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Happy Friday Pre Rollers!

Welcome to another edition of The Pre Roll, the cannabis newsletter that keeps you up-to-date on the industry happenings you need to know.

This week we cover the NBA’s position on cannabis in its new collective bargaining agreement, Kentucky becoming the 38th state to legalize cannabis for medical use, POSaBIT acquiring Hypur, and more.

Let’s get to it.

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🚨 Roll Call

Business

NBA favors cannabis in its new CBA. NBA players will be permitted to promote and invest in cannabis companies as well as consume cannabis without penalty as part of a tentative deal on a new collective bargaining agreement reached between the NBA and National Basketball Players Association. The league initially suspended random testing for cannabis when it restarted play in the Orlando bubble following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The move continued into the following season and again this season. The cannabis industry has attracted many former NBA players including Al Harrington, Chris Webber, Matt Barnes, and Shawn Kemp.

Policy

From Bluegrass to Green Grass. Kentucky officially became state number 38 to legalize cannabis for medical use as Governor Andy Beshear signed Senate Bill 47 into law. In remarks made before putting pen to paper, Governor Beshear noted people have been pushing for this outcome for nearly a decade. While this is a historic breakthrough, the law — and with it the state medical cannabis program — doesn’t go into effect until 2025.

Tech

POSaBIT powers up payments. POSaBIT, a point-of-sale and payments provider for the cannabis industry, announced this week it acquired compliant payment and banking solutions provider Hypur for $7.5 million in a cash and equity transaction. The deal adds over 150 active merchant locations and more than $100 million in annualized payment GMV to POSaBIT’s business. It also includes a redundant PIN debit processing solution, invoicing and ACH capabilities for B2B, and the Hypur Pay app for Android and iOS with over 165,000 consumer profiles to date. POSaBIT acquired three cannabis compliance software companies from Akerna in January.

🇺🇸 State of the Industry

DC: A new law that took effect will allow “gifting” dispensaries to get medical cannabis licenses. These dispensaries currently sell traditional goods such as stickers or shirts and “gift” consumers cannabis of similar value.

Michigan: Former House Speaker Rick Johnson, who chaired the state’s medical cannabis licensing board, admitted to accepting bribes in return for licenses.

New Mexico: Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham announced adult-use cannabis sales of $300 million in the industry’s first year. The state issued almost 2,000 licenses to 633 retailers, 351 producers, 415 micro producers, and 507 manufacturers.

New York: The Cannabis Control Board approved an additional 99 Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) licenses, brining the state’s total provisional retail dispensary license count to 165.

📊 Business

4Front Ventures: The national, vertically integrated multi-state cannabis operator reported its financial results for Q4 and full-year 2022.

Curaleaf: The international provider of consumer cannabis products reached a definitive agreement to acquire Deseret Wellness, the largest cannabis retail operator in Utah with three dispensaries.

Goodness Growth: The Minnesota-based medical cannabis grower and distributor detailed results for Q4 and full-year 2022.

Greentank Technologies: The cannabis technology company specializing in the design, development, and manufacture of vaporization hardware closed a $16.5 million USD Series B. This follows a CAD $14 million Series A in 2019 and a CAD $4.3 million Seed round in 2018.

Jushi: The vertically integrated multi-state cannabis operator revealed its unaudited, preliminary financial results for Q4 and full-year 2022.

Lowell Farms: The California-based vertically integrated cannabis company provided its audited financial and operational results for Q4 and full-year 2022.

Safe Harbor Financial: The leader in banking, payments, and financial services for the cannabis industry entered into an agreement with its largest stockholder Partner Colorado Credit Union to resolve $64.7 million in payment obligations.

Sweet Leaf Madison Capital: The nationwide provider of tailored debt financing solutions in real estate, equipment and senior secured working capital for the cannabis industry secured a new $100MM debt facility.

The Parent Company: The consumer-focused, vertically integrated cannabis company announced its financial results for Q4 and full-year 2022.

Verano: The vertically integrated, multi-state cannabis company shared financial results for Q4 and full-year 2022.

💻 Tech

Happy Cabbage Analytics: The cannabis retail optimization platform company acquired ZolTrain, a brand activation platform designed for cannabis brands and retailers.

Headset: The cannabis data and analytics provider partnered with CASA, a cannabis retail procurement and inventory managed service provider, to help cannabis operators enhance their revenue and efficiencies through data-driven strategies.

Paychex: The SaaS provider of solutions for human resources, payroll, benefits, and insurance stated it’s halting services to cannabis-related businesses.

🌏 Around the World

Canada: A University of Manitoba study found the majority of medical cannabis users aren’t getting prescriptions — instead getting it from the recreational market — raising health and safety concerns.

Columbia: The Congress of the the Republic will soon decide on a constitutional reform seeking to authorize the creation of a legal cannabis market for adult use.

💨 Quick Hitters

• New York State’s first woman-owned cannabis dispensary “Good Grades” opened in Queens.

• A cannabis bar is planned in Lexington, Kentucky.

📚 What We’re Reading

• Does weed help you sleep? (The Washington Post)

• California’s Retail Logjam Leaves Legal Cannabis in Jeopardy (Cannabis Business Times)

• Environmental Justice, Up in Smoke (Slate)

• Goldmine Gummies looks to bring fun back to the cannabis market (Design Week)

• Cannabis, cocaine and molly: Europe's drugs hotspots mapped city by city (Euronews)

• Cultivating cannabis in the shadow of a volcano (Nature Portfolio)

• S.F. cannabis merchants say they're the latest victims of retail theft — and they want police to help (San Francisco Chronicle)

Stay tuned for more cannabis industry news next week!

💚,

The Pre Roll Team

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