In recent months, special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, which function as “backwards IPOs,” have become the darlings of the cannabis world and the broader economy. However, a recent report that Casa Verde Capital, a SoCal investment fund co-founded by Snoop Dogg, has raised a $100M fund, underscores that traditional venture capital is alive and well in cannabis.

Pot stocks are on a tear and legal REC is coming to New Jersey, with more of the northeast likely to soon follow.

So, WeedWeek asked Joe Caltabiano, a co-founder of Illinois based multi-state operator (MSO) Cresco Labs, and Matthew Nordgren, founder and managing partner of Arcadian Capital, a cannabis investment firm which has invested in about 50 companies, how they would invest $100M right now.

Here's what they said.

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1. For our latest Get to Know feature, edibles maker Sunderstorm filled out the WeedWeek questionnaire. Want your company to be next? Write to hello@weedweek.net.

California retailer Harborside marked the end of an era this week when it parted ways with co-founder and chairman emeritus Steve DeAngelo, sometimes called the father of the legal cannabis industry.

In a video posted on LinkedIn, DeAngelo said he would continue working to promote “cannabis knowledge and freedom” with a focus on “equity/sustainability/governance” (ESG) issues. “A small band of fanatically devoted cannabis activists” founded Harborside almost 14 years ago, he said in the video, to build a “gold standard” dispensary. The dream became possible when Oakland awarded it one of the country’s first six dispensary licenses.

I spoke to Harborside General Counsel Jack Nichols about the transition and asked DeAngelo protégé Kris Krane, who’s now President of MSO 4Front, about how (or if) smaller companies with activist roots can chart their own course at a time of consolidation. Both suggested companies need to focus on their strengths. For Harborside that might be the high quality retail experience it pioneered, while 4Front is all about efficient manufacturing at scale.

Read the whole thing.

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