COPYCat!
"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness." - Oscar Wilde.
The cannabis space got to see a bit of a Twitter feud earlier this week. Cannabis brand Dogwalker, whose parent company is Green Thumb Industries, launched in 2016 and was advertised as a perfect mini joint package to smoke while walking your dog around the block. What a genius advertising move, and it quickly became a hot seller in the seven states it is sold in. Recently Trekkers, whose parent company is Trulieve, released what looks to be an identical product (I truly can't tell which one is the original and which one is the copycat). "We're in the early innings in the cannabis industry, and there's so much room for innovation and creativity," Ryan Marek, GTI's senior vice president of marketing, told Adweek. "It looks like the strategy here is to draft off the market leader, and we would rather our competitors create something new." I don't disagree with GTI here, but at the same time, competitors will do what competitors do.
M.D. cannabis prices are on the rise.
In July, Maryland saw medical cannabis growth of 2% on an MoM basis while seeing an 11% decline on a YoY basis which compares to -3% and -9%, respectively in June. The interesting news coming out of Marylands medical cannabis market was for the first time since the price per product peaked in August of 2021, this market saw price reflect positively for the first time in July, indicating up 4% MoM. We have seen almost every state have price deflation for the past year, with indications that more mature markets like California and Colorado will be the first to get out of this deflationary period, which is why it is very interesting to see this occur in Maryland. As most of the country is focused on inflation, the cannabis market in the U.S. is solely focused on the deflationary pressures their products are seeing as that remains the biggest headwind to the industry.
what is going on in D.c.?
MSOS was up ~7.74% yesterday with most of the cannabis companies up big yesterday.
We have been speaking a lot recently about what could happen in Washington before the next congress takes session with hopes that we get some type of incremental cannabis reform. At the same time, these are hopes that we have had for years with absolutely zero movements so to say we are pessimistic is an understatement. According to our Macro Policy Sector Head, JT Taylor, Senators Schumer, and Senator Booker spoke with two senior Republican Senators to try and find a place in September to put some type of SAFE+ to the Senate floor. It is thought that what hits the floor is some combination of the SAFE Act and the HOPE Act. Senator Booker would obviously like to get more social justice language in the bills but we are at the point where he might have to take a victory wherever it comes when it comes to cannabis.
