Weed Talk News Live – 10 Weekly Marijuana Topics in 15 Minutes or Less (VIDEO)

Weed Talk News Live – 10 Weekly Marijuana Topics in 15 Minutes or Less (VIDEO)

Weed Talk News covers your cannabis topics for the week in 15 minutes or less.

Weed Talk News is now live for this week as we cover a full gamut of new stories in and around the marijuana industry. We have Jimmy Young of Pro Cannabis Media and Curt Dalton of Cannabis.net leading a news cast that includes Chris Walsh, Deborah Borchardt, and Kobie Evans this week. Got a news story or want to get on our weekly show, just write in to Pro Cannabis Media and we can get you mic’ed up for next week.

weed talk news live with debra borchardt curt dalton jimmy young

This week we talk about the High Times purchase of Harvest and their upcoming IPO, what good news is coming from COVID-19 for the cannabis industry, the way different states are allowing recreational verse medical cannabis, how Canada is helping legal marijuana companies out with COVID-19 funds, and how the industry as whole has pivoted in the pandemic to help make hand sanitizer and cleaning agents for the masses. The best part? We cover it all in less than 15 minutes so you can get your talking points for the week on big news and move on!

Debra Borchardt of the Green Market Report chimes in with her Wall Street update for cannabis stocks and what companies are getting ready for an IPO, as well as a reverse merger that didn’t get much attention this week, but could send shockwaves through the industry if the new company can raise some capital.

Check out the show below by clicking on the YouTube video!

The full written transcript of the show is below:

Jimmy Young:

Hi everyone. Welcome to the very first edition of Weed Talk News. I'm Jimmy young from Pro Cannabis Media.

Curt Dalton:

And I'm Curt Dalton, the founder of cannabis.net.

Jimmy Young:

And Kurt and I are teaming up with Debra Borchardt from the Green Market Report to bring you a weekly news roundup of all the biggest stories in the cannabis industry and as always, Curt, there's been quite a few and more importantly your relationship with Debra goes back a few years, doesn't it?

Curt Dalton:

Yeah, Deborah's a pro. She has a lot of experience at CNBC and with her Green Market Report project she's been covering the cannabis space for probably four years now, and she's going to hit the highlights of what's going on in the stock market, how is COVID-19 affecting the cannabis space? What about the High Times announcement of their buy before they're going public, and also Planet 13 doing resident-only sales. So we look forward to seeing Deb in a few minutes.

Jimmy Young:

That's right. And that Planet 13 dispensary is in Las Vegas, Nevada, or we all had a chance to visit out there for the MJBizCon and a little bit later on the show, we'll actually hear from the CEO of MJBizCon, Chris Walsh, about their plans for the future and perhaps the future of the cannabis industry as well. But as we all know, this COVID-19 pandemic has really created a little bit of a challenge, let's just say, here in the Bay State of Massachusetts where we produce this program, because of Governor Baker's decision to shut down all the adult-use dispensaries in the state, while leaving the medical dispensaries open to do business. Curt, this has always been a big story here in Massachusetts and now around the country because other states have deemed cannabis as an essential product during this pandemic.

Curt Dalton:

Yeah, you can just see the different views for cannabis even as far as state to state where some states are recreational essential. Massachusetts is not as you mentioned, but even look at Canada where there's a full federal money allowed for cannabis businesses that are federally legal there, which they all are if you're licensed, as opposed to here in the US where cannabis companies are not eligible for any of this, if we're going to call it bailout or PPE money. Cannabis companies as of right today are not eligible.

Jimmy Young:

That's right. And yet there is still a movement in Washington DC including this week in the House of Representatives to actually try to get the cannabis businesses some federal bailout money. But let's face it, it's just not going to happen in this particular political climate in Washington DC, to say the least. Don't you agree with that?

Curt Dalton:

Just like Vegas, what starts in the house, stays in the house and unfortunately for cannabis bills a lot of them die right there so I'm not too excited about that one yet.

Jimmy Young:

And of course, Curt and I earlier, on our latest Weed Talk Now show, we got a chance to talk with Kobie Evans, who's the co-owner of Pure Oasis, Boston's first adult-use dispensary that opened on March 9th and then thanks to the Governor had to close two weeks later. But Kobie, he's taking the high road.

Kobie Evans:

We can't keep isolating people in the industry as they're doing something nefarious and we have to move past that. And people have their hang-ups about it, but day by day we are countering those arguments. And I think it was more of a statement that as a commonwealth, as a country, we have to move forward and look forward in terms of how we treat people in this industry, and we need to acknowledge them and accept them and not continue to ostracize them.

Jimmy Young:

Curt, earlier on this program, you actually mentioned the changes to Planet 13's sales as far as offering their products to the adult-use community in Las Vegas, Nevada. They are now offering only residents of Nevada to come into their store. Ooh, excuse me. They're not coming into the store anymore. They're actually ordering and getting it on curbside. Las Vegas is also the location where MJBizCon has the largest cannabis convention in the world and I know you and Chris Walsh go back a few years too.

Curt Dalton:

Yeah, talking to Chris was a joyful moment in this COVID news where Chris is actually pretty optimistic looking to the future, thinks there will be a lot of great things coming from this pandemic for the cannabis industry and he looked right away and said the deliveries, the curbside pickup, the pushing out of let's get these products to medical patients. He doesn't see that getting rolled back and he's actually optimistic in the future that these changes are here to stay.

Chris Walsh:

And so those companies that can survive this can adapt, that embrace the change and understand that business has to be done differently and they've got to get through this period. I think the industry as a whole is going to be in a really good position to come roaring out of the gates when we get out of this mess. And I do think it is going to help legalization and acceptance efforts. I absolutely believe that down the road because we're going to need to jolt this economy and people, governors, and federal politicians are going to be looking at where can we do that? This could be one of the ways.

Curt Dalton:

And Jimmy, I'm really a fan of that line of thought where this pandemic will create an opportunity for the cannabis industry, maybe even legalization, but in true World War Z 10th Man fashion, we wrote an article on cannabis.net that argued against this prevailing thought on things that could go wrong with cannabis legalization, meaning a very strong recovery where we don't need those cannabis jobs as much. We could see a Joe Biden presidency who's not a huge fan of cannabis, so it's not a slam dunk we're going to see legalization after this pandemic.

Jimmy Young:

Nothing is easy in the cannabis space, that's for sure. And another news item that happened this week, Weedmaps got subpoenaed, and I believe that they have been perhaps giving a boost to the illegal industry out there. Is that what happened to Weedmaps?

Curt Dalton:

Yeah, so that's a brewing story that the industry is watching because the federal subpoenas came down to Weedmaps in few ... maybe a year ago when the California Cannabis Commission asked them to stop the illegal unlicensed listings. They declined politely and cited a often used internet law that allows free speech and they're not responsible for content on their site. And now the federal authorities are involved. And one of the problems is federal subpoenas never end well between the legal bills and the amount of time put in. And because Weedmaps is dealing in a Schedule 1 drug, anything they did as far as a money laundering, or RICO Act, or using gift cards or prepaid cards or cash, it's not like they're selling unlicensed popcorn and it's a slap on the wrist.

Curt Dalton:

Whatever the findings are, two or three years from now when this thing ends, it won't be good. And the other problem is there's over 40 entities, companies and individuals mentioned on those subpoenas that they want information on, bank accounts, emails. So, it's not just the Weedmaps thing. It has some tentacles that I don't think anyone in the industry is looking forward to seeing evolve.

Jimmy Young:

Well, that's certainly a story we'll be keeping an eye on too on Weed Talk News. But for now, let's go to New York City and hear the Green Market Report with Debra Borchardt.

Debra Borchardt:

I'm Debra Borchardt and this is your Weed Talk Business Recap. This week, Hadley Ford resigned as CEO of iAnthus Capital Holdings. The company had faced some allegations from an online research firm. They formed a special committee and as a result of their investigation they determined that a couple of these allegations were in fact true. So Hadley Ford resigned as CEO due to some personal loans that he did not disclose, and the company's founder and president, Randy Maslow, has stepped up to become the interim CEO. Also this week, High Times acquired 13 planned and operational dispensary licenses from Harvest Health and Recreation, the deal is valued at $80 million. They ponied up 5 million cash, the rest is done in stock.

Debra Borchardt:

This is part of High Times overall strategy to pivot to the dispensary side of the industry. Also a couple of little notes this week, Cresco Labs reported their earnings for the fourth quarter of 2019. The company had $41 million in revenue. This was a jump of 144% over last year for the same time period, and a 14% sequential increase over the third quarter. And then finally, e-commerce online vendor BudTrader is going to go public in a reverse takeover through Lake Victoria Mining Company. And that's it for this week. I'm Debra Borchardt reporting for Weed Talk News and the Green Market Report.

Curt Dalton:

Wow, thanks Deb, that was a great report and that High Times situation bears watching. They've done a couple of press releases, no mention of Stormy Simon. We have our interview up with her at cannabis.net that is very interesting to read and I don't know what her plans are. I know she's going to be maybe running for a government position in Utah. So going forward with an IPO and with these purchases, I don't know what their structure is going to look like, what their stock's going to be worth, but the entire industry is watching. At some point this moose will get traded publicly and we're going to watch.

Jimmy Young:

Hey, can I interrupt you about High Times for a second? Doesn't it make sense to you, and you've been in this space a lot longer than I have, High Times has looked at the entire industry and realized that controlling seed-to-sale is probably the most sound economic strategy that they can impose. And it looks like that's exactly what they're doing with this acquisition. Do you agree?

Curt Dalton:

Yeah, so there's a lot of haters out there of High Times. They're kind of easy to pick on based on their history and some of their managerial decisions, but I do defend them in the sense, look, they had to pivot with ... their entire model relied on live events, the High Times Cannabis Cup, really? They lose money online as far as media. So when the events now in doubt for 8, 10, 12, 20 months, this is a really smart pivot. It's their only move, whether it's successful, time will tell, but yes, they have to get into selling something and creating revenue.

Jimmy Young:

And of course maybe they'll start branding hand sanitizer because as you know, everybody's getting into the hand sanitizer business. It was just about a month ago that Revolutionary Clinics actually made the news by actually offering hand sanitizer to hospitals and our frontline workers because there was a shortage in that and they turned their Fitchburg facility into a hand sanitization factory. And I understand there's other companies that have followed suit with that as well now.

Curt Dalton:

And this is great news for the cannabis industry, even though the federal government doesn't deem us to be worthy and legal, for the companies that are taking their extraction facilities and now switching it over with alcohol to make hand sanitizer to help the effort, it is really a good story coming out of cannabis. It shows that we may not be getting the federal government's respect, but we're still helping the community, helping people that need it, and creating tangible products that everyone can use, even if you're not a cannabis fan.

Jimmy Young:

Well, we all know that the industry does take the higher road. Oh, I had to get it in. I'm sorry. All right, folks.

Curt Dalton:

Nice job.

Jimmy Young:

Thank you very much and that'll wrap it up for this week's edition of Weed Talk News, our pilot, our inaugural edition. Look for our interviews with all the movers and shakers on Weed Talk Now. For now, I'm Jimmy Young, the founder of Pro Cannabis Media.

Curt Dalton:

And I'm Curt Dalton with Cannabis.net.

Jimmy Young:

Don't forget, it's a whole new world of weed out there. Use it responsibly. Thanks for watching everybody.

Speaker 7:

Weed Talk, and in the weeds are two productions of Pro Cannabis Media supported by Revolutionary Clinics, one of the top medical cannabis dispensaries in the Massachusetts area. Now with three locations in greater Boston, two in Cambridge and one on Broadway in Somerville. Rev Clinics has a patient first mission. They will customize your needs as a medical patient with the proper titration and combination of strains, flavors and products. Rev Clinics where the patient comes first.