Staff
It’s time for your Daily Hit of cannabis financial news for October 8, 2018.
Happy Columbus Day or Indigenous People’s Day, whichever you celebrate. The stock market was open today, but the bond desks were quiet as banks were closed.
On The Site
On September 28, the United States Attorney for the District of Colorado, Bob Troyer, issued a warning for the state-legal cannabis industry: the “crosshairs” of federal enforcement may shift to “the public harms caused by licensed businesses and their investors, particularly those who are not complying with state law or trying to use purported state compliance as a shield.” In an interview with the Denver Post the same day, the U.S. Attorney warned that his office would soon bring an enforcement action against a licensed chain of marijuana dispensaries that he alleged was actually an illegal drug-trafficking organization.
Should the law-abiding cannabis industry panic? Could this be the moment some feared when Attorney General Jeff Sessions revoked the Cole Memo in January 2018, granting more discretion to U.S. Attorneys around the nation—including U.S. Attorney Troyer—to pursue cases against state-legal marijuana businesses?
And would such a “crackdown” spread across the nation since U.S. Attorney Troyer noted that he is “the U.S. attorney leading other U.S. attorneys on marijuana issues?”
Papa & Barkley
With legalization, the former black market cannabis farms that are tucked in the hills of Humboldt County near Eureka are coming out into the open and bringing new money and manufacturing to the area. It is estimated that there are 6,000 to 10,000 farms spread throughout the county. Some have been growing cannabis for decades and are trying to make the transition to legal status.
Papa & Barkley is one company that has brought jobs to the sleepy town. It is a company known for its healing balms and patches, which were originated by founder Adam Grossman. Grossman developed the first balm to help his father’s tremendous back pain and continued to give samples to friends. Then it became a passion project.
In Other News
BioTrack THC
Seed-to-sale cannabis software firm BioTrackTHC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Helix TCS Inc. (HLIX), continues its international expansion with new customers serving medical market cannabis producers in Australia and New Zealand. “BioTrackTHC can service businesses in countries halfway around the world because of our geographically distributed team,” Afaneh said. “With support spanning more than four time zones, we are confident in our ability to support the medical cannabis operators in Australia and New Zealand as they prepare to launch and scale their businesses.”
Curaleaf
Spark Dispensary in Northeast Portland will rebrand as Curaleaf, a vertically integrated cannabis operator with 28 dispensaries across 12 states. Curaleaf acquired Spark Dispensary in October of 2017. The rebrand will further diversify the dispensary’s wide range of unique product offerings and build upon the quality customer experience established by staff over the past year.
