Interstate Commerce.
Gov. Newsom from California is pushing his way forward with cannabis interstate commerce.
In 2022, California lawmakers passed a bill for cannabis interstate commerce that would allow the state to ship their flower to other states that also have interstate commerce for cannabis. The California bill allows interstate commerce as long as one of three triggers are met: 1) an act from congress allows it, 2) the DOJ indicates tolerance for it 3) the state AG determines that the state can't be put in further legal jeopardy by their actions. Earlier this week, Governor Newsom sent an eight-page memo to his state AG which articulated all the reasons why allowing interstate commerce for the state wouldn't put them in further jeopardy, and asked his AG for an opinion. What this action does is it speeds up the memo process from the state AG and once that occurs, it put a ton of pressure on the DOJ to make a comment on it. Oregon already has an interstate commerce law which only has the first two triggers that the California bill has, all while Washington is finalizing their cannabis interstate commerce bill which is identical to Oregon. If the California AG writes favorably for California, you can expect WA and OR lawmakers to push the DOJ for an opinion on the matter so that they don't miss out in this opportunity. All told, we don't believe we will see cannabis crossing state borders until we get an opinion from the DOJ. What Gov. Newsom's actions did do is speed up the process and almost guarantee that the DOJ will have to give commentary on the matter in 2023. The most likely outcome is that the DOJ will continue to harp on the idea that the federal government will not get involved where states are involved.
U.S. Cannabis Trends.
In the month of December, the United States cannabis market recorded ~80M in unit volumes (the largest month ever), which represents a sequential increase of 7.3% and a YoY increase of 12.2%. Unit volumes in the U.S. have grown nicely throughout the year, but the pricing pressure in every state has kept U.S. sales flat. U.S. sales came in at ~$1.85B in the month of December, which was a sequential increase of 6.7% but down 1% YoY. Total sales in 4Q22 were flat compared to 3Q22 and down 1.2% compared to 4Q21.
TILT IN Pennsylvania
TILT Holdings (TLLTF) announced today the Pennsylvania launch of Black Buddha Cannabis, a Black and woman-owned and led environmentally conscious, social impact-driven cannabis wellness brand. "The Standard Farms team's ability to expand its variety of new brands and product offerings to market indicates the growth and maturity of our operations," shared Gary Santo, CEO of TILT. "We revamped our in-house infrastructure last year, continually refining it to meet brand partner needs while bringing quality products to Pennsylvania. This is our first launch in the new year for Standard Farms and based on our established foundation in the market, we expect to successfully bring this exciting social impact-driven wellness brand to the community as part of our growing line of brand partner products."
