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Happy Friday readers,
It was a busy week for the cannabis team here at BI as we gear up for the election on November 3. We’ll have a ton of great stories breaking down the cannabis policy implications of the vote, as five states — including that state right across the river from us, New Jersey — vote on various legalization measures.
Beyond that, Yeji and I interviewed George Goldsmith, the CEO of the $1.2 billion Compass Pathways, who told us he predicts a ‘Cambrian explosion’ of innovation in the psychedelics space.
And if you missed it, conference season is in full swing: I moderated a pair of sessions at Benzinga's Cannabis Capital Conference, participated in a Cannabis Journalism 101 panel organized by the recruiting startup Vangst, and I'll be moderating a session on cannabis legalization at the Legends Investment Forum on Tuesday. You can grab a ticket for that here.
I also was a guest on the Marijuana Today podcast — you'll want to stick around until the end for my "finishing move," and appeared on NBC LX to discuss state-level legalization. Let me know what you think.
-Jeremy
Here's what we wrote about this week:
The CEO of a $1.2 billion psychedelics company told us he expects psilocybin-based treatments by 2025 and predicts a 'Cambrian explosion' of innovation in the industry
We spoke with Compass Pathways CEO George Goldsmith in one of the company's first interviews since its IPO.
Compass Pathways went public on the Nasdaq in September, and its stock popped over 70% on the first day of trading. It's now valued at well over $1.2 billion. The company is developing synthetic psilocybin — the chief psychoactive ingredient in "magic" mushrooms — to help alleviate treatment-resistant depression.
Executive moves
- Cannabis tech startup Fyllo appointed Christie Hefner, former CEO of Playboy, to its board.
Deals, launches, and IPOs
- Harvest Health & Recreation raised 30 million Canadian dollars in a bought deal with Eight Capital and other underwriters. The cannabis MSO has a significant footprint in Arizona, which is voting on legalization on November 3.
- Neptune Wellness Solutions, which has an expansive CBD business, closed a $35 million private placement.
- Cannabis e-commerce and delivery startup Amuse raised a $12 million Series A round, led by cannabis fund Gotham Green Partners.
- Cannabis startup Meadow launched a mobile marketing platform, in a bid to become what CEO David Hua calls the 'Salesforce of Weed'
- Psychedelics firm Havn Life signed an agreement to export naturally-derived psilocybin to the US.
Policy moves
- Montana's Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit that sought to remove a pair of marijuana legalization initiatives from the ballot.
- A group of marijuana companies and trade associations has sued the city of LA and its Department of Cannabis Regulation over what the groups call onerous delivery restrictions that don't let them obtain licenses until 2025, reports the AP.
- A top aide to New York Gov. Cuomo said the state will push to legalize cannabis in the next budget — before April of next year.
- The Last Prisoner Project launched the Michigan Cannabis Prisoner Release Project, with the stated goal of releasing all cannabis prisoners in Michigan, where cannabis is now legal.
Chart of the week
THC focused stocks in 2020 have fared better than CBD ones, according to Viridian Capital Advisors, which compared a handful of cannabis company stocks in the first 40 weeks of 2020.
THC-first companies like Curaleaf, GTI, Harvest, and others have thrived on the market with increased revenues and better trading volume, according to the advisory firm, while CBD companies have been negatively affected by excess production and declining prices this year:
What we're reading
2020's psychedelic drug ballot measures, explained (Vox)
The IRS is building cannabis compliance teams (Cannabis Wire)
How conservative South Dakota could be at the forefront of legalizing marijuana (ABC News)
Pot stocks go on a chilled-out election rally (Wall Street Journal)