News
ATB Cormark Conference: Cannabis Operators Focus on Debt and Cash Flow
NEW YORK – Senior executives from major MSOs, including Green Thumb Industries and Trulieve Cannabis, are scheduled to hold private meetings with institutional fund managers in Manhattan next week at the ATB Cormark Cannabis Institutional Investor Conference. Hosted by ATB Cormark Capital Markets, the event marks the primary life sciences gathering following the integration of ...
Cresco Labs Closes Pennsylvania Dispensary Deal
CHICAGO – Cresco Labs Inc. announced the closing of its acquisition of 100% of the outstanding equity interests in PharmaCann Penn, LLC for an aggregate consideration of $50 million. The deal covers nine operational retail medical Cannabis dispensaries in the Keystone State – the transaction immediately accretive to revenue, margins and cash flow. The integration ...
Grön Scatters Pearls Over Four States at Once
PORTLAND – Grön officially announced that its flagship Pearls line is now available in California, Colorado, Michigan, and Nevada – the company's largest simultaneous multi-state rollout to date. The expansion places Grön inside some of the most competitive Cannabis retail environments in the country, where brands fight for limited shelf space and hard-to-retain consumer attention. ...
Headset Settles Federal PPP Loan Claims
SEATTLE – Headset Inc. agreed to pay more than $1 million to settle claims that it improperly received a Small Business Administration Paycheck Protection Program loan in February 2021, according to an announcement from First Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd of the Western District of Washington. The loan was later forgiven in August 2021. ...
Oregon Consolidates Psilocybin and Medical Cannabis Under One Regulator
PORTLAND – The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) officially completes its administrative consolidation of Oregon Psilocybin Services (OPS) and the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP), giving rise to a unified oversight body formally called the Oregon Psilocybin and Medical Cannabis Section (PMCS). The newly combined body brings together two programs that, for years, operated on separate ...
Alaska Calls to Change Cannabis Taxes, Lawmakers Are Slow to Answer
ANCHORAGE – Alaska taxes legal Cannabis at one of the highest rates in the country. Since legalization in 2015, the state has collected an excise tax on every ounce cultivators sell to retailers – a fixed, weight-based levy that does not track with market prices. Growers pay $50 per ounce on mature, premium buds, $25 ...
CSP C-Store Cannabis Board Teams with Element Training on Hemp and Cannabis Certified Education
CHICAGO – The CSP C-Store Cannabis Board has formalized a partnership with Element Training to deliver structured Hemp and Cannabis Education to convenience store operators and their staff. The program covers product knowledge, age verification, and compliance requirements at the federal, state, and county level, with content automatically calibrated to each store's location. Built into ...
SAMHSA Urges States to Prepare for Psychedelic Medicine Approval
WASHINGTON – The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released a detailed policy report urging state officials to begin preparing for the fiscal, legal, and operational realities that federal approval of psychedelic medicines will bring. The report examines recent clinical research on substances including psilocybin, MDMA, LSD, and 5-MeO-DMT, each showing promise in ...
High Times Cannabis Cup Debuts in Montana
HELENA – A competition that helped define American Cannabis culture is coming to a new state. Big Sky Country is preparing for its first-ever High Times Cannabis Cup. The event is set for Saturday, September 5, at The Pub Station in Billings – a six-hour celebration of live music, vendor activations, food trucks, live glass ...
Canada Is Now the World’s Largest Cannabis Market
OTTAWA – Supported by 3,420 licensed stores and roughly 7.1 million past-year consumers, Canada's legal industry generated C$5.42 billion (approx. US$3.98 billion) in retail sales in 2025, making it the world's largest federally-legal Cannabis market by a substantial margin. That distinction matters. Unlike the United States, where Cannabis remains a Schedule I federal substance and ...
DEA MJ Rescheduling Transcript Goes Public
WASHINGTON – The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) released the complete, corrected transcript from its 11-day marijuana rescheduling hearing, giving the public its first detailed account of the testimony that will guide DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge Derek Julius as he drafts his official recommendation. The 2,533-page record covers the full 11 days of proceedings, running ...
JARS Cannabis Acquires Sonoran Roots, Claiming Arizona’s Retail Top Spot
PHOENIX – JARS Cannabis and Sonoran Roots have signed a definitive agreement under which JARS will acquire Sonoran Roots, creating Arizona's largest Cannabis retail network – 27 dispensary locations operating under a single platform. The deal adds Sonoran Roots' eight Ponderosa Dispensary locations (in Chandler, Flagstaff, Glendale, Mesa, Phoenix, Queen Creek, Tempe, and Tucson) to ...
California Tightens Rules on Cannabis Packaging Attractive to Kids
LOS ANGELES – California's effort to draw a sharper legal line around child-appealing Cannabis packaging has cleared the legislature, sending AB 2249 to Gov. Gavin Newsom for final action. The measure, sponsored by Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin (D), received final legislative approval when the Assembly voted 69-1 to concur with amendments made by the Senate. The ...
Massachusetts Opens New Round of Social Equity Applications for Cannabis
BOSTON – The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission will begin accepting new applications for its Social Equity Program on September 1, with the intake period running through November 30. The commission will also hold four virtual application clinics, beginning August 26, to help prospective participants understand the program and application process. The Social Equity Program (SEP) ...
Fewer Americans Drink Alcohol as Cannabis Shows Up to the Party
LOS ANGELES – For generations, alcohol held an unquestioned place at the center of adult social life. A drink after work. Beer at the game. Wine with dinner. That relationship is now under measurable pressure: from shifting health views, economic friction, and a plant-derived alternative that until recently carried too much stigma to register at ...
Aurora Disputes the Narrative Behind Curaleaf’s Hostile Bid
EDMONTON – Aurora Cannabis Inc. fired back at Curaleaf Holdings Inc., rejecting the claims the Connecticut-based MSO has been advancing to Aurora shareholders to justify its unsolicited takeover bid. In a statement issued today, Aurora's leadership challenged Curaleaf's portrayal of its business across four fronts: the German medical Cannabis market, the history of pre-bid negotiations, ...
Grown Rogue Pushes East with Planned PharmaCann Acquisition
MEDFORD – Grown Rogue International Inc. announced it has taken the first steps toward the planned acquisition of PharmaCann Inc.'s New York license and assets, through the formation of Grown Rogue New York, LLC (GRNY) as a JV with a capital partner. The venture is structured as a 51/49 split and is supported by project-based ...
Portugal Medical Cannabis Outpaces 2025 Export Run Rate
LISBON – Portugal's medicines regulator, Infarmed, has confirmed that the country exported 66,305 kilograms of medical Cannabis between January and June 2026, equivalent to more than 80% of everything it shipped in all of 2025. At that pace, the full year is on track to comfortably double the previous annual record. The trajectory over the ...
UMiami Hands Over Its 1994 Ibogaine Research to Washington
LOS ANGELES – The University of Miami has donated its original 1994 investigational new drug (IND) application for ibogaine to the federal government, giving Washington direct operational authority over the foundational FDA authorization that made early American research into the psychoactive compound legally possible. President Trump announced the transfer, saying that HHS Secretary Robert F. ...
CRB Monitor and NCS Analytics Partner to Bridge the Cannabis Compliance Data Gap
DENVER – Two of the industry's most data-intensive platforms that have long operated on parallel tracks in the Cannabis compliance space announced a formal partnership, combining regulatory licensing records with real-time operational analytics into a unified intelligence layer for financial institutions. CRB Monitor, the market authority on Cannabis licensing and corporate intelligence, and NCS Analytics, ...
Decibel Reports Q2 2026 Financial Results
CALGARY – Decibel Cannabis Co. Inc. reported second-quarter net revenue of $35.6 million for the period ended June 30, 2026, the best three-month result in the company's history. A licensed Canadian Cannabis producer simultaneously raised its full-year 2026 guidance and announced a 15-to-one share consolidation. Net revenue grew 19% year-over-year, with domestic sales rising 6% ...
Organigram Pulls Sanity Group Into a Single Global Structure
TORONTO – Organigram Global Inc. did not wait out the calendar. Roughly four months after the April 2026 closing of its acquisition of Sanity Group GmbH, the Canadian Cannabis producer announced an accelerated integration of its German subsidiary under a unified global operating structure, backed by senior leadership changes and a restructured earnout agreement. The ...
Aurora Takes Ownership of UK Patient Supply Chain with Birmingham Acquisitions
EDMONTON – Aurora Cannabis Inc. has acquired two licensed UK pharmaceutical entities, consolidating vertical control of its distribution network in one of Europe's most active medical Cannabis markets. Through a wholly owned subsidiary, Aurora announced that it indirectly purchased all of the shares of Internode Pharma Limited, a licensed Cannabis importer and wholesaler, and HAP ...
Texas’s Dazed Inc Claims Expansion and Buyback Strategy
AUSTIN – Dazed Inc., formerly MedX Holdings, Inc., released a corporate update covering retail expansion, Q2 2026 financial results, a planned stock buyback, and product distribution. The company announced a signed franchise agreement for a new Lazydaze Coffeeshop in Dallas. According to Dazed, the brand now has 13 locations in its overall footprint, including 7 ...
Analysis: The DEA Is Now Fighting to Move Cannabis to Schedule III
WASHINGTON, D.C.,- For more than 50 years, the Drug Enforcement Administration has helped enforce federal Cannabis prohibition. This week, the DEA formally argued that Cannabis no longer belongs in Schedule I. In its final written argument following 11 days of hearings, the agency defended moving Cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III and rejected the ...
