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Canopy has a new CEO.
Since the ouster this summer of Canopy Growth founder and CEO Bruce Linton, the search has been on for who would land at the helm of the world’s highest valued cannabis company. The search, it turns out, didn’t look too far. Canopy’s new CEO will be David Klein, the executive vice president and chief financial officer at Constellation Brands, the alcohol giant that invested $4 billion into Canopy and then fired Linton due in part to earnings performance.
Mark Zekulin, Canopy’s former president and co-CEO who then served as interim CEO when Linton left, will also step down from his role on the board of directors.
For more context on Linton’s departure from Canopy and what he’s up to today, check out this Cannabis Wire Q&A with him.
CannTrust no longer NYSE compliant.
The troubled Canadian cannabis company, which, as we included in a newsletter last week, is bracing for lawsuits, now says that the New York Stock Exchange wrote to it to say that it is “no longer in compliance with the NYSE’s continued listing standard rules because the per share trading price of the Company’s common shares has fallen below the NYSE’s share price rule.” CannTrust has six months to become compliant.
Late last month, the Toronto Stock Exchange also warned the company, saying that if certain disclosures aren’t filed by March 25, 2020, the company’s stock will be delisted. The company has yet to file these disclosures, which are primarily restated and audited financial statements, as a result of its ongoing turmoil with Canadian regulators, who discovered that cannabis was cultivated in unlicensed rooms.
California’s legal cannabis sales have brought the state $845.3 million in tax revenue.
The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration last week released state tax revenue from cannabis sales in Q3 2019.
Here’s the breakdown for the quarter:
•Excise tax revenue: $82.2 million (Q2 was $75.8)
•Cultivation tax revenue: $21.9 million (Q2 was $22.9)
•Sales tax revenue: $59.4 million (Q2 was $58.2)
Total: $163.5 million (Q2 was $156.9)
(Q2 numbers here are adjusted, as Q3 numbers might be when Q4 is reported.)
The breakdown for everything since January 2018 is:
•Excise tax revenue: $411.3 million
•Cultivation tax revenue: $98.9 million
•Sales tax revenue: $335.1 million
Total: $845.3 million
Kansas residents support legalizing medical cannabis.
A total of 63% respondents reported supporting medical cannabis for people over the age of 21. Respondents also supported increasing taxes on alcohol and tobacco products like cigarettes and cigars, according to the Kansas Speaks 2019 fall survey, published by Fort Hays State University, which has released this survey annually since 2009.
FHSU students conducted the online survey. Most respondents were older than 65.
Curaleaf has a new president.
The company has named to the role Joe Bayern, former president of cannabis company INDUS Holdings. Prior to that, Bayern was CEO of bottled water company VOSS. Bayern will report to CEO Joseph Lusardi.
Medicine Man’s executive reshuffling.
The Colorado cannabis company’s founder Andy Williams will step down as CEO and become the company’s vice chairman and president. The new CEO, appointed by the board of directors, will be Justin Dye of Dye Capital, which committed to investing more than $20 million into the company in June. Dye at that time became Medicine Man’s board chairman.
With this investment, Medicine Man went on an acquisition spree across Colorado following the passage of a bill that opened the state’s cannabis industry to outside capital (catch up on Cannabis Wire’s coverage of the bill here.)
Bob DeGabrielle, the founder of one of the companies Medicine Man acquired in June, Los Sueños Farms, will be the company’s new COO. And the company has promoted Nancy Huber from SVP of finance to CFO.
National Cannabis Roundtable’s “Corporate Social Responsibility” pledge.
Yesterday, NCR announced that the CEOs of each of its member companies signed a pledge committing to social justice, social equity, and diversity and inclusion. They include:
David Elias, CEO, Lowell Herb Co.
Jim Cacavo, CEO, Flora California
Larry Levy, CEO, Lucid Green
Kim Rivers, CEO, Truelieve
Kevin Murphy, CEO, Acreage Holdings
Dr. Chanda Macias, CEO, National Holistic Healing Center
David Feuerestein, Managing Partner, DFMK Law
Charlie Bachtell, CEO, Cresco Labs
Gerald Greenspoon, Co-Managing Director, Greenspoon Marder LLP
Jim Hourigan, CEO, CannaCraft
Efrem Kamen, Managing Member/Founder, Pura Vida Investments
Alvaro Torres, CEO/Founder, Khiron Life Sciences
Christopher Jensen, CEO, Mana Supply Holdings
Jacob Foster, CEO, Plus Products
Dollar General wants in on CBD.
The company is rolling out CBD products in Tennessee and Kentucky first, with plans to expand to additional states early next year, including: Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas and Vermont.
Only products like topicals and bath bombs will be sold, nothing “ingestible or edible.”
Jason Reiser, the company’s executive vice president and chief merchandising officer, said in a statement, “the addition of CBD items is an extension of our ongoing commitment to provide customers with a curated and affordable assortment of the products they seek,” adding, “as with many of the products we carry in our stores, our decision to offer CBD products is based on customer interests or demands.”
Cannabis dependence almost doubles the risk of post-surgery heart attacks.
Researchers from St. Michael’s Hospital of Unity Health Toronto examined medical records of 4 million adults between the years 2006 to 2015. These patients had one of 11 common elective procedures, like a hernia repair or knee replacement.
“While cannabis is often purported as being safe or benign, we don’t fully understand the health implications of this drug, particularly in heavy users,” said Karim Ladha, a lead author of the study. “The results of this study make it clear that we need to pay more attention to cannabis users undergoing surgery.”
The study found that those with cannabis dependence had almost twice the risk of a heart attack after surgery, and that instances of cannabis dependence in surgery patients “increased significantly” over the last decade.
The research was published in Anesthesiology, the peer-reviewed medical journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA).
