You Booze, You Lose!

Canna is coming for your Liquor.

Daily Recap

“I lost a lot of friends with alcohol; I made a lot of friends with weed.” - Snoop Dogg

Increasingly popular alcohol breaks such as Dry January are helping to buoy the emerging U.S. cannabis market as more drinkers—especially younger ones—are perceiving cannabis to be a healthier and more enjoyable alternative to booze.

Research indicates that about a third of the Americans under the age of 25 who are doing the start-of-the-year detox are using cannabis. Weed sales also tend to rise more in January than in other months across states that are legal, per Bloomberg.

“Anecdotally, we’ve got a lot of people coming into our stores saying they’re not drinking for January and they’re upping their cannabis purchases.” Matt Darin, CEO Curaleaf

Let’s Go, Joe!

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand called on the Biden administration to ease the federal prohibition on weed Sunday, arguing the current law, which dates back to the 1970s, has “torn apart” too many lives.

The New York Democrat, along with Rep. Jerry Nadler and several state lawmakers, urged AG Merrick Garland and the DEA to deschedule cannabis on a national level, noting the drug is currently in the same classification as heroin and considered more dangerous than fentanyl.

Three Years later…

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) says she’s “very fed up with how long it is taking” to expand the state’s adult-use cannabis market with more licensed businesses, sharing that she’s already urged regulators to “go back to the drawing board” in an effort to approve hundreds of new retailers.

Tensions are already hot and marijuana license applicants are livid over continued delays in approvals, as well as the abrupt cancellation of a Cannabis Control Board (CCB) meeting on Wednesday, where regulators were expected to grant approvals.

Stocks & Stuff

It was another slow session in Cannaland as the sector continues to grind through a defined channel of higher highs and lows since mid-December. U.S. Cannabis ETF MSOS has rallied 56% in those six weeks—after falling 91% the previous 155 weeks.

Below, we’ll talk through today’s trading, check fresh sector comps, compare them to CPG + high-growth retail, take the pulse of the flows and a deeper dive into F-L-A.

All that and more, just scroll down.

SPY 0.00%↑ QQQ 0.00%↑ IWM 0.00%↑ MSOS 0.00%↑ PT Notional: $81M ($39M)

Top Stories