The Bengal Bite 🐯 | October Digest 2020
Last Month's Newsletters and Most Read Articles:
Rising Tide of Legalization | October 2 CNBC | Op-Ed: What matters for cannabis investors heading into the November elections: “Cannabis investors know there are two reasons why leading cannabis companies in the U.S. are outperforming even the manic market moves of Apple and Amazon over the last six months: opportunity and execution… for investors looking to November, it will be up to Congress to determine the future of cannabis. By safeguarding existing state laws on cannabis and providing future access to legitimate financial institutions, lawmakers will lock in progress and pave the way for full legalization and a more sensible justice system. When that legislation is ultimately combined with the operational execution/profitability we are currently seeing by top companies in the sector (see Curaleaf, Cresco Labs, Trulieve, GTI, Terrascend), the next wave of rerating will be here.”
The Power of Authenticity | October 9 WeedMaps News | Why do we love (and love to hate) celebrity weed brands? It is not enough to slap a famous face on a box to make a cannabis brand pop. The unique audience of core cannabis consumers is “largely composed of a wary subculture eager to expose the celebrity, as well as the brand, for being inauthentic.”
The Science of Cannabis | October 16 Discover Magazine | Delta-8-THC promises to get you high without the paranoia or anxiety: Delta-9-THC, the main active ingredient in cannabis plants, is a potent medicine capable of treating nausea, pain, and insomnia effectively. However, too much Delta-9-THC can trigger side effects such as paranoia, anxiety, and dizziness. Now some cannabis consumers are turning to an obscure analogue called Delta-8-THC. The difference between Delta-8 and Delta-9 is subtle. Both have medicinal benefits and are naturally occurring in the cannabis plant, but Delta-8 is about half as potent as Delta-9. Also, Delta-8 is federally legal under the 2018 Farm Bill.
"Canna"nomics | October 23 TechCrunch | Cannabis vape companies are experiencing a sales boom during the pandemic: Consumers “locked-down” then “lit-up” as evidenced by record vaporizer device sales since the emergence of this global pandemic. The pandemic has accelerated demand for cannabis and accessory products and is straining an already-stressed supply chain.
From the Halls of Congress | October 30 Rolling Stone | Every Single Weed Initiative Passed on Election Day: Five states this fall -- Arizona, Montana, New Jersey, South Dakota, and Mississippi -- voted to legalize cannabis. The growing map of cannabis legalization is important because, as Steven Hawkins (executive director of Marijuana Policy Project) stated, “Most lawmakers are going to respond for their constituents…Even if they [representatives] don’t become [cannabis] champions, they’re not going to vote no for something their constituents have come to embrace.”