabis, the industry is promoting its own euphemisms. So instead of “hallucinogens,” executives call them “functional mushrooms.”
• The Washington Post asks who benefits from the mainstreaming of psychedelic medicine.
• The FDA, however, is showing a new openness to MED research.
  Cannabis Wire

Quick Hit

1. Discover looks at Delta8-THC the dubiously legal cannabinoid said to get you high without anxiety or paranoia.
2. A massive new survey aims to learn how Americans used CBD to combat anxiety during the pandemic.
   WeedWeek

Harris Bricken attorney Vince Sliwoski suggests federal judges’ unwillingness to enforce cannabis contracts could damage the industry.
WeedWeek

• Sliwoski points to several 2020 court decisions where federal judges seem to be backsliding on precedent where they would “sever” illegal aspects of the business out of their rulings. Now a few cases show judges’ reluctance to do so.
• While the trend could have to do with hostility to cannabis from the Trump administration, he thinks judicial caution is a more likely reason.
• Judges, he said, don’t want to do “intellectual gymnastics to somehow fashion a remedy for someone that’s doing something that’s expressly prohibited federally.”
• To avoid situations like this, he said companies make want to put severability clauses in their contracts or litigate disputes in state court or arbitration. Though he cautioned neither is a perfect fix.

Also in WeedWeek:

• A new lawsuit from Re:Botanicals and the Hemp Industries Association challenges the new DEA rule that is alarming the CBD industry.
• Getting busted with weed can create terrible problems for U.S. immigrants.

After a planned retail licensing process attracted widespread criticism, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said applicants who didn’t receive perfect scores on their applications would be able to re-vise them.
WeedWeek

• Even so, critics say their complaints have not been addressed.

In other state news:

• A lawsuit accuses several Washington companies of duping an out of state investor about his ability to put money into local cannabis companies.
  WeedWeek
• In the face of wildfires, some NorCal growers refuse to abandon their farms.
  Los Angeles Times
• A bill to legalize a REC industry headed to Vermont Gov. Phil Scott’s (R) desk. It’s not clear if he’ll sign it.
  Marijuana Moment
• A group called the Alliance for Sensible Markets has a new proposal to allow interstate cannabis commerce.
  Marijuana Moment
• An analysis found legalizing REC isn’t the “immediate fiscal boost” states hope for.
  Anderson Economic Group

Dr. William Courtnet of the Cannabis International Foundation is out with a new documentary short called “Leaf” which proposes raw cannabis juice as a new super..uh…food. 

Cannabis Now:

“The healing secret lies behind the immune system boosting process the body uses to absorb what it needs. Vitamins and enzymes rapidly enter the bloodstream when raw plants including fruits and vegetables are in liquid form, giving the digestive organs a chance to rest as the body devours a high concentration of nutrients. According to Dr. Courtney, when fresh raw cannabis is juiced and introduced to the system, its restorative properties are increased.”

Fires, floods storms and other Biblical weather are forcing growers to re-evaluate their cultivation practices.
MJBiz

• Among the changes, Louisiana growers are relocating to higher ground to avoid innundation.
• Following a flash freeze, Colorado growers are studying heartier strains and in California varietals with shorter growing cycles are getting a new look.

Related: Plant-based packaging is becoming cost competitive with less sustainable alternatives. 
MJBiz

In a rare boost for cannabis from the IRS, the tax agency greenlit cannabis companies to use of Tax Code Section 471 to offset the burden of hated rule 280E.
WeedWeek

• 280E severely limits the expenses cannabis companies can deduct on their taxes. Section 471, which passed in the 2018 tax law, allows businesses with less than $25M in revenue to deduct more of their expenses.
• Until the IRS’s announcement this month, it wasn’t clear whether 471 applied to cannabis businesses.
  WeedWeek
• The IRS may have been motivated because it missed out on nearly $250B in revenue from improperly deducted expenses.

In another story, WeedWeek‘s terrific new reporter Willis Jacobson looks at the heavy hitting cannabis coalition pushing the U.S. Supreme Court to accelerate legalization.