DATA PLAN
U.S. Treasury proposes plan to collect cannabis banking data
The U.S. Treasury Department has formally sent the White House its proposal to start collecting data on cannabis businesses from banks as part of its ongoing efforts to combat money laundering activities, reports Marijuana Moment.
The development is being viewed as another sign of the federal government’s recognition of the state-legal cannabis market.
“The RSF collects data about different products, services, customers, and geographies (PSCs),” the latest notice says.
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FINANCIAL TRENDS
Cannabis mergers & acquisitions
Trends surrounding cannabis industry mergers and acquisitions activity are heavily influenced by investor sentiment, new market development, domestic and global political reforms, external economic pressures, and high-profile failures, per Forbes.
While numerous groups look to deploy capital toward exciting opportunities with tremendous upside, others simply look to stay afloat.
As a result of numerous challenges, “the financial markets servicing the domestic and global cannabis industry have moved exclusively toward a debt financing model. For now, the days of wanton equity investment with enormous valuations seem to have passed.”
ELIAS THEODOROU
Canadian UFC fighter and cannabis advocate, dies at 34
Mixed martial artist and former UFC fighter Elias Theodorou, who campaigned successfully for the right to use medical cannabis as an athlete, has died aged 34 of liver cancer, reports Global News.
Theodorou campaigned for years to use medical cannabis in UFC, eventually securing a therapeutic use exemption for the cannabis he had been prescribed for bilateral neuropathic pain in his hands, wrists and elbows.
Theodorou, who said cannabis allowed him “to even the playing field and fight at a baseline level,” got the exemption in February 2020 from the B.C. Athletic Commission.
UNSUSTAINABLE NUMBERS
Too many cannabis stores in Alberta?
CEO and founder of 13th Floor Cannabis, Craig Kolochuk, has been blunt in his assessment of Alberta’s retail cannabis scene: there are too many stores, competition is fierce, price wars have broken out and dozens of locations are at risk of closing, per CBC News.
He predicts about a third of the existing retail outlets could close over the next one to two years.
“We’re just carving up the pie too much and the market’s not there. It’s going to be … who can persevere and who has a strong balance sheet and some supportive shareholders.”
