The Democratic leader of a key U.S. Senate committee on Monday released the text of legislation that, if enacted, would finally allow Washington, D.C. to legalize recreational marijuana sales—in contravention of the wishes of President Joe Biden. The new bills and attached report language announced by Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT), which are part of a package of legislation to fund the federal government for Fiscal Year 2022, also contain several additional cannabis-related provisions. Among others, they would continue an existing protection for state medical marijuana laws, call on the federal government to reconsider policies that fire employees for cannabis, criticize the restrictive drug classification system that impedes scientific research and encourage the development of technologies to detect THC-impaired driving.

Greenlane Holdings, Inc. is buying vaporizer technology company DaVinci for “up to $20 million in total consideration, comprised of a mix of cash and stock,” Nick Kovacevich, CEO of Greenlane said. “DaVinci leads the way in innovative portable vaporizers and we are thrilled to bring them into our owned brand portfolio." The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Cannabis producers always label strains to Indica and Sativa types to show their effects. Generally, while Indica strains have sedating and relaxing effects, Sativa strains give you euphoric and energizing effects. Furthermore, these cannabis types differ from the morphology of the plant. However, a new study shows that using Indica and Sativa labels for cannabis is nonsense. Researchers from Dalhousie University (Canada) and the Wageningen University & Research (The Netherlands) have found that labels Sativa and Indica used for cannabis have low genetic and chemical differences. As we know, cannabis produces hundreds of aromatic terpenes. Such a variety drives consumer preference, as they frequently associate them with Sativa and Indica labels.

Before COVID, the MJ Business Daily Conference in Las Vegas was the “go to” event for people in the cannabis industry. Over 30,000 people attended the last pre-pandemic conference as a testament to its popularity. Also in the past during the MJBiz event, there have been several other events that have tried to ride the coattails of the massive conference. The thought behind such a strategy is that if so many industry people are going to be there, why not try to capitalize on that? So there have been investor events, women-focused events, etc. However, they mostly complemented the main event versus competing head-on. That has changed this year. Former MJ Biz executive George Jage, who is often credited with making the MJ Biz event so successful, is hosting his own conference called MJ Unpacked. During the same time and at the literal opposite side of Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay hotel. The biggest difference between the two is that Unpacked is narrowly targeted on retail and brands with a vetted investor attendance, while MJBiz has something for everyone. Although it could be argued that the exhibitor floor tends to skew heavily towards cultivation and production.

Multistate cannabis operator Jushi Holdings secured a $100 million credit facility with a 9.5% annual interest rate to bankroll expansion in the company’s core and targeted U.S. markets. For the funding, Florida-based Jushi tapped a portfolio company of SunStream Bancorp, a joint venture sponsored by Sundial Growers, a Canadian licensed producer. In a news release, Jushi said it intends to draw $40 million initially to fund the cash portion of its recently completed acquisition of Nature’s Remedy, a deal that allows Jushi to enter the Massachusetts cannabis market. “Securing non-dilutive funding from Sunstream strengthens our balance sheet and positions us to aggressively pursue our national growth plans,” Jushi CEO Jim Cacioppo said in the release. The CEO said the funding will allow Jushi to continue its expansion in existing markets, such as Nevada, Illinois, Ohio and California, as well as pursuing potential target markets like New Jersey and Maryland.