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Hi all,

Happy almost 4/20. Let’s get to it:

• BREAKING: Eaze workers dig in as strike looms

Read up,

Alex

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Eaze drivers stepped up their rhetoric about poor pay and treatment, as their threat of a 4/20 strike looms. More than 500 workers could walk off the job before the upcoming weed holiday.

Read the WeedWeek story FREE

National:

• Senate Democrats, including Majority leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), are pushing to release an updated federal legalization bill around 4/20.
  Politico
• Federal customs agents in New Mexico have seized some state legal product. The policy, seemingly at odds with the rest of the Biden administration, has unsettled the state industry.
  Marijuana Moment
• A new poll from NuggMD asked cannabis users about their views on the upcoming election.
• Psychedelics writer Jane Hu says almost no one is happy with legal weed.
  The Atlantic

Business:

• Major MSOs continue to shrink their state footprints.
  MJBiz
• In a groundbreaking deal, Massachusetts-based MSO MariMed became the exclusive weed sponsor at two major Boston music venues: Citizens House of Blues and MGM Music Hall at Fenway. The venues’ existing mainstream sponsors are: Jim Beam, MassMutual and hard seltzer brand Truly.
• The industry returned to positive job growth, recruiter Vangst found in its annual report.
  Marijuana Moment
• A new federal study found that more than 90% of smokeable hemp products are actually illegal weed.
• The parent of Yelp-of-pot Weedmaps‘ said it received a notice of delinquency from the NASDAQ for failing to file its annual report.
• Inc. Magazine named Jill Ellsworth, CEO of remediation company Willow Industries, to its list of top 250 female founders.

State and local:

• New York lawmakers look set to kill a relief package for licensed growers.
  Green Market Report
• Colorado-founded dispensary company Terrapin Care Station is the latest of several to exit the state.
  Westword
• Illinois lawmakers, and a cannabiz group, called for a ban on intoxicating hemp products.
  Chicago Tribune
• Ohio REC sales could begin by July.
  News5 Cleveland
• A bill in Alabama would restart the licensing process for the fourth time.
  Alabama Daily News
• The hemp-derived industry is thriving in Texas.

Equity:

• Lindsay Bartlett interviewed Mary Jane Oatman, executive director of the Indigenous Cannabis Industry Alliance.
  Forbes

Fun and interesting:

• Entrepreneur Riqua Hailes Turner has a new docuseries, “Eat. Pray Puff: A Black woman’s guide to cannabis.”
• Longtime pot scribe Lauren Yoshiko has a new book: Green Scenes: A guide to legal cannabis destinations and experiences across the U.S.
• The latest multiplayer maps for video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III include a Humboldt grow operation.
  Lost Coast Outpost

State:

• Nearly 15% of state operators were in default on their taxes as of December 31, Cannabis Business Times reports.
• A state auditor issued recommendations for how to reduce licensing-related corruption.
  SacBee

Business:

• The Department of Cannabis Control(DCC) recalled two lots of Mike Tyson-branded flower, its ninth recall this year related to contamination with the mold aspergillus.
  MJBiz
• The Sacramento Business Journal discusses the “layered-taxation system” faced by dispensaries.
• Workers with the United Food and Commercial Workers met with San Diego-based dispensary March and Ash for the first time to lay the groundwork for a new contract.

Local:

• Humboldt officials will be suspending hundreds of growing permits over unpaid local taxes.
  North Coast Journal
• San Francisco cancelled this year’s annual Hippie Hill celebration on 420, but local businesses worry folks will still show up.
  SFGate
• Santa Cruz city council dropped its moratorium on new cannabis businesses.
  CBS
• LA’s Bel Air neighborhood awarded its only dispensary license to rapper Xzibit’s West Coast Cannabis Club.
  @lamag

Company milestones:

• Falcon and Maven inked distribution deals with Nabis.
• Ember Valley has a new partnership with freestyle motocross star Jeremy “Twitch” Stenberg.

Recognition:

• Lauren Mendelsohn, a junior partner at law firm Omar Figueroa, was named to the North Bay Business Journal 40 under 40 list.

Culture:

• The SF Weed Week festival hosted what it billed as the first ever weed mylar art exhibit.
  @sonomahillsfarm

Upcoming:

• Fortuna (Humboldt) seasonings company Famous Amens is hosting a 4/20 BBQ contest.
  Redheaded Blackbelt

Brothers and Muha Meds co-founders Muhammad “Muha” Garawi and Ali Garawi celebrated the opening of their first California store in LA’s Eagle Rock neighborhood. The brand has roots in LA but opened its first two stores in Michigan.