CBD OIL

Trimming is a crucial step in the post-harvest process and one that can directly impact the value of a grower’s products. An over-trimmed bud might have bag appeal, but the loss of valuable biomass to trim can hurt a grower’s potential revenue. Meanwhile, an under-trimmed bud can look sloppy and unappealing to consumers.

Given the balancing act cannabis cultivators must perform, it’s no wonder that 74% of participants in Cannabis Business Times’ Cannabis Post-Harvest Report mentioned hand-trimming as their greatest post-harvest challenge, with trimming efficiency (29%), consistency (22%) and quality (12%) being among the top issues.

So, what exactly makes a good trim?

To answer that, Cannabis Business Times and Hemp Grower interviewed Sara Morse, lead trimmer for LOWD Cannabis in Portland, Ore., who shares her trimming philosophy, how LOWD trims its high-end line of Smoke Like a Grower (SLAG) bud using stick trimming, how she keeps her 7-person trim team motivated to repeatedly produce high-quality work, and more in this interview.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length, style and clarity.

Brian MacIver: What’s your personal philosophy when it comes to trimming? Or, in other words, what effect should a good trim have on the product?

Sara Morse: We spend months growing these buds and the trim team is kind of the last line of defense in really making sure that we’re letting the truest expression of that genome, of that … strain, really express itself and make sure that we’re leaving all the little beautiful little nuances of different strains intact.

When we’re approaching a different strain or when I have a new trimmer that hasn’t worked with a strain that we grow before, I encourage them to take a little piece of a branch with a couple of buds on it, or cola, and kind of hold it at arm’s length and look at that bud objectively and be like, “What on this bud would I want to smoke and what on this bud am I going to want to take off before I smoke?”

BM: LOWD treats its SLAG products to a stick trim. How is stick trimming done and what are its benefits?

SM: Our guy that leads up our operations team, one of our head growers, he will take some of the plants that got especially nice and hang those to the side as we’re harvesting. Then me and Jesce, our CEO, will go into the dry room and we spend half the day just going through all of the curtains of our cured product and picking out our favorite branches, the branches of the plants that have just the most beautiful buds. We’ll get maybe one or two buds that actually meet SLAG bud standards from each branch. It takes us quite a while to really make sure that we really feel like we’re getting the very best buds of our whole harvest to be able to stick trim.

I have myself and my two top trimmers in the trim room for that process. We’ll take a whole branch and we hold it by the bottom of the stick, so we don’t ever actually touch the bud. We’re not handling them anymore than we have to, and that’s to be able to really preserve as much [of] those trichomes. They can shake off and they stick to your fingers every time you touch the bud. We hold them at the stick and then just use the very tip of our scissors to clip the stems of the little leaves that we want to clip out, making sure that we’re not even getting anywhere near those little hairs, those little trichomes so that they all stay on there. We just clip it straight into the jar.

 

READ ALSO: The Interview: Jesce Horton Shares the Story of LOWD

 

BM: How do you train a new trim team member to quickly get them up to speed on what you expect?

SM: That can definitely be tough. I have high enough standards in my trim room that it’s been really difficult for us to be able to give the opportunity to somebody who doesn’t have any trim experience at all to be able to have a shot in our trim room just because, in order to be able to be on schedule, to be able to keep up with the rotation of the plants, we all have to be able to trim a pound a day.

The way that I’ve tried to approach it, when I am bringing a new person into the trim team, or making sure that everyone’s on the same page, is I will seat them in our trim room in between a couple of my more experienced, faster trimmers. And I’ll encourage both of them to be keeping an eye on the pace that the prospective new trimmer is working at, and then every half an hour or so I’ll peek in at their pool and see how they’re doing, and then sometimes we’ll sit down and we’ll trim together and I’ll kind of be helping, giving pointers about organization.

A lot of maintaining quality while still trimming a pound a day has to do with organization at your trim station and making sure you’re cutting down on any kind of superfluous motions with your scissors or with supplies at the table. If you’re trimming a pound a day, that’s many, many buds. So, every little motion that you make with every trimmed bud really adds up.

BM: How do you keep a trim team motivated to do such a repetitive task over an eight-hour shift?

SM: That can be tricky. There are a lot of kind of social and environmental factors right now that have led most of the people on my team to have some perspective about how amazing it is to have a job where we work full-time and very much enjoy the company of our coworkers and have great bosses and have a great job because that definitely feels like it’s a little bit of a luxury in today’s world.

I also have been working on building an incentives program, which Jesce has been very receptive to. So, we track what everybody trims every day, and then we tally those up by the week. At the end of each harvest, we have an average of how many grams everybody trimmed each day [relative to] how many hours everyone was there to come up with an average of what everyone’s trimming per hour. Halfway through the harvest, we’ll buy a bunch of gift cards from a local coffee shop, or there’s also a little grocery store a half-block away from work that some of us go to, to pick up lunch and stuff like that. And so sometimes they’ll get a gift card for that, and I’ll get like a little handheld back massager.

BM: What tips do you have to offer on increasing the quality of the hand trim?

SM: Make sure that your team is very clear on how it is that you want your buds to look by the time it’s done being trimmed. In my experience, a lot what helps people be able to pick up their efficiency and pick up their speed and their numbers and still have a really good looking trim at the end of the day definitely has to do with making sure that each individual person feels confident in how it is that the trim leader or the grower expects their finished product to look.

BM: What tips do you have to increase trimmer efficiency?

SM: If the trimmer is confident in what they’re doing, then they can kind of zone in. It’s confidence that the job that you’re doing is exactly what is required that helps you to really be able to move faster. If you’re not fully confident on how to handle it, you’re just really not going to be able to move fast because you don’t want to screw it up. It’s a fact that sometimes buds get over-trimmed; sometimes you’ve got a newer person that’s not super sure what they’re doing and they trim for an hour, and they were just shaving everything and then you can’t use those buds. Then that definitely puts into the trimmer’s mind that, ‘I just ruined all these beautiful buds,’ and that takes away all their confidence. I get them more confident by encouraging them and the things that they are doing correctly.

Another tip on efficiency would be making sure that you’re very organized. I have a method that I have everybody use, no matter how much trim experience at other places that they’ve had or ways they’ve tackled it before: We take our trim tray and then we put all of the buds that we’re about to trim in the top part of the tray. As we’re trimming, we’re pulling any little sticks out of the tray, putting those separate as we go. We’re taking any smaller “B-buds” that we don’t necessarily want in our nice big half-ounce jars out as we go.  We’re making sure that we’re not wasting any time trimming “B-buds” when we’re actually going for the “A-buds.”

Trimming is a crucial step in the post-harvest process and one that can directly impact the value of a grower’s products. An over-trimmed bud might have bag appeal, but the loss of valuable biomass to trim can hurt a grower’s potential revenue. Meanwhile, an under-trimmed bud can look sloppy and unappealing to consumers.

Given the balancing act cannabis cultivators must perform, it’s no wonder that 74% of participants in Cannabis Business Times’ Cannabis Post-Harvest Report mentioned hand-trimming as their greatest post-harvest challenge, with trimming efficiency (29%), consistency (22%) and quality (12%) being among the top issues.

So, what exactly makes a good trim?

To answer that, Cannabis Business Times and Hemp Grower interviewed Sara Morse, lead trimmer for LOWD Cannabis in Portland, Ore., who shares her trimming philosophy, how LOWD trims its high-end line of Smoke Like a Grower (SLAG) bud using stick trimming, how she keeps her 7-person trim team motivated to repeatedly produce high-quality work, and more in this interview.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length, style and clarity.

Brian MacIver: What’s your personal philosophy when it comes to trimming? Or, in other words, what effect should a good trim have on the product?

Sara Morse: We spend months growing these buds and the trim team is kind of the last line of defense in really making sure that we’re letting the truest expression of that genome, of that … strain, really express itself and make sure that we’re leaving all the little beautiful little nuances of different strains intact.

When we’re approaching a different strain or when I have a new trimmer that hasn’t worked with a strain that we grow before, I encourage them to take a little piece of a branch with a couple of buds on it, or cola, and kind of hold it at arm’s length and look at that bud objectively and be like, “What on this bud would I want to smoke and what on this bud am I going to want to take off before I smoke?”

BM: LOWD treats its SLAG products to a stick trim. How is stick trimming done and what are its benefits?

SM: Our guy that leads up our operations team, one of our head growers, he will take some of the plants that got especially nice and hang those to the side as we’re harvesting. Then me and Jesce, our CEO, will go into the dry room and we spend half the day just going through all of the curtains of our cured product and picking out our favorite branches, the branches of the plants that have just the most beautiful buds. We’ll get maybe one or two buds that actually meet SLAG bud standards from each branch. It takes us quite a while to really make sure that we really feel like we’re getting the very best buds of our whole harvest to be able to stick trim.

I have myself and my two top trimmers in the trim room for that process. We’ll take a whole branch and we hold it by the bottom of the stick, so we don’t ever actually touch the bud. We’re not handling them anymore than we have to, and that’s to be able to really preserve as much [of] those trichomes. They can shake off and they stick to your fingers every time you touch the bud. We hold them at the stick and then just use the very tip of our scissors to clip the stems of the little leaves that we want to clip out, making sure that we’re not even getting anywhere near those little hairs, those little trichomes so that they all stay on there. We just clip it straight into the jar.

 

READ ALSO: The Interview: Jesce Horton Shares the Story of LOWD

 

BM: How do you train a new trim team member to quickly get them up to speed on what you expect?

SM: That can definitely be tough. I have high enough standards in my trim room that it’s been really difficult for us to be able to give the opportunity to somebody who doesn’t have any trim experience at all to be able to have a shot in our trim room just because, in order to be able to be on schedule, to be able to keep up with the rotation of the plants, we all have to be able to trim a pound a day.

The way that I’ve tried to approach it, when I am bringing a new person into the trim team, or making sure that everyone’s on the same page, is I will seat them in our trim room in between a couple of my more experienced, faster trimmers. And I’ll encourage both of them to be keeping an eye on the pace that the prospective new trimmer is working at, and then every half an hour or so I’ll peek in at their pool and see how they’re doing, and then sometimes we’ll sit down and we’ll trim together and I’ll kind of be helping, giving pointers about organization.

A lot of maintaining quality while still trimming a pound a day has to do with organization at your trim station and making sure you’re cutting down on any kind of superfluous motions with your scissors or with supplies at the table. If you’re trimming a pound a day, that’s many, many buds. So, every little motion that you make with every trimmed bud really adds up.

BM: How do you keep a trim team motivated to do such a repetitive task over an eight-hour shift?

SM: That can be tricky. There are a lot of kind of social and environmental factors right now that have led most of the people on my team to have some perspective about how amazing it is to have a job where we work full-time and very much enjoy the company of our coworkers and have great bosses and have a great job because that definitely feels like it’s a little bit of a luxury in today’s world.

I also have been working on building an incentives program, which Jesce has been very receptive to. So, we track what everybody trims every day, and then we tally those up by the week. At the end of each harvest, we have an average of how many grams everybody trimmed each day [relative to] how many hours everyone was there to come up with an average of what everyone’s trimming per hour. Halfway through the harvest, we’ll buy a bunch of gift cards from a local coffee shop, or there’s also a little grocery store a half-block away from work that some of us go to, to pick up lunch and stuff like that. And so sometimes they’ll get a gift card for that, and I’ll get like a little handheld back massager.

BM: What tips do you have to offer on increasing the quality of the hand trim?

SM: Make sure that your team is very clear on how it is that you want your buds to look by the time it’s done being trimmed. In my experience, a lot what helps people be able to pick up their efficiency and pick up their speed and their numbers and still have a really good looking trim at the end of the day definitely has to do with making sure that each individual person feels confident in how it is that the trim leader or the grower expects their finished product to look.

BM: What tips do you have to increase trimmer efficiency?

SM: If the trimmer is confident in what they’re doing, then they can kind of zone in. It’s confidence that the job that you’re doing is exactly what is required that helps you to really be able to move faster. If you’re not fully confident on how to handle it, you’re just really not going to be able to move fast because you don’t want to screw it up. It’s a fact that sometimes buds get over-trimmed; sometimes you’ve got a newer person that’s not super sure what they’re doing and they trim for an hour, and they were just shaving everything and then you can’t use those buds. Then that definitely puts into the trimmer’s mind that, ‘I just ruined all these beautiful buds,’ and that takes away all their confidence. I get them more confident by encouraging them and the things that they are doing correctly.

Another tip on efficiency would be making sure that you’re very organized. I have a method that I have everybody use, no matter how much trim experience at other places that they’ve had or ways they’ve tackled it before: We take our trim tray and then we put all of the buds that we’re about to trim in the top part of the tray. As we’re trimming, we’re pulling any little sticks out of the tray, putting those separate as we go. We’re taking any smaller “B-buds” that we don’t necessarily want in our nice big half-ounce jars out as we go.  We’re making sure that we’re not wasting any time trimming “B-buds” when we’re actually going for the “A-buds.”

Trimming is a crucial step in the post-harvest process and one that can directly impact the value of a grower’s products. An over-trimmed bud might have bag appeal, but the loss of valuable biomass to trim can hurt a grower’s potential revenue. Meanwhile, an under-trimmed bud can look sloppy and unappealing to consumers.

Given the balancing act cannabis cultivators must perform, it’s no wonder that 74% of participants in Cannabis Business Times’ Cannabis Post-Harvest Report mentioned hand-trimming as their greatest post-harvest challenge, with trimming efficiency (29%), consistency (22%) and quality (12%) being among the top issues.

So, what exactly makes a good trim?

To answer that, Cannabis Business Times and Hemp Grower interviewed Sara Morse, lead trimmer for LOWD Cannabis in Portland, Ore., who shares her trimming philosophy, how LOWD trims its high-end line of Smoke Like a Grower (SLAG) bud using stick trimming, how she keeps her 7-person trim team motivated to repeatedly produce high-quality work, and more in this interview.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length, style and clarity.

Brian MacIver: What’s your personal philosophy when it comes to trimming? Or, in other words, what effect should a good trim have on the product?

Sara Morse: We spend months growing these buds and the trim team is kind of the last line of defense in really making sure that we’re letting the truest expression of that genome, of that … strain, really express itself and make sure that we’re leaving all the little beautiful little nuances of different strains intact.

When we’re approaching a different strain or when I have a new trimmer that hasn’t worked with a strain that we grow before, I encourage them to take a little piece of a branch with a couple of buds on it, or cola, and kind of hold it at arm’s length and look at that bud objectively and be like, “What on this bud would I want to smoke and what on this bud am I going to want to take off before I smoke?”

BM: LOWD treats its SLAG products to a stick trim. How is stick trimming done and what are its benefits?

SM: Our guy that leads up our operations team, one of our head growers, he will take some of the plants that got especially nice and hang those to the side as we’re harvesting. Then me and Jesce, our CEO, will go into the dry room and we spend half the day just going through all of the curtains of our cured product and picking out our favorite branches, the branches of the plants that have just the most beautiful buds. We’ll get maybe one or two buds that actually meet SLAG bud standards from each branch. It takes us quite a while to really make sure that we really feel like we’re getting the very best buds of our whole harvest to be able to stick trim.

I have myself and my two top trimmers in the trim room for that process. We’ll take a whole branch and we hold it by the bottom of the stick, so we don’t ever actually touch the bud. We’re not handling them anymore than we have to, and that’s to be able to really preserve as much [of] those trichomes. They can shake off and they stick to your fingers every time you touch the bud. We hold them at the stick and then just use the very tip of our scissors to clip the stems of the little leaves that we want to clip out, making sure that we’re not even getting anywhere near those little hairs, those little trichomes so that they all stay on there. We just clip it straight into the jar.

 

READ ALSO: The Interview: Jesce Horton Shares the Story of LOWD

 

BM: How do you train a new trim team member to quickly get them up to speed on what you expect?

SM: That can definitely be tough. I have high enough standards in my trim room that it’s been really difficult for us to be able to give the opportunity to somebody who doesn’t have any trim experience at all to be able to have a shot in our trim room just because, in order to be able to be on schedule, to be able to keep up with the rotation of the plants, we all have to be able to trim a pound a day.

The way that I’ve tried to approach it, when I am bringing a new person into the trim team, or making sure that everyone’s on the same page, is I will seat them in our trim room in between a couple of my more experienced, faster trimmers. And I’ll encourage both of them to be keeping an eye on the pace that the prospective new trimmer is working at, and then every half an hour or so I’ll peek in at their pool and see how they’re doing, and then sometimes we’ll sit down and we’ll trim together and I’ll kind of be helping, giving pointers about organization.

A lot of maintaining quality while still trimming a pound a day has to do with organization at your trim station and making sure you’re cutting down on any kind of superfluous motions with your scissors or with supplies at the table. If you’re trimming a pound a day, that’s many, many buds. So, every little motion that you make with every trimmed bud really adds up.

BM: How do you keep a trim team motivated to do such a repetitive task over an eight-hour shift?

SM: That can be tricky. There are a lot of kind of social and environmental factors right now that have led most of the people on my team to have some perspective about how amazing it is to have a job where we work full-time and very much enjoy the company of our coworkers and have great bosses and have a great job because that definitely feels like it’s a little bit of a luxury in today’s world.

I also have been working on building an incentives program, which Jesce has been very receptive to. So, we track what everybody trims every day, and then we tally those up by the week. At the end of each harvest, we have an average of how many grams everybody trimmed each day [relative to] how many hours everyone was there to come up with an average of what everyone’s trimming per hour. Halfway through the harvest, we’ll buy a bunch of gift cards from a local coffee shop, or there’s also a little grocery store a half-block away from work that some of us go to, to pick up lunch and stuff like that. And so sometimes they’ll get a gift card for that, and I’ll get like a little handheld back massager.

BM: What tips do you have to offer on increasing the quality of the hand trim?

SM: Make sure that your team is very clear on how it is that you want your buds to look by the time it’s done being trimmed. In my experience, a lot what helps people be able to pick up their efficiency and pick up their speed and their numbers and still have a really good looking trim at the end of the day definitely has to do with making sure that each individual person feels confident in how it is that the trim leader or the grower expects their finished product to look.

BM: What tips do you have to increase trimmer efficiency?

SM: If the trimmer is confident in what they’re doing, then they can kind of zone in. It’s confidence that the job that you’re doing is exactly what is required that helps you to really be able to move faster. If you’re not fully confident on how to handle it, you’re just really not going to be able to move fast because you don’t want to screw it up. It’s a fact that sometimes buds get over-trimmed; sometimes you’ve got a newer person that’s not super sure what they’re doing and they trim for an hour, and they were just shaving everything and then you can’t use those buds. Then that definitely puts into the trimmer’s mind that, ‘I just ruined all these beautiful buds,’ and that takes away all their confidence. I get them more confident by encouraging them and the things that they are doing correctly.

Another tip on efficiency would be making sure that you’re very organized. I have a method that I have everybody use, no matter how much trim experience at other places that they’ve had or ways they’ve tackled it before: We take our trim tray and then we put all of the buds that we’re about to trim in the top part of the tray. As we’re trimming, we’re pulling any little sticks out of the tray, putting those separate as we go. We’re taking any smaller “B-buds” that we don’t necessarily want in our nice big half-ounce jars out as we go.  We’re making sure that we’re not wasting any time trimming “B-buds” when we’re actually going for the “A-buds.”

Trimming is a crucial step in the post-harvest process and one that can directly impact the value of a grower’s products. An over-trimmed bud might have bag appeal, but the loss of valuable biomass to trim can hurt a grower’s potential revenue. Meanwhile, an under-trimmed bud can look sloppy and unappealing to consumers.

Given the balancing act cannabis cultivators must perform, it’s no wonder that 74% of participants in Cannabis Business Times’ Cannabis Post-Harvest Report mentioned hand-trimming as their greatest post-harvest challenge, with trimming efficiency (29%), consistency (22%) and quality (12%) being among the top issues.

So, what exactly makes a good trim?

To answer that, Cannabis Business Times and Hemp Grower interviewed Sara Morse, lead trimmer for LOWD Cannabis in Portland, Ore., who shares her trimming philosophy, how LOWD trims its high-end line of Smoke Like a Grower (SLAG) bud using stick trimming, how she keeps her 7-person trim team motivated to repeatedly produce high-quality work, and more in this interview.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length, style and clarity.

Brian MacIver: What’s your personal philosophy when it comes to trimming? Or, in other words, what effect should a good trim have on the product?

Sara Morse: We spend months growing these buds and the trim team is kind of the last line of defense in really making sure that we’re letting the truest expression of that genome, of that … strain, really express itself and make sure that we’re leaving all the little beautiful little nuances of different strains intact.

When we’re approaching a different strain or when I have a new trimmer that hasn’t worked with a strain that we grow before, I encourage them to take a little piece of a branch with a couple of buds on it, or cola, and kind of hold it at arm’s length and look at that bud objectively and be like, “What on this bud would I want to smoke and what on this bud am I going to want to take off before I smoke?”

BM: LOWD treats its SLAG products to a stick trim. How is stick trimming done and what are its benefits?

SM: Our guy that leads up our operations team, one of our head growers, he will take some of the plants that got especially nice and hang those to the side as we’re harvesting. Then me and Jesce, our CEO, will go into the dry room and we spend half the day just going through all of the curtains of our cured product and picking out our favorite branches, the branches of the plants that have just the most beautiful buds. We’ll get maybe one or two buds that actually meet SLAG bud standards from each branch. It takes us quite a while to really make sure that we really feel like we’re getting the very best buds of our whole harvest to be able to stick trim.

I have myself and my two top trimmers in the trim room for that process. We’ll take a whole branch and we hold it by the bottom of the stick, so we don’t ever actually touch the bud. We’re not handling them anymore than we have to, and that’s to be able to really preserve as much [of] those trichomes. They can shake off and they stick to your fingers every time you touch the bud. We hold them at the stick and then just use the very tip of our scissors to clip the stems of the little leaves that we want to clip out, making sure that we’re not even getting anywhere near those little hairs, those little trichomes so that they all stay on there. We just clip it straight into the jar.

 

READ ALSO: The Interview: Jesce Horton Shares the Story of LOWD

 

BM: How do you train a new trim team member to quickly get them up to speed on what you expect?

SM: That can definitely be tough. I have high enough standards in my trim room that it’s been really difficult for us to be able to give the opportunity to somebody who doesn’t have any trim experience at all to be able to have a shot in our trim room just because, in order to be able to be on schedule, to be able to keep up with the rotation of the plants, we all have to be able to trim a pound a day.

The way that I’ve tried to approach it, when I am bringing a new person into the trim team, or making sure that everyone’s on the same page, is I will seat them in our trim room in between a couple of my more experienced, faster trimmers. And I’ll encourage both of them to be keeping an eye on the pace that the prospective new trimmer is working at, and then every half an hour or so I’ll peek in at their pool and see how they’re doing, and then sometimes we’ll sit down and we’ll trim together and I’ll kind of be helping, giving pointers about organization.

A lot of maintaining quality while still trimming a pound a day has to do with organization at your trim station and making sure you’re cutting down on any kind of superfluous motions with your scissors or with supplies at the table. If you’re trimming a pound a day, that’s many, many buds. So, every little motion that you make with every trimmed bud really adds up.

BM: How do you keep a trim team motivated to do such a repetitive task over an eight-hour shift?

SM: That can be tricky. There are a lot of kind of social and environmental factors right now that have led most of the people on my team to have some perspective about how amazing it is to have a job where we work full-time and very much enjoy the company of our coworkers and have great bosses and have a great job because that definitely feels like it’s a little bit of a luxury in today’s world.

I also have been working on building an incentives program, which Jesce has been very receptive to. So, we track what everybody trims every day, and then we tally those up by the week. At the end of each harvest, we have an average of how many grams everybody trimmed each day [relative to] how many hours everyone was there to come up with an average of what everyone’s trimming per hour. Halfway through the harvest, we’ll buy a bunch of gift cards from a local coffee shop, or there’s also a little grocery store a half-block away from work that some of us go to, to pick up lunch and stuff like that. And so sometimes they’ll get a gift card for that, and I’ll get like a little handheld back massager.

BM: What tips do you have to offer on increasing the quality of the hand trim?

SM: Make sure that your team is very clear on how it is that you want your buds to look by the time it’s done being trimmed. In my experience, a lot what helps people be able to pick up their efficiency and pick up their speed and their numbers and still have a really good looking trim at the end of the day definitely has to do with making sure that each individual person feels confident in how it is that the trim leader or the grower expects their finished product to look.

BM: What tips do you have to increase trimmer efficiency?

SM: If the trimmer is confident in what they’re doing, then they can kind of zone in. It’s confidence that the job that you’re doing is exactly what is required that helps you to really be able to move faster. If you’re not fully confident on how to handle it, you’re just really not going to be able to move fast because you don’t want to screw it up. It’s a fact that sometimes buds get over-trimmed; sometimes you’ve got a newer person that’s not super sure what they’re doing and they trim for an hour, and they were just shaving everything and then you can’t use those buds. Then that definitely puts into the trimmer’s mind that, ‘I just ruined all these beautiful buds,’ and that takes away all their confidence. I get them more confident by encouraging them and the things that they are doing correctly.

Another tip on efficiency would be making sure that you’re very organized. I have a method that I have everybody use, no matter how much trim experience at other places that they’ve had or ways they’ve tackled it before: We take our trim tray and then we put all of the buds that we’re about to trim in the top part of the tray. As we’re trimming, we’re pulling any little sticks out of the tray, putting those separate as we go. We’re taking any smaller “B-buds” that we don’t necessarily want in our nice big half-ounce jars out as we go.  We’re making sure that we’re not wasting any time trimming “B-buds” when we’re actually going for the “A-buds.”

Earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives made history with the passing of the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act. The bill removes cannabis from the DEA’s Controlled Substances Act schedule, effectively decriminalizing it nationally and allowing individual states to regulate their own markets. It also calls for the reinvestment of tax money from cannabis into community grants for job training, youth recreation and other programs in areas hit hardest by prohibition.

And while the passing of the bill was lauded by many cannabis advocates and executives, others feel it doesn’t go far enough in creating a fair industry for everyone. Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary spoke to leadership figures in the cannabis equity movement to learn about the specific issues with the MORE Act.    

Breaking Down the MORE Act’s Shortcomings

Although the bill represents a significant step in federal cannabis legislation, experts identified four specific points where its provisions fall short of establishing an industry accessible to everyone: 

Felony exclusions 

A late-added provision in the bill would prevent anyone with even a pending felony charge from getting a license in the cannabis industry. Cannabis equity advocates in Congress, such as Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Barbara Lee (D-CA), expressed displeasure at the last-minute addition, but stopped short of pulling the bill from a full floor vote.

Amber Littlejohn, executive director of the Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA), said the organization was able to ensure this add-on would not be present in the final version of the bill that is passed by both chambers of Congress.

“At the last moment, MCBA was able to work with House leadership to get their commitment to ensuring the exclusion would not stand and impacted communities would remain at the forefront of any future legislation,” Littlejohn wrote in an email to Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary.

Dasheeda Dawson, cannabis program supervisor for the city of Portland, Ore., agreed. “Over the past few years, the definition of cannabis equity has centered on providing opportunities to those most adversely harmed,” she said via email. “Undoubtedly this starts with those who were previously arrested or incarcerated for cannabis.”

Payments to law enforcement

Another problematic provision in the MORE Act involves payments made directly to law enforcement. 

A full 60% of the bill’s “Opportunity Trust Fund” is devoted to helping the U.S. Attorney General carry out a program that offers grants to local police departments. Many believe this represents a missed opportunity for allocation of those funds.

“I would argue that our investment in law enforcement has proven to be disproportionate to the need and this is likely the best place to start shifting the spending,” said Dawson. “For example, the DEA spends millions per year on the Cannabis Eradication and Suppression program, but those millions could be used instead for creating a cannabis expungement and re-education program.”

No mandatory expungement

The “E” in “MORE” stands for one of its key provisions, the expungement of previous marijuana-related convictions. The ACLU estimates that 88% of the 8.2 million Americans who were arrested for cannabis between 2001 and 2010 were charged with possession. Arrest rates also indicate that African-Americans are arrested nearly four times as often as whites, despite similar usage rates. 

And while the bill does offer an opportunity for expungement on a national level, advocates believe that isn’t enough.

“This bill only does part of the job with automatic federal expungement. It fails to include a mandate for states to do the same, which leaves the vast majority of people in limbo still struggling to clear their records,” said Dawson. “There are also a few states that will absolutely only expunge records if required by a federal mandate.”

By and large, the MORE Act leaves decisions like this to the states, essentially legitimizing much of the regulatory power structure in cannabis presently. 

Even where federal and state-level expungement pathways are offered, the process can be confusing and unclear. It also varies on a state-by-state basis—the lack of a strong federal mandate for expungement means these provisions won’t have as much of an impact as they could.

Federal fees in licensing

Right now, states are managing the process for cannabis licensing and regulation. Under the MORE Act, federal licensing would be required for most of the main varieties of cannabis businesses. 

Experts believe these extra layers of regulation will ultimately translate into additional fees that would shut out small businesses and help large multi-state operators with the cash to spend on acquiring licenses.

“Adding an additional layer of licensing regulation is unnecessary, especially for small, local cannabis businesses and it creates additional costs, favoring big tobacco, pharmaceutical and retail companies,” said Dawson. States like Michigan, Massachusetts and Illinois have already taken steps to help mitigate the costs of cannabis licenses. 

“Coupling decriminalization with a regulatory framework that lacks an accompanying expanse of economic opportunity is like a double negative,” added Dr. Rachel Knox, an endocannabinologist who chairs the Oregon Cannabis Commission and sits on the board of Doctors for Cannabis Regulation.

MORE Act’s Murky Future

Problems with the bill may lead to disagreements within the cannabis industry—but under current Republican leadership, it’s not likely to receive a hearing in the U.S. Senate, meaning it will remain in limbo well into the new year. Georgia’s January runoffs will determine control of the Senate, which will in turn determine whether or not the bill has any chance of a hearing in the next session of the upper chamber.

Whatever the future holds, the passing of the MORE Act and the election of a Democratic administration makes it clear that cannabis is set to take a much larger role in the next legislative session. Advocates have promised to continue fighting to ensure the forming industry is accessible to everyone, especially those harmed most by prohibition.

“Despite its issues, the MORE Act sent a clear message to lawmakers and the cannabis industry that equity will be a cornerstone of federal cannabis policy,” Littlejohn said.

While the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) space in the cannabis industry has significantly slowed in 2020, it certainly hasn’t stopped—not even during a pandemic.

According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, “a drop in company valuations complicated by the coronavirus-triggered capital squeeze” were the two major reasons for the slowdown. Still, S&P Global reports U.S. and Canadian cannabis and cannabis-related companies completed 124 deals in 2020, worth a combined $615.1 million—compared to 249 deals in 2019 and 324 deals in 2018.

We also learned this year, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) whistleblower, that “U.S. Attorney General William Barr was motivated by his personal dislike of the cannabis industry when he launched multiple Antitrust Division merger investigations into nearly a dozen cannabis deals last year,” Cannabis Business Times reported in July. According to Eric Berlin, co-chair of Denton’s Cannabis Practice, “Many of the cannabis mergers under investigation did not get closed … due to these additional costs and time delays, and now, not only are the companies involved left with little to no recourse, but the DOJ’s actions have dramatically slowed the M&A activity in the industry.”

However, recovering valuations and renewed investor interest are expected to increase deals in 2021, according to the S&P Global. Not to mention, it was a monumental year for cannabis legalization in the U.S. And, cannabis businesses in most states and provinces were considered essential services. As we wait to see what 2021 deal-making brings, we’ve rounded up some of the most notable deals that closed, and those that fell through, in 2020.

 

1. Cresco Labs Acquires Origin House

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Cresco Labs officially closed its acquisition of Canada-based cannabis company Origin House. The deal was originally valued at C$1.1 billion, though the deal’s value ended up being lower amidst declining stocks and antitrust review delays. Perhaps the biggest cannabis transaction in the year, the move paved the way for Cresco Labs’ entry into the United States’ largest cannabis market: California.

“The acquisition of Origin House makes Cresco a leading wholesale distributor in California, selling into over 575 dispensaries, representing approximately 65% of California’s storefront dispensaries. Origin House’s Continuum distribution platform distributes 13 third-party brands, including Kings Garden,” according to a press release.  

Cresco Labs’ brands are currently distributed in seven states, including Arizona, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

 

2. Cresco Labs Terminates Tryke Companies Purchase Agreement

In September 2019, Cresco Labs announced its intention to acquire Tryke Companies, which included the Reef Dispensary portfolio in Nevada and Arizona. The purchase consideration at the time was $252.5 million for Tryke’s operating assets, plus $30 million for the company’s real estate assets. However, in April 2020, the agreement was terminated mutually, according to a press release.

Cresco Labs CEO and Co-Founder Charlie Bachtell said, “Our acquisition of Tryke has been impacted by regulatory delays, a decline in capital markets, and now COVID-19, which brought additional risk to this transaction. Given these events, we feel the resources previously targeted for this transaction are better invested in our existing markets, where we have high visibility and certainty of return on capital.”

 

3. Canopy Growth Corp. and Acreage Holdings Amend Merger Terms

Canopy Growth made global headlines and sent stocks surging in April 2019 when it announced it would acquire Acreage Holdings for $3.4 billion with one significant contingency: the United States federally legalizes cannabis. At the time, Acreage Holdings held licenses in 20 states, and shareholders were expected to receive a $300-million upfront cash payment when the deal closed. Acreage was also to gain access to Canopy’s Tweed and Tokyo Smoke brands.

Since the announcement, Canopy CEO Bruce Linton was terminated. And in June, the Canopy/Acreage deal was amended. Still contingent upon federal legalization, the value of the deal was brought down to $843 million, with an upfront payment of $37.5 million to Acreage. And the same update, Acreage CEO Kevin Murphy announced his resignation, though he still serves as chairman and sits on the board of directors. Bill Van Faasen was appointed interim CEO. 

 

4. Curaleaf Acquires Grassroots

In a $700-million deal, Curaleaf acquired Grassroots Cannabis in late July. According to the company’s executive chairman on CNN Business in July, the acquisition makes Curaleaf the biggest cannabis company in the world, based on its reported $1 billion in annual revenue.

Curaleaf is now operational in 23 states, with 88 operational dispensaries and 22 cultivation sites with 1.6 million square feet of cultivation capacity.

“Many of the MSOs have … retrenched into markets where they were performing well or where they have capital to build out, whereas Curaleaf has really continued to keep our foot on the accelerator and expand into more markets—given where we have a strong balance sheet and we can actually take on those projects,” according to Curaleaf CEO Joseph Lusardi.

 

5. Aurora Cannabis and Aphria Make More Moves Into the U.S.

Canadian cannabis powerhouses Aurora Cannabis and Aphria strengthened their footholds in the U.S. cannabis market this year.

Aurora Cannabis completed its acquisition of Reliva LLC, a hemp-derived CBD manufacturer that sells products in the United States, in May.

And this month, Aphria closed its acquisition of SweetWater Brewing Company, a U.S.-based independent craft brewer. According to a CBT report: “Aphria plans to introduce its adult-use cannabis brands, such as Broken Coast, Riff, Soleil and Good Supply, to the U.S. market as cannabis-free beverages through SweetWater products and harness SweetWater’s expertise in what [Aphria CEO and Chairman Irwin Simon] said is the growing, $29-billion craft beer market in the U.S.”

 

6. Trulieve Enters its Fifth State with Two Acquisitions in Pennsylvania

In September, multi-state operator Trulieve (whose most significant foothold is Florida’s medical cannabis market), announced it had entered into definitive agreements PurePenn LLC and Pioneer Leasing & Consulting LLC and Keystone Relief centers (dba Solevo Wellness), according to a press release. The deals are pending closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

The move will create Trulieve’s vertical integration in Pennsylvania—with three retail licenses and 35,000 square feet of cultivation (with plans to expand to 90,000 square feet by Q1 2021). 

According to the press release, “Under its current 100% wholesale model, PurePenn’s sizeable cultivation footprint supplies an extensive distribution network, including Solevo and other private and public medical marijuana companies.” 

 

7. Stem Holdings Acquires Driven Deliveries

In a data-centric rebrand, multi-state, vertically integrated operator Stem Holdings announced its definitive agreement to acquire Driven Deliveries.

The $31 million deal emphasizes a growing trend in an increasingly contactless COVID-19 economy: delivery.

“In May 2020, Driven Deliveries reported it notched an 18% increase in new consumers over April and a more than 20% increase in gross collections,” CBT reported. 

“The story of cannabis M&A in recent years has been one of market share and multi-state expansion. Now, with capital markets running dry and a global pandemic continuing to exert economic pressures across the board, the strategy is tightened. Technology assets can help build a vertically integrated portfolio in different ways than pure geographic reach,” according to CBT’s report.

 

8. Columbia Care Acquires The Green Solution

Multi-state, vertically integrated cannabis company Columbia Care closed its transaction with The Green Solution, one of Colorado’s largest vertically integrated operators, in September, bringing Columbia Care’s footprint to 95 facilities open or under development in the United States and European Union.

According to a press release, “The TGS acquisition establishes Columbia Care as the leader in the $1.75B Colorado market, the second largest cannabis market in the world. With 23 dispensaries, many located in the Denver metro area and tourist destinations such as Aspen, TGS supplies its own dispensaries along with its wholesale distribution network from its six operational cultivation facilities and one highly automated manufacturing facility. Additionally, a Columbia Care affiliate was recently awarded the opportunity to pursue a marijuana hospitality business license in Adams County, one of the first consumption lounges in the state.”

 

9. Verano Holdings Acquires AltMed

In November Verano Holdings announced it would acquire Florida-based AltMed, which would form one of the largest privately held cannabis companies in the United States, according to a CBT report.

Verano, which is vertically integrated in 12 states, made headlines in 2019 when multi-state operator Harvest Health & Recreation announced plans to acquire the company. At the time, the deal would have brought Harvest to 200 cannabis facilities in 16 states. And combined, the megadeal would have made Harvest one of the largest operators in the United States. However, in March of this year, the two companies announced their mutual termination of their Business Combination Agreement., citing COVID-19 and regulatory challenges.

The AltMed merger takes Verano in a new direction in Arizona and in Florida, where Verano had divested its assets in the Harvest transaction, Verano CEO George Archos said. “Florida was always an attractive market for us. They have a great patient base, a great population and limited licenses. In Florida, you have to basically depend on yourself in order to succeed. It’s a vertically integrated business, so you have to produce all your own flower and all your own products to sell through your stores, which is something that we’re very good at, and so is AltMed,” Archos told CBT.

 

10. High Times Gets Into the Retail Game

Hightimes Holdings Corp., which publishes the cannabis magazine High Times, announced on April 28 a definitive agreement to acquire 13 California cannabis retail licenses from Harvest Health & Recreation, according to a press release.

The mostly stock-based transaction would make High Times a significant retailer player in the United State’s largest cannabis market “overnight,” according to the April release. The intention is to rebrand the Harvest dispensaries to become “High Times destinations,” leveraging its iconic brand its built over more than 45 years.

However, since April, the deal has been amended to be valued at $67.5 million and include 10 dispensaries, according to Green Market Report. And in September, Hightimes lost its lease on two San Francisco retail locations due to non-payment of rent, according to SF Weekly.

Editor’s note: Bookmark this pagefor more news on the latest mergers and acquisitions in the cannabis industry.

While the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) space in the cannabis industry has significantly slowed in 2020, it certainly hasn’t stopped—not even during a pandemic.

According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, “a drop in company valuations complicated by the coronavirus-triggered capital squeeze” were the two major reasons for the slowdown. Still, S&P Global reports U.S. and Canadian cannabis and cannabis-related companies completed 124 deals in 2020, worth a combined $615.1 million—compared to 249 deals in 2019 and 324 deals in 2018.

We also learned this year, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) whistleblower, that “U.S. Attorney General William Barr was motivated by his personal dislike of the cannabis industry when he launched multiple Antitrust Division merger investigations into nearly a dozen cannabis deals last year,” Cannabis Business Times reported in July. According to Eric Berlin, co-chair of Denton’s Cannabis Practice, “Many of the cannabis mergers under investigation did not get closed … due to these additional costs and time delays, and now, not only are the companies involved left with little to no recourse, but the DOJ’s actions have dramatically slowed the M&A activity in the industry.”

However, recovering valuations and renewed investor interest are expected to increase deals in 2021, according to the S&P Global. Not to mention, it was a monumental year for cannabis legalization in the U.S. And, cannabis businesses in most states and provinces were considered essential services. As we wait to see what 2021 deal-making brings, we’ve rounded up some of the most notable deals that closed, and those that fell through, in 2020.

 

1. Cresco Labs Acquires Origin House

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Cresco Labs officially closed its acquisition of Canada-based cannabis company Origin House. The deal was originally valued at C$1.1 billion, though the deal’s value ended up being lower amidst declining stocks and antitrust review delays. Perhaps the biggest cannabis transaction in the year, the move paved the way for Cresco Labs’ entry into the United States’ largest cannabis market: California.

“The acquisition of Origin House makes Cresco a leading wholesale distributor in California, selling into over 575 dispensaries, representing approximately 65% of California’s storefront dispensaries. Origin House’s Continuum distribution platform distributes 13 third-party brands, including Kings Garden,” according to a press release.  

Cresco Labs’ brands are currently distributed in seven states, including Arizona, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

 

2. Cresco Labs Terminates Tryke Companies Purchase Agreement

In September 2019, Cresco Labs announced its intention to acquire Tryke Companies, which included the Reef Dispensary portfolio in Nevada and Arizona. The purchase consideration at the time was $252.5 million for Tryke’s operating assets, plus $30 million for the company’s real estate assets. However, in April 2020, the agreement was terminated mutually, according to a press release.

Cresco Labs CEO and Co-Founder Charlie Bachtell said, “Our acquisition of Tryke has been impacted by regulatory delays, a decline in capital markets, and now COVID-19, which brought additional risk to this transaction. Given these events, we feel the resources previously targeted for this transaction are better invested in our existing markets, where we have high visibility and certainty of return on capital.”

 

3. Canopy Growth Corp. and Acreage Holdings Amend Merger Terms

Canopy Growth made global headlines and sent stocks surging in April 2019 when it announced it would acquire Acreage Holdings for $3.4 billion with one significant contingency: the United States federally legalizes cannabis. At the time, Acreage Holdings held licenses in 20 states, and shareholders were expected to receive a $300-million upfront cash payment when the deal closed. Acreage was also to gain access to Canopy’s Tweed and Tokyo Smoke brands.

Since the announcement, Canopy CEO Bruce Linton was terminated. And in June, the Canopy/Acreage deal was amended. Still contingent upon federal legalization, the value of the deal was brought down to $843 million, with an upfront payment of $37.5 million to Acreage. And the same update, Acreage CEO Kevin Murphy announced his resignation, though he still serves as chairman and sits on the board of directors. Bill Van Faasen was appointed interim CEO. 

 

4. Curaleaf Acquires Grassroots

In a $700-million deal, Curaleaf acquired Grassroots Cannabis in late July. According to the company’s executive chairman on CNN Business in July, the acquisition makes Curaleaf the biggest cannabis company in the world, based on its reported $1 billion in annual revenue.

Curaleaf is now operational in 23 states, with 88 operational dispensaries and 22 cultivation sites with 1.6 million square feet of cultivation capacity.

“Many of the MSOs have … retrenched into markets where they were performing well or where they have capital to build out, whereas Curaleaf has really continued to keep our foot on the accelerator and expand into more markets—given where we have a strong balance sheet and we can actually take on those projects,” according to Curaleaf CEO Joseph Lusardi.

 

5. Aurora Cannabis and Aphria Make More Moves Into the U.S.

Canadian cannabis powerhouses Aurora Cannabis and Aphria strengthened their footholds in the U.S. cannabis market this year.

Aurora Cannabis completed its acquisition of Reliva LLC, a hemp-derived CBD manufacturer that sells products in the United States, in May.

And this month, Aphria closed its acquisition of SweetWater Brewing Company, a U.S.-based independent craft brewer. According to a CBT report: “Aphria plans to introduce its adult-use cannabis brands, such as Broken Coast, Riff, Soleil and Good Supply, to the U.S. market as cannabis-free beverages through SweetWater products and harness SweetWater’s expertise in what [Aphria CEO and Chairman Irwin Simon] said is the growing, $29-billion craft beer market in the U.S.”

 

6. Trulieve Enters its Fifth State with Two Acquisitions in Pennsylvania

In September, multi-state operator Trulieve (whose most significant foothold is Florida’s medical cannabis market), announced it had entered into definitive agreements PurePenn LLC and Pioneer Leasing & Consulting LLC and Keystone Relief centers (dba Solevo Wellness), according to a press release. The deals are pending closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

The move will create Trulieve’s vertical integration in Pennsylvania—with three retail licenses and 35,000 square feet of cultivation (with plans to expand to 90,000 square feet by Q1 2021). 

According to the press release, “Under its current 100% wholesale model, PurePenn’s sizeable cultivation footprint supplies an extensive distribution network, including Solevo and other private and public medical marijuana companies.” 

 

7. Stem Holdings Acquires Driven Deliveries

In a data-centric rebrand, multi-state, vertically integrated operator Stem Holdings announced its definitive agreement to acquire Driven Deliveries.

The $31 million deal emphasizes a growing trend in an increasingly contactless COVID-19 economy: delivery.

“In May 2020, Driven Deliveries reported it notched an 18% increase in new consumers over April and a more than 20% increase in gross collections,” CBT reported. 

“The story of cannabis M&A in recent years has been one of market share and multi-state expansion. Now, with capital markets running dry and a global pandemic continuing to exert economic pressures across the board, the strategy is tightened. Technology assets can help build a vertically integrated portfolio in different ways than pure geographic reach,” according to CBT’s report.

 

8. Columbia Care Acquires The Green Solution

Multi-state, vertically integrated cannabis company Columbia Care closed its transaction with The Green Solution, one of Colorado’s largest vertically integrated operators, in September, bringing Columbia Care’s footprint to 95 facilities open or under development in the United States and European Union.

According to a press release, “The TGS acquisition establishes Columbia Care as the leader in the $1.75B Colorado market, the second largest cannabis market in the world. With 23 dispensaries, many located in the Denver metro area and tourist destinations such as Aspen, TGS supplies its own dispensaries along with its wholesale distribution network from its six operational cultivation facilities and one highly automated manufacturing facility. Additionally, a Columbia Care affiliate was recently awarded the opportunity to pursue a marijuana hospitality business license in Adams County, one of the first consumption lounges in the state.”

 

9. Verano Holdings Acquires AltMed

In November Verano Holdings announced it would acquire Florida-based AltMed, which would form one of the largest privately held cannabis companies in the United States, according to a CBT report.

Verano, which is vertically integrated in 12 states, made headlines in 2019 when multi-state operator Harvest Health & Recreation announced plans to acquire the company. At the time, the deal would have brought Harvest to 200 cannabis facilities in 16 states. And combined, the megadeal would have made Harvest one of the largest operators in the United States. However, in March of this year, the two companies announced their mutual termination of their Business Combination Agreement., citing COVID-19 and regulatory challenges.

The AltMed merger takes Verano in a new direction in Arizona and in Florida, where Verano had divested its assets in the Harvest transaction, Verano CEO George Archos said. “Florida was always an attractive market for us. They have a great patient base, a great population and limited licenses. In Florida, you have to basically depend on yourself in order to succeed. It’s a vertically integrated business, so you have to produce all your own flower and all your own products to sell through your stores, which is something that we’re very good at, and so is AltMed,” Archos told CBT.

 

10. High Times Gets Into the Retail Game

Hightimes Holdings Corp., which publishes the cannabis magazine High Times, announced on April 28 a definitive agreement to acquire 13 California cannabis retail licenses from Harvest Health & Recreation, according to a press release.

The mostly stock-based transaction would make High Times a significant retailer player in the United State’s largest cannabis market “overnight,” according to the April release. The intention is to rebrand the Harvest dispensaries to become “High Times destinations,” leveraging its iconic brand its built over more than 45 years.

However, since April, the deal has been amended to be valued at $67.5 million and include 10 dispensaries, according to Green Market Report. And in September, Hightimes lost its lease on two San Francisco retail locations due to non-payment of rent, according to SF Weekly.

Editor’s note: Bookmark this pagefor more news on the latest mergers and acquisitions in the cannabis industry.

While the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) space in the cannabis industry has significantly slowed in 2020, it certainly hasn’t stopped—not even during a pandemic.

According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, “a drop in company valuations complicated by the coronavirus-triggered capital squeeze” were the two major reasons for the slowdown. Still, S&P Global reports U.S. and Canadian cannabis and cannabis-related companies completed 124 deals in 2020, worth a combined $615.1 million—compared to 249 deals in 2019 and 324 deals in 2018.

We also learned this year, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) whistleblower, that “U.S. Attorney General William Barr was motivated by his personal dislike of the cannabis industry when he launched multiple Antitrust Division merger investigations into nearly a dozen cannabis deals last year,” Cannabis Business Times reported in July. According to Eric Berlin, co-chair of Denton’s Cannabis Practice, “Many of the cannabis mergers under investigation did not get closed … due to these additional costs and time delays, and now, not only are the companies involved left with little to no recourse, but the DOJ’s actions have dramatically slowed the M&A activity in the industry.”

However, recovering valuations and renewed investor interest are expected to increase deals in 2021, according to the S&P Global. Not to mention, it was a monumental year for cannabis legalization in the U.S. And, cannabis businesses in most states and provinces were considered essential services. As we wait to see what 2021 deal-making brings, we’ve rounded up some of the most notable deals that closed, and those that fell through, in 2020.

 

1. Cresco Labs Acquires Origin House

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Cresco Labs officially closed its acquisition of Canada-based cannabis company Origin House. The deal was originally valued at C$1.1 billion, though the deal’s value ended up being lower amidst declining stocks and antitrust review delays. Perhaps the biggest cannabis transaction in the year, the move paved the way for Cresco Labs’ entry into the United States’ largest cannabis market: California.

“The acquisition of Origin House makes Cresco a leading wholesale distributor in California, selling into over 575 dispensaries, representing approximately 65% of California’s storefront dispensaries. Origin House’s Continuum distribution platform distributes 13 third-party brands, including Kings Garden,” according to a press release.  

Cresco Labs’ brands are currently distributed in seven states, including Arizona, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

 

2. Cresco Labs Terminates Tryke Companies Purchase Agreement

In September 2019, Cresco Labs announced its intention to acquire Tryke Companies, which included the Reef Dispensary portfolio in Nevada and Arizona. The purchase consideration at the time was $252.5 million for Tryke’s operating assets, plus $30 million for the company’s real estate assets. However, in April 2020, the agreement was terminated mutually, according to a press release.

Cresco Labs CEO and Co-Founder Charlie Bachtell said, “Our acquisition of Tryke has been impacted by regulatory delays, a decline in capital markets, and now COVID-19, which brought additional risk to this transaction. Given these events, we feel the resources previously targeted for this transaction are better invested in our existing markets, where we have high visibility and certainty of return on capital.”

 

3. Canopy Growth Corp. and Acreage Holdings Amend Merger Terms

Canopy Growth made global headlines and sent stocks surging in April 2019 when it announced it would acquire Acreage Holdings for $3.4 billion with one significant contingency: the United States federally legalizes cannabis. At the time, Acreage Holdings held licenses in 20 states, and shareholders were expected to receive a $300-million upfront cash payment when the deal closed. Acreage was also to gain access to Canopy’s Tweed and Tokyo Smoke brands.

Since the announcement, Canopy CEO Bruce Linton was terminated. And in June, the Canopy/Acreage deal was amended. Still contingent upon federal legalization, the value of the deal was brought down to $843 million, with an upfront payment of $37.5 million to Acreage. And the same update, Acreage CEO Kevin Murphy announced his resignation, though he still serves as chairman and sits on the board of directors. Bill Van Faasen was appointed interim CEO. 

 

4. Curaleaf Acquires Grassroots

In a $700-million deal, Curaleaf acquired Grassroots Cannabis in late July. According to the company’s executive chairman on CNN Business in July, the acquisition makes Curaleaf the biggest cannabis company in the world, based on its reported $1 billion in annual revenue.

Curaleaf is now operational in 23 states, with 88 operational dispensaries and 22 cultivation sites with 1.6 million square feet of cultivation capacity.

“Many of the MSOs have … retrenched into markets where they were performing well or where they have capital to build out, whereas Curaleaf has really continued to keep our foot on the accelerator and expand into more markets—given where we have a strong balance sheet and we can actually take on those projects,” according to Curaleaf CEO Joseph Lusardi.

 

5. Aurora Cannabis and Aphria Make More Moves Into the U.S.

Canadian cannabis powerhouses Aurora Cannabis and Aphria strengthened their footholds in the U.S. cannabis market this year.

Aurora Cannabis completed its acquisition of Reliva LLC, a hemp-derived CBD manufacturer that sells products in the United States, in May.

And this month, Aphria closed its acquisition of SweetWater Brewing Company, a U.S.-based independent craft brewer. According to a CBT report: “Aphria plans to introduce its adult-use cannabis brands, such as Broken Coast, Riff, Soleil and Good Supply, to the U.S. market as cannabis-free beverages through SweetWater products and harness SweetWater’s expertise in what [Aphria CEO and Chairman Irwin Simon] said is the growing, $29-billion craft beer market in the U.S.”

 

6. Trulieve Enters its Fifth State with Two Acquisitions in Pennsylvania

In September, multi-state operator Trulieve (whose most significant foothold is Florida’s medical cannabis market), announced it had entered into definitive agreements PurePenn LLC and Pioneer Leasing & Consulting LLC and Keystone Relief centers (dba Solevo Wellness), according to a press release. The deals are pending closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

The move will create Trulieve’s vertical integration in Pennsylvania—with three retail licenses and 35,000 square feet of cultivation (with plans to expand to 90,000 square feet by Q1 2021). 

According to the press release, “Under its current 100% wholesale model, PurePenn’s sizeable cultivation footprint supplies an extensive distribution network, including Solevo and other private and public medical marijuana companies.” 

 

7. Stem Holdings Acquires Driven Deliveries

In a data-centric rebrand, multi-state, vertically integrated operator Stem Holdings announced its definitive agreement to acquire Driven Deliveries.

The $31 million deal emphasizes a growing trend in an increasingly contactless COVID-19 economy: delivery.

“In May 2020, Driven Deliveries reported it notched an 18% increase in new consumers over April and a more than 20% increase in gross collections,” CBT reported. 

“The story of cannabis M&A in recent years has been one of market share and multi-state expansion. Now, with capital markets running dry and a global pandemic continuing to exert economic pressures across the board, the strategy is tightened. Technology assets can help build a vertically integrated portfolio in different ways than pure geographic reach,” according to CBT’s report.

 

8. Columbia Care Acquires The Green Solution

Multi-state, vertically integrated cannabis company Columbia Care closed its transaction with The Green Solution, one of Colorado’s largest vertically integrated operators, in September, bringing Columbia Care’s footprint to 95 facilities open or under development in the United States and European Union.

According to a press release, “The TGS acquisition establishes Columbia Care as the leader in the $1.75B Colorado market, the second largest cannabis market in the world. With 23 dispensaries, many located in the Denver metro area and tourist destinations such as Aspen, TGS supplies its own dispensaries along with its wholesale distribution network from its six operational cultivation facilities and one highly automated manufacturing facility. Additionally, a Columbia Care affiliate was recently awarded the opportunity to pursue a marijuana hospitality business license in Adams County, one of the first consumption lounges in the state.”

 

9. Verano Holdings Acquires AltMed

In November Verano Holdings announced it would acquire Florida-based AltMed, which would form one of the largest privately held cannabis companies in the United States, according to a CBT report.

Verano, which is vertically integrated in 12 states, made headlines in 2019 when multi-state operator Harvest Health & Recreation announced plans to acquire the company. At the time, the deal would have brought Harvest to 200 cannabis facilities in 16 states. And combined, the megadeal would have made Harvest one of the largest operators in the United States. However, in March of this year, the two companies announced their mutual termination of their Business Combination Agreement., citing COVID-19 and regulatory challenges.

The AltMed merger takes Verano in a new direction in Arizona and in Florida, where Verano had divested its assets in the Harvest transaction, Verano CEO George Archos said. “Florida was always an attractive market for us. They have a great patient base, a great population and limited licenses. In Florida, you have to basically depend on yourself in order to succeed. It’s a vertically integrated business, so you have to produce all your own flower and all your own products to sell through your stores, which is something that we’re very good at, and so is AltMed,” Archos told CBT.

 

10. High Times Gets Into the Retail Game

Hightimes Holdings Corp., which publishes the cannabis magazine High Times, announced on April 28 a definitive agreement to acquire 13 California cannabis retail licenses from Harvest Health & Recreation, according to a press release.

The mostly stock-based transaction would make High Times a significant retailer player in the United State’s largest cannabis market “overnight,” according to the April release. The intention is to rebrand the Harvest dispensaries to become “High Times destinations,” leveraging its iconic brand its built over more than 45 years.

However, since April, the deal has been amended to be valued at $67.5 million and include 10 dispensaries, according to Green Market Report. And in September, Hightimes lost its lease on two San Francisco retail locations due to non-payment of rent, according to SF Weekly.

Editor’s note: Bookmark this pagefor more news on the latest mergers and acquisitions in the cannabis industry.