Curaleaf Now Has Largest Footprint in the U.S.
With the recent acquisition of Oregon’s Cura Partners, and Illinois-based Grassroots Cannabis (the combined deals totalling more than $1 billion), Curaleaf now has a larger footprint in the United States than any other cannabis company.
The Massachusetts-based Curaleaf, now having a multitude of growers, processors, and provisioning centers under its umbrella, commands a marijuana enterprise that spans 23 states.
Of interesting note, the company’s two largest stockholders are Executive Chair Boris Jordan, a New York native turned Russian investment banker, and Russian billionaire Andrei Blokh.
According to Curaleaf CEO Joe Lusardi, “Our ability to raise capital is a differentiator, and we are able to use our stock as a currency to do deals because investors and owners have confidence in the company to execute.”
California Wildfires Wreak Havoc on Weed Fields
Wildfires in California are decimating the land, and now marijuana plants.
Several major farms have reported fires, Sweet Creek Farms in Sonoma County states approximately four-fifths of it’s crop is destroyed. “It looks like a wasteland,” said Keala Peterson, a member of the family who owns and operates the farm. Their outdoor crops are not insured and her family will have to take the roughly $150,000 in losses, potentially more, depending on how the unburnt crop turns out.
Many owners and operators do not even know the status of their crops. Evacuations have taken place all over the state, with farmers unable to return to check on the damage.
Failed Drug Test Rate Hit Sixteen Year High in 2019
A report released August 25 via the Substance Abuse Program Administrators Association (SAPAA) virtual conference by Quest Diagnostics, the oh too familiar drug testing agency, indicates failed urine tests are the highest they have been in 16 years. Despite the scary headline, that number is 4.5%, and the year was 2003. The lowest rate in the past 30 years was 3.5% between 2010 and 2012.
Also stated in the report was a dramatic increase in positive tests for cocaine, methamphetamines, and marijuana, most notably in the Midwest.
Other research aligns with these findings, as drug deaths in the U.S. in 2019 were up 5%. The big three killers being meth, cocaine, and fentanyl.
Some good news includes a nation-wide decrease in positives for opiates, and as expected, marijuana still reigns on top as the number one most commonly found drug in a failed test.
Petition Poses Question of Constitutionality
In a three year long battle, a petition has been filed with the supreme court vs AG William Barr, declaring the criminalization of marijuana at the federal level unconstitutional.
Lower courts rejected the case, stating, “Although plaintiffs couch their claim in constitutional language, they seek the same relief as would be available in an administrative form - a change in marijuana’s scheduling classification - based on the same factors that guide the DEA reclassification determination.”
The questions the petition poses are as follows:
1. Can congress, consistent with the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, criminalize medical cannabis without exception, even for patients who require its daily administration to live?
2. Given the three requirements for designation as a Schedule I drug under the CSA (21 U.S.C. § 812(b)(1)), is the classification of cannabis so irrational that it violates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution?
3. Can Congress, consistent with the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, require persons aggrieved by the classification of a substance under the CSA to submit to an administrative review process that cannot, as a matter of law, provide the relief they seek?
Whether or not the supreme court takes the case will be seen, although speculators are not optimistic.
