Hi all,

Honored to say last June’s Los Angeles Times / WeedWeek investigation into pesticide contamination in California’s licensed market is a finalist for the Loeb Awards in business  journalism.

Working with Paige St. John and her colleagues Adam Elmahrek, Sean Greene and Lorena Elebee was a career highlight and I remain very grateful for the opportunity.

More than a year after the first story was published, the Department of Cannabis Control says it’s confident most products on shelves meet state pesticide standards, but it has offered no evidence. Similar risks almost certainly exist in other states as well.

WeedWeek will be off next week.

Enjoy the holiday weekend,

Alex

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Agrify, a one-time AgTech company which went public on the Nasdaq in 2021, bought a portfolio of brands from leading MSO Green Thumb Industries(GTI) for $50M. This follows GTI’s November 2024 $20M financing of the company when GTI CEO Ben Kovler was named interim CEO of Agrify.    
WSJ

The plan is to license the brands back to GTI which will continue to manufacture and distribute their products. It aims to grow through licensing revenue and expanding sales of hemp drinks.

The company, renamed Rythm, starts trading on the Nasdaq Tuesday under ticker RYM.

Read the story

Federal:

• Nine Republican lawmakers called on Trump to reject the “corrupt and flawed” rescheduling proposal he says he is considering.
  Marijuana Moment
• More than 30 states’ Attorneys General called for banking reform.
  JDSupra

Business:

• MJBiz reports on how the sector is coping with a “debt avalanche.“
• MSO Jushi is suing Pennsylvania to block the hemp-derived products market.
  Philly Inquirer
• Cannabis Business Times reports on the decline of MED markets in REC states.
• Lawyers with Bradley Arant Boult Cummings discussed the big recent dormant commerce clause ruling.
• An exec with Pennsylvania-based operator Ethos argued against remediation.
  Metro 
• It says a lot about the weed biz that Cheech and Chong built an eight-store chain in Texas, not California.
  SFGate
• Tech shop CannMenus announced a strategic partnership with LeafWire.
• MSO MariMed got hit with a $6M tax lien.
  Crain’s Chicago Business
• Google is now allowing limited cannabis ads in Canada.
  Marijuana Moment

State and local:

• At the U.S. Open, tennis players are complaining about the smell.
  NewsBreak
• Pre-rolls are now legal in Ohio.
  Fox8
• Skymint is exiting Michigan’s first big receivership.
  Crain’s Detroit Business
• In Michigan, six Cookies stores are closing as MSO TerrAscend exits the state.
  MJBiz
• A Connecticut lab was sued over allegations of potency inflation.
  CTInsider
• Public consumption stalled in Anchorage.
  Alaska’s News Source

Fun and interesting:

• While Bill Maher is claiming credit for pushing Trump towards rescheduling, fellow podcaster Marc Maron called it “desperate chasing of relevance.“
  CelebStoner
• Dead & Co. celebrated 60 years of the Grateful Dead at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.
  Hollywood Reporter
• Vape crab.

State:

• The LA Times reports on how the industry’s tax cut push has pitted it against child-care advocates expecting pot taxes. It’s a sad situation, acknowledged Jerred Kiloh, who owns The Higher Path dispensary in Sherman Oaks. “The reality is, if our legal industry keeps declining, then so does their tax revenue.”
• ICYMI, Catalyst laid out its argument against the DCC in their upcoming trial over diversion.
  WeedWeek
• For the first time the DCC recalled a product for the presence of banned pesticide daminozide.

Business:

• A musician injured during the Glass House raid filed a $10M federal civil rights claim against the Department of Homeland Security.
  Davis Vanguard

Local:

• A big illegal grow was discovered in Sequoia National Park.
  LA Mag
• Humboldt Co. supes are revisiting how to distribute money from a cannabis grant program.
  Redheaded Blackbelt
• A pot-tax funded $3.9M grant is going to restore the salmon hatchery in Santa Cruz Co.
• An alleged farm burglar in Santa Barbara Co. was caught due to his distinctive footwear.
  CalCoast News