Jenel Stelton-Holtmeier
There’s an old adage in journalism: If it bleeds, it leads. But there’s plenty of good news in our top stories of the past year, including the most-read story of the last 12 months.
Here are the top stories from Green Market Report this year, based on page views:
1. Missouri Marijuana Bucks Most Downbeat Trends
While other states around the country continued to reel with price compression, Missouri bucked the trend to become a bubbling Midwest marijuana powerhouse. Brand count is low, price averages are high, and discounts are few – a recipe for success, on paper.
From February to September, sales in the Show-Me State approached a staggering $953 million, rivaling long-established markets like Colorado and Massachusetts, according to a report by cannabis market analysis firm Headset.
2. Tough Times Likely Ahead for New Illinois Marijuana Shops
If past is prologue, then the 55 Illinois social equity license lottery winners selected in July will have a rough time actually getting their shops open for business. As of mid-year, the number of operational stores stood at 137, which included 27 social equity retailers, according to an IDFPR spokesman. That left 165 social equity dispensaries yet to open.
3. Former FDA Regulator Predicts Cannabis Rescheduling This Year
A longtime attorney at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration who helped found the agency’s Marijuana Working Group in 2014, Howard Sklamberg spoke with Green Market Report earlier this year about the ongoing federal review of cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug – which he believed would result in the Biden administration rescheduling the plant and its derivatives this year (which didn’t happen) or early in 2024. We’ll have to wait and see if that prediction comes true.
4. Cookies Lawsuit: Company Uses Threats, Violence, Kickbacks to Do Business
While bad news is often seen as being the big seller for cannabis, it took until No. 4 on this list for one of the biggest scandals to be featured. In a lawsuit first filed in February, two investors alleged that the leaders of global cannabis brand Cookies used threats, violence, and financial kickbacks to enrich themselves at the expense of company shareholders.
5. Legal California Cannabis ‘Flooding’ Unlicensed New York Shops
Despite the continued prohibition of interstate commerce for cannabis, legally produced and packaged marijuana products from California are increasingly making their way to hundreds of smoke shops and bodegas in New York City, according to industry sources. It’s just another hurdle the New York market has been struggling with since launching its adult-use cannabis market at the end of 2022.
Rounding out the Top 10 Most Read Stories of 2023:
6. New Federal Legalization Bill Gives Industry Possible Rallying Point
7. Trulieve Files Racketeering Lawsuit Against Former Employees, Vendors in Arizona
8. SEC Orders Sol Global Founder Andy DeFrancesco to Pay Millions in Stock Fraud Case
9. Affairs, Unpaid Loans, and Overdue Rent: Claims Against Skymint Get Messy
10. Glass House Brands ‘One of the Largest’ Illicit Cannabis Dealers in California, Lawsuit Claims
