Jan. 2022 - California Leaf

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CALIFORNIA New ‘California Weed Party’ Threatens to Withhold Taxes Rumors of a potential Boston infused tea party have surfaced when it comes to Cannabis operators feeling fed up with paying high taxes and getting little aid in return. With no solution in sight, the possible

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Berner and Weedmaps Announce New Cannabis-Friendly Social Media Platform

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Despite the massive opportunity before them, social media platforms like Instagram still refuse to budge when it comes to embracing Cannabis. In addition to paid advertisements for

THC products being fully prohibited, brands and individual users alike are seeing their accounts deleted for supposed policy violations concerning Cannabisrelated content. That’s something Cookies founder Berner and Cannabis technology company Weedmaps are hoping to change with the announcement of a new, forthcoming social media platform on marijuana. com where weed will be fully welcome. It will also mark the fruition of a long-gestating dream as an “Instagram of Weed” collectively conceived of by the prominent Cannabis technology business and the Bay Area rapper, was actually first announced via press release all the way back in 2014. The industry has grown by leaps and bounds since then, even as issues regarding both professional and personal usage of social media tied to Cannabis content have continued to plague everyone from big brands and craft growers, to professional Cannabis photographers and a rising generation of influencers as well. A statement publicizing the news named Berner as the executive director of the forthcoming endeavor, while also noting that the platform, which does not currently have an announced Users can join a new, launch date, forthcoming social media plans to utilize platform on marijuana.com a “Powered by where weed will be fully Weedmaps.com” welcome. rating and review system.

JAN. 2022

formation of a so-called California Weed Party has been posed by licensed state operators who feel trapped in a system that demands plenty in taxes but offers those footing the bill little to no representation. As a result, some in the industry are calling for a collective holdout on making tax payments to the state, which could equate to as much as $1.3 billion for this year. At the crux of the argument is the continual presence of an unregulated market which is able to thrive in part because it is not beholden to the taxes and regulatory burdens of its legal counterpart.

With California facing an estimated $31 billion budget surplus in 2022, advocates want to see their tax dollars put to work in service of the legal Cannabis industry. And if it doesn’t happen, big players like Flow Kana’s Michael Steinmetz are prepared to take drastic steps. In a Medium post published on Nov. 22, Steinmetz announced that he’d recommended to his board that Flow Kana place its estimated tax in escrow “in good faith” but to withhold payment “until we see real, actionable change.” Just how large this potential movement will grow remains to be seen.

Harborside to Combine with Urbn Leaf, Loudpack as StateHouse Holdings The nature of today’s still-young legal Cannabis industry means rarely a day goes by without some kind of merger or acquisition of note within the scope of the market. Rarely, however, do these activities happen on the scale of what’s next for the trio of Harborside, Urbn Leaf and Loudpack.

Theft and Illegal Sales Prompt San Francisco to Delay New Pot Tax Following complaints from local license holders, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance in December which will suspend the city’s Cannabis business tax for 2021 and 2022. Once signed by

San Francisco Mayor London Breed, the ordinance will delay the implementation of a 1-5% tax on Cannabis businesses that was set to go into effect at the start of next year. Approved by the city’s voters in 2018, the tax is now being postponed on the heels of yet another rash of recent thefts and robberies targeting Cannabis businesses across the Bay Area. In November, the longtime San Francisco Cannabis retailer BASA endured what is believed to be the establishment’s fifth burglary to date, when a group of armed individuals stole thousands of dollars’ worth of goods from the store.

In voicing his support for suspending the tax, Supervisor Rafael Mandelman’s office pointed to a Dec. 19 report published by the California Legislative Analyst’s Office which found that increased state Cannabis tax rates can be directly linked to illegal Cannabis sales.

One of the state’s more popular and prominent vertically-integrated Cannabis brands, Harborside will be asking its customers to call them by a new name following news that they plan to acquire top California Cannabis retailer Urbn Leaf and leading Cannabis manufacturer, cultivator and distributor, Loudpack. Once the ink dries on all the papers, Harborside and its new friends have announced that they will subsequently be known as StateHouse Holdings. A press release announcing the news details that in its new form, StateHouse “will be the largest and most developed Cannabis platform in the state of California,” while also highlighting that its managers project StateHouse to eventually have “the highest estimated annual revenue and brand market share among its current publicly-listed California peers.”

STORIES by ZACK RUSKIN @ZACK.RUSKIN for CALIFORNIA LEAF