Hi all,

Sorry to leave you hanging Friday without WeedWeek. Circumstances informed against me. But we’ll resume the normal schedule this week.

In today’s edition:

• Billionaire investor slams GTI

Read up,

Alex  

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Seven brands with innovative business models

When a brand enters the California market, it has a choice: It can be the 500th flower brand, the 500th vape brand, the 500th concentrates brand or the 500th edibles brand. No matter what they sell, they’ll be fighting for shelf space against many other high-quality, largely undifferentiated products. 

Hall of Flowers, the recent B2B conference for brands and retailers, is where to see the competition at its rawest. So what can make a brand connect better than the brand at the next booth? I don’t know. But these seven struck me as doing something smart, different or interesting.

They’re only in California now, but most, if not all, have their eye on…

Seven brands doing it differently.

Hedge fund billionaire Leon Cooperman lit into Ben Kovler, CEO of Green Thumb Industries, during the Chicago-based MSO’s quarterly earnings call.
Business Insider

Jeremy Berke reports: 

“Are you fully invested in the company?” Cooperman asked Kovler in a heated exchange. “You have all the right buzzwords, but I don’t see the action. I see insider selling. I don’t see insider buying.”

“Kovler responded by denying that GTI executives were selling shares. He touted the company’s longer-term prospects as more states legalize cannabis and said he’s its largest shareholder.

Read the whole thing.

Federal:

• Cannabis Wire looks at the year’s federal lobbying spend, thus far.
• Pot lobbyist James Pericola has sued former Speaker of the House and legalization figurehead John Boehner for cutting him out of a legalization lobbying group.
  N.Y. Post
• The FDA issued its first ever warning letters on Delta-8 THC.
  MJBiz
• The federal government is escalating efforts to secure Brittney Griner’s release from Russia.
  NBC

Business:

• Overall national sales were flat in March, according to BDSA.
• Consumer loyalty program company SpringBig cut the terms of its SPAC deal. 
  Law360
• A New York court ruled a $600M lawsuit against Acreage Holdings over a license can proceed. 
  Syracuse.com
• Nevada-based Flower One delayed its FY21 filing.
• DoorDash entered the Canadian market, in partnership with Superette.
• Weedmaps is acquiring dispensary display advertising company Enlighten.
• Green Market Report finds the top 5 industry franchises.
• On May Day, Jackie Bryant talked to worker-owned Honeybee Collective over whether a better way is possible.
  Cannabitch

States:

• Michigan operators are eager to expand into Detroit, but wary of lawsuits.
  Grown In
• New York hemp growers are ready to cash in on the REC market.
  MJBiz
• The state also needs a manager for its $200M equity fund.
  MarketWatch
• Several states still could legalize through their legislatures this year: MJBiz on who to watch.
• Missouri lawmakers appear unlikely to legalize REC in the remaining weeks of the legislative session. An initiative is likely to be on the ballot in the fall.
  Grown In
• South Carolina senators appeared to kill their MED bill, but a sponsor says he isn’t giving up. 
  CBS
• Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) sounds increasingly optimistic that he can use executive action to enable some kind of MED access.
  The State Journal
• The Delaware house voted to decriminalize with enough votes to override a veto.
  WHYY (NPR)

Fun and interesting:

• L.A.’s pot smoking moms are tired of being judged.
  L.A. Times
• Journalist and critic Lindsay Maharry shared her favorite organic strains.
  Uproxx
• Leafly finds 25 leading universities and colleges for cannabis research.

• Megastore Planet 13 said it was expanding its shop-in-shop partnership with Stiiizy from Orange Co. to Vegas. Planet 13 is also bringing its TRENDi brand from Vegas to OC.
• MSO Curaleaf now has 50 shops in Florida and 133 nationwide.
• New Frontier Data and Regennabis hosted an event on sustainable cannabis at the United Nations.
• Point of sale software Flowhub and payments company Aeropay announced an integration to enable ACH payments via Aeropay at the 1,000+ Flowhub dispensaries. Aeropay says cashless transactions boost sales more than 25%.
• House of Saka acquired the licensing rights to Gem + Jane‘s infused beverages.
• Apparel brand Camp High is launching brand and marketing agency Camp High Collective.

• New Massachusetts player Root & Bloom named Tom Regan CEO.
• Las Vegas dispensary The Source+ named Sequoah Turner director of retail.

• UMass Amherst is hosting a June 24 symposium on the legacy of doctor and cannabis activist Lester Grinspoon.
• The June GrowUp Conference and Expo is divided between Niagara Falls, Ont. and Victoria, BC. 

• Colorado-based Seed & Smith launched a new line of strain-specific infused pre-rolls, available at their Denver and Louisville locations.
• New cannalube oh.hi by Lavinia claims to make female orgasms “easier to obtain and better.” It’s available in California.

• Kyle Ray highlights what he calls “very disturbing data” that suggests “we may be heading into “Vape Crisis 2.0” territory soon.” 
• Mitchell Osak asks if the psychedelics industry is headed for an “extinction event.”

The droids you were looking for and assorted Jedi(s?)s roll in to distributor Herbl‘s May the Fourth party at Hall of Flowers in Palm Springs.

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