A report from New Frontier Data projects dramatic growth for the CBD. But big questions remain about how to govern the industry.
WeedWeek

• The U.S.Department of Agriculture has reopened its public comment period for how it governs hemp production.
  WeedWeek
• The agency appears to be taking a more forgiving stance than the DEA where a new rule worries the industry.
  WeedWeek
• Canna Law Blog looks at a new bipartisan bill that would legalize hemp and CBD as dietary supplements. If passed it would alleviate many of the regulatory uncertainties that hinder the industry.
• A Forbes story looks at the companies developing products with rare cannabinoids like CBG.
• Biotech firm Amyris has been hit with a whopping $881M lawsuit over cannabinoid-related intellectual property.
  WeedWeek
• Unsurprisingly, Martha Stewart, who now has a CBD brand, was well prepared to spend months at home.
  New York Times

IN EXCITING WEEDWEEK NEWS: We’re about to launch Goodie Lane, a product review site for CBD products and cannabis accessories. We’ll unveil it soon, but in the meantime, Digiday wrote it up.

Illinois cannabis regulators face a flood of criticism and litigation over applicants who feel they were unjustly blocked from obtaining licenses.
WeedWeek

• At issue is a state lottery for 75 dispensary licenses. Twenty-one businesses qualified for the lottery out of 900 applicants. (Finalists can win more than one license.)
• “I’m honestly surprised that the state of Illinois hasn’t just willingly suspended the process, because at this point, they should recognize that they messed up – really bad,” unsuccessful applicant turned litigant Naomi Williams said. “They should be embarrassed by how bad they messed up.”
• Under fire, Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) said he would meet with stakeholders about the not yet scheduled lottery.
  Chicago Tribune

Separately, in Missouri, a memo prepared by state House Democrats found “credible allegations” that Gov. Mike Parsons (R) interfered in their investigation of the state’s MED program.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Quick Hit

1. The Boston Globe found Massachusetts has some of the country’s most expensive legal REC.

In recent months, investors have been ????rushing into canna-tech start-ups like Dutchie, an e-commerce platform for dispensaries, ($35M, Series B), marketing tech company Fyllo, ($10M on top of a previous $16M Series A) and marketing platform Springbig ($11.5M, Series B).
Business Insider

• Overall, however, cannabis VC investing is way down from 2019.
• Business Insider spoke to six prominent cannabis VCs about ????what they’re looking for in deals. The short version, they’re shifting to larger companies with proven track records.
• MJResearchCO founder Mike Regan said companies with specific plans for the money they want to raise will have much more success.
  MJBiz
• Canna Law Blog looks at what the SEC’s new rules for accredited investors mean for cannabis.

Quick Hits

1. A judge ruled against MSO Columbia Care in an IP dispute, part of ongoing litigation involving a contested Florida MED license.
   WeedWeek
2. MedMen received another $20M loan with tough terms attached.

A novel equity initiative supported by the city of Oakland, Calif. and California’s Bureau of Cannabis Control seeks to reduce the costs of starting an infused products company.
WeedWeek

• EquityWorks! Incubator, a shared manufacturing kitchen, started by entrepreneur and activist Amber Senter and the Oakland Cannabis Kitchen, are offering entrepreneurs space to produce product as well as help with access to dispensaries, data analysis and help with marketing costs and other expenses. 
• Senter said EquityWorks! would be able to support five entrepreneurs.

In another collaboration, Viola Brands, run by former NBA star Al Harrington, and Ball Family Farms, are teaming up to benefit criminal justice non-profit Root & Rebound.
WeedWeek

• Proceeds from the sale of a strain called Reign will benefit the group. The Prince estate blocked it from being called Purple Reign.

In San Francisco, equity applicants are still struggling to open businesses.
S.F. Weekly

• 48 Hills points out how California pot taxes go to the police.

The Los Angeles Times has a messy story of accused cultural misappropriation.

• The California brand La Chingona “the badass woman” launched with the story of three Mexican sisters, but it turned out they were invented by businessman Michael Kaiser, a white guy with a Mexican grandmother.
• The business was inevitably outed as white-owned on social media. Bitter recriminations and an Instagram-powered boycott followed.

Read the whole thing.

Live music venues “might be the most screwed businesses of the pandemic,” according to Slate. The story follows the travails of Washington D.C.’s U Street Music Hall as it tries to survive.

• They’re hoping for a bailout from Congress, which makes U Hall’s owner feel like “a shipwrecked sailor at sea, waiting for aid that may never come.”
• Boulder, Colo.-based Terrapin Care Station donated $30,000 to preserving the city’s concert venues.
• According to Yelp, at least 300 U.S. venues, and probably many more, have shuttered permanently since March.

Quick Hit

1. Kendall Jenner came out as a “stoner.”

The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives postponed a vote on the MORE Act, which would legalize cannabis nationwide and enact several equity measures.
Marijuana Moment

• Democrats initially though support for legalization made it an easy win but they got cold feet after being bludgeoned by Republicans over pushing the bill instead of coronavirus relief. (House Democrats passed a relief bill but it is too expensive for Republicans.)
  Politico
• The bill stood little chance of passing the Republican-controlled Senate.

Industry insiders say November’s election is unlikely to accelerate legalization, though they tend to describe Democrats winning the presidency and control of the Senate as the best scenario for the industry.
WeedWeek

• WeedWeek business columnist Dan Mitchell attended a virtual panel featuring Republicans who want to legalize, including anti-tax activist Grover Norquist.
  WeedWeek
• Travel writer and cannabis activist Rick Steves is campaigning for cannabis ballot initiatives in Arizona, South Dakota, New Jersey and Montana.
  RickSteves.com
• A partnership between Higher Ground Media and Saints Joints has released the Ballot Box, a pack of joints containing the Bill of Rights and info on how to register to vote. There’s also a voting initiative called Spark the Vote from the Cannabis Consumer Policy Council.
  Press Releases

The University of California Berkeley has created a center for researching psychedelics.
Bay City News

• Director Michael Silver, a neuroscientist, cited three reasons for researching the drug category: 1) They may help people suffering from mental illness “Psychedelics shake up the snow globe.” 2) They may help researchers better understand how the brain works. 3) They can offer people profound mystical and spiritual experiences.

????WW California has more.

Until a few weeks ago, 2020 was the best year in a long time for Emerald Triangle pot farmers. Now the wildfires have changed life in the heart of California’s celebrated growing region.

Chris Roberts reports for Forbes:

According to multiple sources, hundreds of licensed cannabis growers in Humboldt and Mendocino counties have had to evacuate their farms over the past several days.

Damage estimates won’t be available for a few days more, but key growing regions in southern Humboldt and in the Bell Springs area in Mendocino are blanketed in smoke or threatened by flames, and in the crucial weeks ahead of the fall harvest.

????WeedWeek California has lots more on the season of “hickory kush.”

In his Rolling Stoned newsletter, Zack Ruskin reflects on a few very bad weeks.

For this week’s Power Player interview we caught up with Tyler Beuerlein, Chief Revenue Officer at regulatory-tech and fin-tech company Hypur. In a wide ranging conversation we discussed Hypur’s regulatory offerings, its expanding payments business and why the cannabis industry needs better leadership. 
WeedWeek

“Money was flowing and these companies were going public and they were taking that monopoly money, so to speak, from the public markets. They were going hog-wild without a real clear one understanding of each individual market. I think that they maybe fell in love the limelight a little bit and lost track of really where they should be focusing.”

Read the whole thing.