StaffThe Daily Hit is a recap of cannabis business news for Oct. 25, 2022.
ON THE SITE
Canopy Growth Forms New Holding Company to Speed US Entry
Canadian cannabis producer Canopy Growth Corp. (TSX: WEED) (NASDAQ: CGC) has agreed to absorb a trio of companies within its newly formed holdings entity, Canopy USA. Under the deals, which still need approvals from shareholders, Canopy USA will acquire all of Acreage Holdings (OTC: ACRHF), as well as Jetty Extracts and Wana Brands, in a longstanding bid to gain entry into the U.S. cannabis industry. Read more here.
SEC Charges Cronos Group With Accounting Fraud
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Cronos Group Inc. (Nasdaq: CRON) for improperly accounting for millions of dollars of revenue and for other accounting misconduct in multiple reporting periods. The SEC said in a statement that it also charged Cronos’s former Chief Commercial Officer, William Hilson, with fraud and aiding and abetting the company’s violations. Read more here.
CBD Beverage Company Targeted by SEC For False Statements
The SEC is issuing cease-and-desist orders against a CBD beverage company called NewAge Inc. The SEC said in its Administrative Proceeding dated Oct. 19, 2022 that from approximately July 2017 through April 2019, NewAge, through its former chief executive officer and director Brent D. Willis, made numerous false and misleading public statements concerning NewAge’s business operations and activities. Read more here.
Michigan’s Top Cannabis Regulator Promises Crackdown as Prices Free-Fall
For Michigan’s marijuana industry, a crackdown is coming. The state’s Cannabis Regulatory Agency is preparing to launch a new offensive to combat illicit market product that’s been long-rumored to be making its way into the regulated industry, Brian Hanna, the newly appointed acting director of the agency, told reporters in a media roundtable Tuesday morning at the CRA’s Lansing headquarters. Read more here.
IN OTHER NEWS
New York
Leaders of NY’s largest cannabis business association say certain aspects of the state’s marijuana testing regulations are unnecessarily strict and that if they’re not changed, most of NY’s conditionally licensed growers won’t be able to sell their weed. The Office of Cannabis Management last month posted testing requirements for marijuana flower and extract. Read more here.
Goodness Growth/Verano Holdings
Cannabis company Goodness Growth saw its market cap drop by more than 60% after Verano Holdings backed out of a deal to buy the Canadian firm for $413 million, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in the Supreme Court of British Columbia accusing the Chicago-based company of “undermining” the deal. Read more here.
