This week's cannabis business news | The Bengal Bite 🐯

• Marijuana MSOs post strong quarterly results, but investors tepid (Marijuana Business Daily) | All 10 of the largest publicly held marijuana multistate operators posted double-digit revenue growth in the quarter ended June 30, but stock prices remained weak as investors grow impatient with the slow pace of federal marijuana legalization efforts. Four of the largest five publicly held MSOs actually made a profit in the quarter, with Florida-based Trulieve Cannabis leading the way with $40.9 million in earnings.

• This year’s cannabis deals look safer than the last crop (Wall Street Journal) | This year is on track to set a record for purchases of U.S.-based marijuana companies. Transactions worth $5.5 billion have closed so far in 2021, according to Viridian Capital Advisors, compared with roughly $3 billion last year and $3.7 billion in 2019. On the first day of this month alone, three acquisitions were announced, including TerrAscend’s purchase of Michigan-based Gage for $545 million.
   

• Cannabis is slipping into a barbell economy (Grown In) | In the barbell economy, retail offerings are all about scale, so you can push down the price. Or they’re about exclusivity and quality, so you can raise the price. In the middle? Well, that part goes away, because how do you define a middle-market product when you’re attacked by price on one side and high quality on the other?
   

• How L.A.'s only Black women-owned dispensary is getting its message out (AdWeek) | Gorilla Rx, a Black female-owned dispensary that recently opened, has created a series of wild postings and a massive mural in its Los Angeles neighborhood as a prime example of cultivating consumers within a specific area.