Hi everyone,

As you enjoy your holiday seasons, here’s something to chew on.

WeedWeek seeks founding sponsors for several new niche newsletters launching in the coming months. Potential topics include: Brands and Marketing, Company News, NY/NJ/CT,  California, Florida, Midwest, CBD/Hemp and the business of psychedelics.

These newsletters will publish weekly and contain original, exclusive reporting in every issue. As a sponsorship opportunity, we expect them to be an ideal way for B2B vendors and service providers to reach a highly-engaged, senior-level audience.

Drop me a line if you’d like to discuss further: alex@weedweek.com.

In today’s newsletter:

• Predictions for 2022

WeedWeek will return January 4. In the meantime, best wishes for a happy, healthy new year’s celebration.

Alex

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WeedWeek regularly links to paywalled content.

The future is notoriously difficult to predict.

A few souls responded to our call for industry predictions for 2022. But they were (mostly) self-serving and dull, so they’re not getting printed. Here are some predictions from me instead.

Hold me to them next year.

Business:

• Alan Brochstein discusses liquor company Constellations Brands‘ frustration with Canadian player Canopy Growth, in which it is a major investor. 
  New Cannabis Ventures
• MJBiz guest columnist Van McConnon, a longtime Colorado grower, argued limited license markets only benefit MSOs.
• AdWeek broke down the top nine cannabis marketing moves of 2021.
• Cannabis Business Times digs up six cultivation trends to watch.
• With more companies imposing plastic bans and carbon caps, this could be hemp’s moment.
  Bloomberg

States:

• Maine will appeal a lower courts’ ruling that found restricting MED business ownership to in-state companies is unconstitutional.
  Portland Press-Herald
• Richmond Biz Sense checks in on Virginia’s budding industry. 
• Michigan regulators are trying to prevent an MSO oligopoly.
  Detroit News
• Montana’s REC market opens on New Year’s Day.
  MJBiz

Health and Science:

• A survey found about one-third of coders work while high.
  Marijuana Moment
• A New York Times op-ed discusses the writer’s experience treating depression with ketamine. “It got weird.”

Crime:

• Three U.S. Marines based in Okinawa were accused of smuggling cannabis into Japan.
  Stars and Stripes

Fun and Interesting:

• High Times spotlit the best of the inaugural Harvest Ball in Sonoma County, Calif.
• Respect My Region hails the return (streaming on Peacock) of stoner hero MacGruber.

• Brooke Carpenter joined Garden Society as head of sales.
• Ag-tech company Agrify added former Goldman Sachs executive Barry Turkanis to its board. (In a statement to WeedWeek, an Agrify spokesperson called a recent short seller’s bearish report inaccurate, ill-informed and motivated by their own financial interests.”)

• Design studio Zero, which has worked on several cannabis brands, is launching a branded products company called Studio in partnership with Dosist and Sunday Goods. It’s launching in Arizona with a brand called Melted. (Pictured)
• Synthetic cannabinoid maker Hyasynth raised $10M to produce synthetic cannabinoids.
  Business Insider
• REIT Innovative Industrial Properties acquired 27 properties in Colorado, Pennsylvania and North Dakota. They paid about $72.7M for 7.7M rentable square feet.

• Edibles brand Binske is rolling out a line of “coffee-inspired” products featuring coffee beans roasted by Intelligentsia.
• Cannigma shared its favorite subscription boxes.

• Greentone sales manager Emily Riehl sings the praises of big buds.
• Jennifer Whetzel of the #thisisjaneproject shared her favorite stat from the WomenInCannabis.Study
• David Buote of Sugarleaf Consulting posted a cool pic of trichomes under the microscope.
• Nameless Genetics highlights the growing problem, in Pakistan, of smoking scorpions to get high. (Don’t miss the comments)
  @namelessgenetics_
• Convicted trafficker “Freeway” Rick Ross talked about how he turned his life around. You can also hear him on the WeedWeek podcast.
  @freewayricky

Do your part to make High Society possible: Get vaccinated.

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Budtenders Carter Sylvia and Brett Bennett at the December opening of TILT Holdings’ Commonwealth Alternative Care dispensary in Brockton, Mass.

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Send pictures for High Society to hello@weedweek.net.

Pics should be between 600 and 1000 pixels long and wide. Each should include the name and affiliation (if relevant) of everyone pictured as well as the event’s name, date and location. Ideally submit several pics so we can pick our favorites.