Author: Solomon Israel

[ad_1] Budtenders and delivery drivers at an Ascend Wellness Holdings store in Michigan ratified a contract with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The contract covers 20-25 employees at the Ascend Cannabis store on Scribner Aven8e in Grand Rapids, Teamsters spokesperson Matt McQuaid told MJBizDaily after Friday’s announcement. “It is the second collective bargaining agreement in the Michigan cannabis industry that the Teamsters have ratified, and the first in the Western part of the state,” the Teamsters said in a news release. Workers at an Ascend store in Morenci, Michigan, are also represented by Teamsters, McQuaid said. The website for New…

[ad_1] Connecticut has launched a new loan program to help qualifying marijuana social equity applicants as well as municipalities and nonprofits “rehabilitate, renovate, or develop unused or underused real property for use as a cannabis establishment.” The program was announced this week by Connecticut’s Social Equity Council (SEC), which leads social equity initiatives within Connecticut’s adult-use marijuana market. The Canna-Business Revolving Loan Fund program offers fixed-rate loans at prime plus 3%, with a 1.5% discount on the interest rate “for applicants that enroll and complete the SEC accelerator program,” according to a news release. According to details posted online, the…

[ad_1] Canadian marijuana retail company Fika Cannabis bid 36 million Canadian dollars ($26.6 million) at auction to acquire retail chain Fire & Flower Holdings, according to a report filed by Fire & Flower’s court-appointed insolvency monitor. The $36 million purchase price “is CA$12.3 million more than the value of the stalking horse bid” put forward by Fire & Flower’s majority shareholder, Alimentation Couche-Tard, according to the Aug. 26 report by monitor FTI Consulting Canada. That stalking-horse bid was opposed by a group of other Fire & Flower shareholders, although a judge rejected their counterproposal in July. Fika’s winning bid for…

[ad_1] International medical cannabis company Clever Leaves Holdings has consolidated its Nasdaq-listed shares on a 30-to-1 basis to keep its listing on the U.S. stock exchange. Clever Leaves said the reverse stock split took effect after the end of trading on Aug. 24. The Colombia-based cannabis producer is one of many Nasdaq-traded marijuana companies to have recently been warned by Nasdaq over falling share prices and to subsequently consolidate its shares in order to regain compliance with the rules of the major stock exchange. The Nasdaq requires a minimum $1 bid price for companies to maintain equity listings on its…

[ad_1] Back in the regulated marijuana industry’s more heady days, a U.S. hemp-derived CBD subsidiary seemed like the must-have accessory for any Canadian cannabis company worth its bud. Canopy Growth Corp. owned a hemp farm in Springfield, New York, and planned to build a $150 million industrial park in Kirkwood, New York, to produce hemp products. Aurora Cannabis bought Reliva – a Massachusetts-based producer of hemp-derived CBD products – in a $40 million deal that included potential earnouts. And Cronos Group spent hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire the Lord Jones hemp CBD brand. The purchases came after the…

[ad_1] Mandesh Dosanjh stepped down as president and CEO of British Columbia-based cannabis company Pure Sunfarms. Orville Bovenschen has been appointed as the company’s new president, parent company Village Farms International announced in a Tuesday night news release. Donsanjh “will move into a strategic advisory position for a transitional 90-day period.” Bovenschen joined Village Farms in 2021 as vice president of European business development and operations and was appointed Pure Sunfarms’ chief operating officer in 2022. “He also formerly held several senior roles in cannabis, during which, among other things, he oversaw innovation and new product launches,” according to the…

[ad_1] New Mexico’s marijuana regulatory authority has selected Todd Stevens, a veteran of Colorado’s Native Roots Cannabis Co., to serve as the state’s MJ chief. Stevens’ “experience as an industry leader made him the ideal candidate to take the lead” at the Cannabis Control Division (CCD) of New Mexico’s Regulation and Licensing Department, the agency’s superintendent, Linda Trujillo, said in a news release. “I am confident in his ability to lead this team and make New Mexico’s regulated cannabis industry one to rival,” she added. Stevens served as a manager at Native Roots since 2015, most recently acting as the…

[ad_1] Cannabis multistate operator Greenlight is acquiring a dispensary in Las Vegas and a cultivation facility in West Virginia for an undisclosed sum as well as issuing another dividend. The Las Vegas acquisition is an “operating recreational and medical dispensary,” according to a Monday news release from Greenlight. The cultivation facility in Buckhannon, West Virginia, is 18,000 square feet and makes Greenlight vertically integrated in that state. The Kansas City, Missouri- based privately held company did not release the price of the acquisitions. Greenlight also issued a “third consecutive quarterly dividend” to shareholders, a rarity in the cannabis industry. The company described…

[ad_1] Canadian cannabis and alcohol company Tilray Brands has acquired brewer Molson Coors Canada’s remaining 57.5% interest in cannabis beverage joint venture Truss Beverage Co. for an undisclosed price. Truss was originally a joint venture between Molson and Canadian company Hexo Corp., and launched a portfolio of cannabis-infused drinks in Canada in 2020. Hexo was acquired by Tilray this year. Molson exited the U.S. CBD beverage aspect of the Truss joint venture with Hexo at the end of 2022, citing uncertainty in light of “no near-term pathway to federal (cannabis) legalization” in the U.S. Tilray said in a Friday morning…

[ad_1] Virginia authorities are cracking down on stores selling unauthorized hemp-derived products under a new law and handing out significant fines in the enforcement push. The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) had issued five noncompliance letters to businesses as of late July, with fines ranging from $13,000 to $97,500, the Virginia Mercury reported. The fines could be reduced to $10,000 if business owners “agree to bring their stores into compliance and meet other conditions,” according to the newspaper. The store that faced the largest fine reportedly sold some hemp products containing more than the 0.3% legal limit…

[ad_1] Nearly five years after recreational cannabis legalization, legal weed shops are as common as corner stores in most major Canadian cities. In the biggest metropolis, Toronto, more than 400 cannabis retail licenses have been issued across the city’s six boroughs. In contrast, Canada’s second-biggest city – Montreal – is home to only 21 legal cannabis outlets within city limits, plus some stores in outlying suburbs. All are operated by Quebec’s government-owned recreational cannabis retail monopoly Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC). Despite having only 98 stores across all of Quebec, the SQDC monopoly appears to have limited plans to open…

[ad_1] Washington state’s marijuana regulator seized cannabis from two unlicensed businesses after undercover investigations and is recommending prosecutors pursue felony charges in both cases. Undercover officers of the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) bought illicit cannabis from Caveman Medicine in Tacoma on Aug. 10, the agency said in a news release. The regulator and local police searched the business, seizing roughly 50 pounds of marijuana products “including a large quantity of cannabis concentrates and cannabis-infused edible products being offered for sale,” according to the release. “Many of the cannabis-infused products would have been illegal to sell in the…