News
Week in Review: Cannabis & Psychedelics Industry Highlights
LOS ANGELES – The final days of July and the opening of August delivered a concentrated burst of news that touched labor, capital markets, federal regulation, and cross-border insolvency. A historic labor settlement, a one-company M&A wave, a federal regulatory milestone for psychedelics, a bankruptcy filing across the border, and a round of Q2 earnings ...
MJBowl Adds Colorado for Its Second Year
LOS ANGELES – The MJBowl, the Cannabis product competition co-presented by MJBizCon and professional review platform Budist, is returning for its second year, with Colorado joining California and New York in the competition pool for the first time. Registration opens today, August 3, running through September 30, 2026. Entry costs $250 per product through August ...
FDA Issues Final Guidance on Psychedelic Drug Trials
SILVER SPRING – The FDA published its final guidance titled "Psychedelic Drugs: Considerations for Clinical Investigations" in the Federal Register, finalizing a draft that first appeared in June 2023. Issued by the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, the document gives sponsors general considerations for developing compounds including psilocybin, LSD, and MDMA as treatments for ...
Vireo Growth Re-Enters Ohio Through Four Concurrent Deals
MINNEAPOLIS – Vireo Growth Inc. announced that it has signed four separate Securities Purchase Agreements to acquire all membership interests of FarmaceuticalRx LLC, FarmaceuticalRx 2 LLC, CAOH LLC, and Canoe Hill Ohio, LLC. The four entities collectively bring eight dispensaries, a cultivation and processing facility, and related owned and leased real estate into Vireo's portfolio, ...
Cannabis Workers Win Biggest Strike in U.S. History
BARRY – Employees at Ascend Wellness's Cannabis cultivation facility in Barry, Illinois, ratified their first union contract on July 30, ending a 30-day unfair labor practice strike that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters says was the largest in the history of the legal Cannabis industry. The workers, more than 300 members of Teamsters Local 916, ...
Final Bell Exhausts Strategic Options, Files for Bankruptcy in Canada
LOS ANGELES – Final Bell Holdings International Ltd. has made a voluntary assignment in bankruptcy under Section 49 of Canada’s Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. A Licensed Insolvency Trustee was appointed, and the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy issued a Certificate of Appointment on July 28, 2026. The company’s remaining director, Kay Jessel, resigned the ...
LEEF Brands Secures Processing Facility With $5.2M Preferred Round
VANCOUVER – LEEF Brands, Inc. announced the closing of a $5.2 million preferred share financing. The proceeds will fund the purchase of a Cannabis processing and storage facility that will dry, cure, freeze, and store biomass from Salisbury Canyon Ranch before it is transported to LEEF Labs in Mendocino County for extraction. This is the ...
SNDL Reports Q2 2026 Financial and Operational Results
EDMONTON – SNDL Inc. announced the completion of assets acquisition from Surterra Holdings, Inc. and its affiliates, collectively known as Parallel, a vertically integrated Cannabis operator with state-licensed operations in Florida, Texas, and Massachusetts. The deal was executed through a strict foreclosure agreement via CDXX TransCo, LLC. The transaction extinguished approximately $842 million of Parallel's ...
From Music to Cannabis: Building Ohio’s Largest Cannabis Conference: Profile: Lenny Berry
Lenny Berry is the Founder and CEO of the Ohio Cannabis Health & Business Summit (OCHBS), one of the Midwest's leading Cannabis conferences. A longtime entrepreneur and former music industry executive, he founded OCHBS in 2019 to bring together patients, healthcare professionals, entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, and industry leaders to advance Cannabis education, business, and innovation. ...
Jushi Reports Q2 2026 Financial Results
BOCA RATON – Jushi Holdings Inc. released its second-quarter 2026 financial results, posting revenue of $71.3 million, a 10% year-over-year gain, with growth spread across both the retail and wholesale channels. The wholesale segment set the headline. Revenue from that channel climbed 68% to $9.4 million, the first time in company history that a single ...
Vireo Growth Sets Stage for Planet 13 Acquisition
MINNEAPOLIS - LAS VEGAS – Vireo Growth Inc. and Planet 13 Holdings Inc. have agreed to combine operations under a definitive merger agreement. The move brings together two multi-state Cannabis operators and expands retail reach in several established markets. Under the terms, each outstanding share of Planet 13 common stock will convert into 0.015383618 of ...
FLUENT Shareholders Approve All-Stock Acquisition by Vireo
TORONTO – FLUENT Corp. reported that holders of its common and proportionate voting shares approved the special resolution for an all-stock plan of arrangement with Vireo Growth Inc. at the annual general and special meeting held July 28, 2026, in Toronto. Under the terms first announced April 30, each FLUENT share will convert into 0.0705359 ...
IRS Pushes Back on Cannabis Tax Refund Claims as the 280E Battle Enters a New Era
WASHINGTON, D.C.-The Cannabis industry's long-running battle with Section 280E has entered a pivotal new phase. For years, one of the greatest financial challenges facing state-licensed Cannabis businesses has not been competition or regulation—it has been the federal tax code. Section 280E has prevented Cannabis operators from deducting ordinary business expenses because Cannabis remained classified as ...
Organigram Highlights Early Sanity Results While Holding Canadian Market Lead
TORONTO – Three months after closing its largest international acquisition to date, Organigram Global Inc. has delivered the first combined business update covering Sanity Group's early performance alongside the company's ongoing Canadian market position. The disclosure puts preliminary numbers on the table for investors watching how quickly the German unit can pull its weight inside ...
Colder BHO Extractions Yield Cleaner Cannabis Concentrates, Abstrax Study Finds
LOS ANGELES – Researchers at Abstrax Tech have found that colder extraction temperatures during butane hash oil (BHO) processing significantly reduce the carryover of plant-derived wax compounds into finished concentrates, without meaningfully affecting cannabinoid potency or terpene retention. The findings appear in a peer-reviewed paper published in ACS Omega. The Abstrax research team, including R&D ...
Senate Democrats Reintroduce Comprehensive Cannabis Descheduling Bill, Renewing Push for Federal Reform
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The push for comprehensive federal Cannabis reform has returned to the U.S. Senate with the reintroduction of the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA), a sweeping piece of legislation that would remove Cannabis from the federal Controlled Substances Act and establish a national framework for regulating the industry. Introduced by Cory Booker, ...
California’s Cannabis Promise Remains Unfulfilled: Why Racial Disparities in Cannabis Arrests Continue to Shame the Golden State
SACRAMENTO- Nearly a decade after California voters approved adult-use Cannabis, the state has become one of the world's largest legal Cannabis markets. Billions of dollars have flowed through licensed businesses, thousands of jobs have been created, and Cannabis has become increasingly accepted by mainstream society. Yet beneath these successes lies an uncomfortable reality. For many ...
FDA Finalizes Psychedelic Drug Guidance and Schedules September Public Hearing
WASHINGTON, D.C., The US FDA has established clearer expectations for psychedelic clinical trials while inviting public input on how the therapies could eventually be delivered in supervised healthcare settings. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has finalized its long-awaited guidance for companies and researchers developing psychedelic medicines, marking an important step toward bringing the emerging ...
Ascend Wellness Seeks Shareholder Approval for Reverse Stock Split Ahead of Potential Uplisting
NEW YORK – Ascend Wellness Holdings Inc., a vertically integrated multistate Cannabis operator, is preparing for a possible move to a major U.S. stock exchange. The company has filed documents outlining a shareholder vote on authorizing a reverse stock split of its Class A common shares. In a definitive proxy statement filed with the U.S. ...
The Real Operational Cost of Cash Discrepancies in High-Volume Dispensaries
LOS ANGELES – Cannabis dispensaries occupy a distinctive position in American retail. They are among the highest-grossing single-location stores in the country, processing thousands of transactions per day, yet the majority remain locked out of conventional banking infrastructure due to federal prohibition. That creates an industry moving hundreds of millions of dollars annually in physical ...
Psychedelic Alpha Partners with Horizons to Present The Psychedelic Business Forum
NEW YORK – The Psychedelic Business Forum, Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics, returns to the New York Academy of Medicine on October 15, 2026, with Psychedelic Alpha formalized this year as a co-presenter alongside Horizons. Horizons confirmed the arrangement on its website, describing the day as "a collaboration between Horizons and Psychedelic Alpha, an independent media ...
Trulieve Earns Spot on TIME’s America’s Best Companies 2026 List
TALLAHASSEE – Trulieve Cannabis Corp. received recognition from TIME magazine as one of America's Best Companies for 2026. The Florida-based medical Cannabis operator is one of only two Cannabis companies to appear on the list, drawn from a field of more than 7,200 eligible candidates. The list, developed in partnership with Statista, evaluated thousands of ...
Nepal’s Gandaki Province Breaks Ground on Regulated Cannabis Cultivation
KATHMANDU – The Gandaki Province Assembly in Nepal has passed landmark legislation legalizing the cultivation of Cannabis for medicinal and industrial purposes. This makes the province a pioneer in the country, setting the stage for a legal commercial framework that, according to lawmakers, could reshape the region's agricultural economy. The bill, formally titled "Bill Related ...
Rhode Island Moves to Restart Cannabis Retail Licensing
PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island officials are taking steps to revive a stalled process for issuing new retail Cannabis licenses. A federal judge blocked the effort earlier this year over concerns about state residency rules. Lawmakers responded by changing the law, and regulators now seek to clear the way forward. State attorneys asked U.S. District Judge ...
Curaleaf Opens Free CPD Training Portal for UK Medical Cannabis Prescribers
LONDON – Medical Cannabis has been legally prescribable in the UK since 2018. The endocannabinoid system, the biological mechanism at the core of how cannabinoid therapies work, still gets barely a mention in most British medical degrees. That structural gap is now what Curaleaf International is directly targeting with a rebuilt digital training resource. The ...
