The Week's Bengal News Bite - December 17, 2021

Lawmakers Talk Next Steps For Marijuana Banking And Legalization After Reform Blocked By Senate Leader (Marijuana Moment)  

• Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) is “still pretty irritated” that marijuana banking reform was omitted from a defense bill last week—apparently at the behest of Democratic Senate leadership. But he said in an interview with Marijuana Moment that the congressional debate that subsequently ensued has advanced the cause nonetheless.

• Looking ahead, the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act sponsor sees additional opportunities to pass the legislation as part of other large-scale bills if the Senate remains unwilling to adopt the standalone measure. He’s had conversations with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to that end.

• Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Dave Joyce (R-OH) also told Marijuana Moment this week that they remain adamant about finding a path to passage in spite of the recent setback.

• High inflation is latest threat to marijuana businesses (MJ Biz Daily) | 

• The business story of the holiday season – record-breaking inflation caused by supply-chain pressure – has hit the cannabis industry especially hard.

• That’s because competition across the THC spectrum is forcing cannabis entrepreneurs to drop prices on everything from vapes and flower to wholesale cannabinoid isolates, just as they’re paying steep markups for inputs from fertilizer to solvent to plastic packaging.

• These Were the 5 Biggest Surprises for Cannabis Investors in 2021 (New Cannabis Ventures): 

• Two top MSOs by revenue went public this year, Ascend Wellness and Verano Holdings, but the big story was the addition of many ancillary names. In fact, the expansion of the ancillary space led New Cannabis Ventures to launch the Ancillary Cannabis Index in the spring. Supporting expanded access to capital, two mortgage REITs, AFC Gamma and Chicago Atlantic, went public on the NASDAQ, and NewLake Capital, which does sale-leaseback transactions went public as well.

• M&A was big in both Canada and the U.S., and market consolidation will likely drive growth in the future. Two publicly traded Florida operators were bought, Liberty Health and Bluma Wellness, and Trulieve bought one of the largest MSOs by revenue, Harvest. TerrAscend has the pending acquisition of GAGE Cannabis. The list of acquisitions of private companies is quite long as well, as all of the major MSOs were quite active. GW Pharma was acquired, and in Canada there was tremendous consolidation, including the purchase of Supreme Cannabis by Canopy Growth and several purchases by HEXO Corp, including Redecan, 48North and Zenabis. Valens and IM Cannabis purchased smaller publicly traded LPs as well. Sundial bought retailer Inner Spirit and has the pending acquisition of Alcanna, which controls retailer Nova Cannabis. We also saw consolidation in the CBD space, with High Tide, Valens and Village Farms making acquisitions. We also saw continued investment by Canadian LPs into the U.S. with the non-equity purchases, including options acquired by Canopy Growth for Wana Brands and Cronos Group for a minority stake in PharmaCann, and convertible debt and warrants in MedMen acquired by Tilray.