MG Retailer has a good profile of Green Thumb Industries CEO Ben Kovler. Kovler, whose great-grandfather built the Jim Beam liquor brand, started Green Thumb with a dispensary in suburban Chicago. It’s now one of the country’s largest PotCos. 

Green Thumb has operations in 13 states and partnerships with hot brands like Cookies and Cann.

• In Q4 2020 it reported revenue of $177.2M (up from $75.8M in Q4 2019) and net income of $22.4M (up from a net loss of $14M in Q4 2019.) The company employs 2,400 people.

In the piece, which is full of good nuggets, Kovler discusses branding, retail, strategy, finance, M&A and more:

• He compared cannabis to the cable and telecom industries where there have been opportunities to create “enormous, multibillion-dollar, multi-tentacled conglomerate through strategic mergers and acquisitions. Kovler believes cannabis also shares traits with the technology companies that built cell towers and the infrastructure for the internet, blazing a path forward through murky rules and regulations at both the state and federal levels.”
• As a company with long-term aspirations, he said, “I couldn’t think of a better place to start than markets where we can take very large market share positions in production, in retail, and understand the markets and play from a position of strength.”
• Brand development remains in early phases, but Kovler said “with a core brand like Rythm, we’re looking at things like ‘who is the consumer; when, where, and why are they consuming and how.”
• Kovler: “If you think about the U.S. market, it’s at $20 billion today and headed to $80 billion. There’s [going to be] $60 billion more to claim versus worrying about [what company is earning] the other $19 billion right now.”

Read the whole thing.

The latest controversy roiling the cannabiz is Delta-8 THC, an intoxicating chemical produced from CBD, which is now easy to locate at gas stations and headshops in states without legal weed.

The idea of Delta-8 or other chemicals manufactured from CBD competing with the more familiar Delta-9 THC has growers scared, since the method costs a lot less than cultivating plants.

• In Washington state, growers breathed a sigh of relief when regulators banned the processing of CBD into Delta-9 THC. (Confused? Canna Law Blog explains.)
  Benzinga

Growers shouldn’t be too relieved. So-called synthetic cannabinoids could become a $115B industry, according to a piece in Insider. Several companies are using yeast and other inputs to produce cannabinoids through a process similar to brewing beer. The process could be especially useful for making massive quantities of rare cannabinoids.

• These compounds may have valuable MED or REC applications, but cannabis plants only produce them in trace amounts. 

Canadian operator Cronos Group has partnered with Boston biotech company Ginkgo Bioworks to produce cannabinoids in this way, starting with CBG. (I previously wrote about the partnership for the Guardian.) 

• Ginkgo has announced plans to go public at a $15B valuation.
• Beyond the cost savings of not having to grow plants, the Insider story says synthetic cannabinoids with medical benefits may have regulatory advantages in countries which are unlikely to legalize THC products.

Information about rare cannabinoids is hard to verify, but in case you’re curious, the site Marijuana Doctors introduces readers to THC-O, which is said to be like Delta-9 THC, but more potent.

As the oldest REC market in the country, Colorado is well positioned to observe the broader effects of legalization on society. In an interesting piece, Cannabis Wire goes through the state’s latest Impacts of Marijuana Legalization in Colorado study and finds that the data generally supports, or at least doesn’t contradict, industry talking points on the benefits of legalization.

Among other things:

• More adults and about the same number of youth are consuming. Among adults, past month use climbed from 13.4% in 2014 to 19% in 2019.  
• While the number of fatalities among drivers who tested positive for cannabis has climbed, the evidence isn’t especially compelling that legalization significantly increased concerns around public safety or road safety. 
• The studies authors warn their data needs to be interpreted “with caution” due to a host of complicating factors.

Despite legalization, the study found racial disparities in pot arrests persist, though the overall number of arrests has dropped.