 We are Pro Cannabis Media. Hi, everyone. Welcome to We Talk News. I'm Jimmy Young, the founder of Pro Cannabis Media. And I'm Kurt Dalton, the founder of cannabis.net. Every week, Kurt and I get together to review some of the biggest stories in the cannabis industry. He and I talk about them. We have a few comments, and then we get reports from Canada, New York, and Washington, D.C. And this week's No Different, Jimmy. We finally have Vermont moving toward recreational cannabis with retail opening in their state. We have an old state and a new state, Colorado and Illinois, both setting cannabis sales records in July, as well as multiple efforts to legalize the cannabis plant in America, including our friends, Steve DiAngelo, getting involved. But first, let's go to Deborah Borechart in New York to check on the financial weed scene. Deborah? Thanks, Kurt. Thanks, Jimmy. Well, things seem to keep going the wrong way for Charlotte's Web. This week, the CBD company reported that their revenue fell from $25 million in the 2019 second quarter to $21.6 million for the 2020 second quarter. The company also delivered a net loss of $14 million for the quarter versus last year's net income of $2.2 million. Fire and Flower delivered second quarter revenue of $28.6 million. Unfortunately, they also reported a net loss of $29.1 million. Trueleave is stepping out of Florida and into Pennsylvania. They're buying Pure Pen and Pioneer Leasing and Consulting, as well as dispensary operator Keystone Relief Centers. Trueleave agreed to acquire Pure Pen for an upfront payment of $46 million. And that's the big news this week. I'm Deborah Borechart from the Green Market Report for We Talk News. Here's something that is newsworthy and very disturbing for the cannabis industry. Twitter is getting in bed with the Fed's Substance Abuse Initiative. Now, when you go on Twitter and you search cannabis or marijuana, immediately you get a notice from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. It says, if you know someone who's struggling with substance abuse, you are not alone. Then, there's a link to that Federal Health Services Administration. Cannabis advocates are upset because there is no such link when you search alcohol or vodka, for instance. The point is, again, there actually is a way to use cannabis responsibly, and not everyone who uses weed needs substance abuse assistance. Kurt, here we go again. Hold on, Jimmy. Twitter, let's search for big breasts. Oh, I'm sorry. Are we supposed to show ads and pictures now and tell us we have problems? When is Twitter a platform to decide that if you're searching for cannabis, which is legal in, again, 33 states, some territories becoming legal, that you should see an abuse ad? That is ridiculous. I agree with the cannabis people that, under no circumstance, should Twitter have that discretionary decision-making on a word like cannabis or marijuana. The federal government has been funding substance abuse studies for decades about cannabis, and they're still looking for a connection, and they just can't find it. Just in case you didn't know, that same federal administrative group is calling for a rule change on drug testing for federal employees. That group wants to test hair follicles for remnants of drug use. Now, in the past, testing hair follicles has been deemed unreliable because remnants can last on or in your hair follicles for months after you stop using it. This is especially true if your hair happens to be darker because you are a member of the black or Hispanic communities. Kurt, here's another example of what they call systematic racism in our federal government. Absolutely, and it's completely unnecessary if you take out the part about darker hair. Why are you testing someone that I think hair follicles up to 90 days? Why would you care if they used cannabis two and a half months ago if they're interviewing for a job or doing some sort of service that would require like driving a bus or a large vehicle? So again, there's just no basis. Everyone seems to be going in the correct direction except the small anti-pot groups that make headlines for these outrageous, relatively stupid things they want to do. Exactly, and you know there are a few initiatives that are ongoing to make cannabis federally legal and we just found out that the U.S. House of Representatives that was supposed to vote on the Moor Act before the end of September has now pushed that off until after the election which really makes sense because let's face it, anything that the House does, the Senate is going to say no to. Now, there's another branch of the government that perhaps those who are using the federal laws to perhaps motivate them to get rid of those federal laws and who else but Steve DiAngelo was leading that fight. The last prisoner project has filed an amicus brief in Washington v. Barr as in William Barr, the Attorney General. It's a landmark lawsuit challenging the fact of that legality of the federal law that keeps cannabis. In this brief it says, quote, our country's federal marijuana policy needlessly entangles millions of people in the criminal legal system at a tremendous societal cost. We also know that the unjust burden of these misguided policies disproportionately falls on the most vulnerable segments of our society. So Kurt, can the Constitution be the key to getting cannabis descheduled and maybe even legalized federally? It has until this point. They've tried different challenges along this line all the way from medicinal purposes and the right to medicine and challenging. And basically the federal dodge kicks it back out and says, it's not that I don't agree with you, but this is not the court to hear this type of motion and just kind of gets dragged out and delayed. Now Steve has been through this process with the U.S. government for over 30 years. So I salute him and he's a friend of the show and I hope you can't fire enough cannons at this subject. So whether it's through voting, whether it's through politicians making a law or even if it's Steve or someone like him filing a lawsuit that changes it on a ruling. Let's try it and let's support Steve and I hope it's successful, obviously. In the meantime, there's other news coming out of Washington D.C. So let's go down to the Vote Pro Podcasts own Phil Adams for the D.C. Report. Phil? Hi, I'm Phil Adams from Vote Pro Podcasts and this is the Weed Talk News D.C. Report. Seven members of Congress, along with several pro-cannabis advocacy groups, have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a lawsuit against the Drug Enforcement Agency. Lawmakers filed an amicus brief in support of the suit, originally brought in 2017 by a coalition of medical marijuana patients and pro-legalization activists. The brief reads in part, quote, this court must take action to remedy the unconstitutional system that has unfairly burdened petitioners and similarly situated patients who lawfully use medical marijuana. The Supreme Court justices will decide next month whether to grant a hearing. The House of Representatives will not be voting on a bill to legalize cannabis next week as planned. House Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer of Maryland said on Thursday that a floor vote on the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act scheduled for next week will be postponed until after the election. Hoyer explained that passing a continuing resolution and a COVID-19 relief bill were the more pressing issues. In the meantime, California Representative Barbara Lee, co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, said a delay on the more act vote could be used to get more House members on board. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says if you want to see marijuana legalized, you need to vote Democratic. In an interview with Leafley, Schumer said the differences between the two parties are like night and day, and that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will scuttle any attempt to bring a legalization bill to the Senate floor. While McConnell has stated in the past that he would not support marijuana legalization, he was instrumental in passing the 2018 Farm Bill that federally legalized hemp the non-intoxicating form of cannabis. That's the We Talk News DC Report for this week. I'm Phil Adams from Vote Pro Podcast. Believe it or not, Iowa is another state out there that is going to ask the DEA to make an exception to the federal drug laws before the end of the year. Why Iowa, you ask? Well, they are worried about their federal cash flow, and it might just be taken away because in that state they have medical marijuana there, and yes, they allow school children to take their medicine in school. Sure enough, when that happened in Maine, the feds revoked $3 million from vacation land. So Kurt, is the injustice about cannabis as a Schedule I drug ever going to change? Let's see, how many weeks till voting day? This administration is certainly not a friend of the plants, and you saw what happened in Maine, which is bordered on ridiculous. So they're trying it again, and Iowa is trying to preempt a federal movement if they do the same type of legalization for kids, especially with medicine. So it's a shame that states have to do this, but until there's an election and a possible change in government, this is what you have to do to get medicine to your kids, all natural plant medicine. It's incredible to me that we're still fighting this, but there's a lot of things that are incredible to me. In the meantime, Vermont, a state where you can possess cannabis legally is getting closer to setting up their adult use retail market. The House of Representatives in Vermont has passed that legalization bill, and now, ready for this, it's going on to their Senate. But in that Senate, they're expected to pass it and send it up to the governor, Phil Scott, perhaps by the end of this month. Kurt, that's good news for everybody in Vermont, who's really, there aren't that many people in Vermont, but they're all pretty cool, nice laid back people, you know. The irony is the whole state of Bernie Sanders, Bed and Jerry's and Fish do not have recreational cannabis. But I would be remiss because we're heading north if we didn't get our good friend Solomon Israel from marijuana business daily to give us his Canadian report on the cannabis scene. Solomon, take it away. I'm Solomon Israel from marijuana business daily international and this is the we'd talk news Canadian cannabis report Aurora cannabis is warning investors to inspect big write downs when it reports earnings next week. The producer expects to post impairment charges of up to 1.8 billion Canadian dollars Aurora also announced its new CEO last week Miguel Martin is the former CEO of Reliva and joined Aurora when it acquired that company earlier this year. Executive shakeups are also in the cards at Hexo corporation. This week the Canadian firm appointed its fourth chief financial officer in two years. Hexo posted a net loss of 19.5 million Canadian dollars last quarter. And the Canadian cannabis events firm lift has filed for bankruptcy after failing to raise enough money to repay us debt holders this month. Despite the bankruptcy lifts virtual expo is scheduled to take place in November. You can read all those stories and more at mjvisdaily.com. I'm Solomon Israel for marijuana business daily. A few final notes from the states New Jersey is opening up another medical dispensary and now has 11 operational in that state to other states in the meantime set monthly sales records for the month of July first year state Illinois top $63 million in sales in one month. And in Colorado they passed the $200 million mark in sales in the month of July. Oh and Kurt guess who is setting up a dispensary in downtown Chicago. Med men expanding to 2000 square feet. Is that enough room for social distancing and weed. In downtown Chicago it's called the miracle mile but what a great job Governor Pritzker has done in Illinois roll out to get this moving to get those kind of sales numbers and tax revenue which Illinois these are a third world country debt at this point. But look at the difference between Vermont main and even our home state Massachusetts with the slow rollout main voted on recreational two and a half years ago they approved it. They've yet they're about to open their first shop. So kudos to progressive governors who see this as a not only a healing and helpful product but also for the tax revenue. I think the word now is essential and speaking of essential. Did you know that college students are actually using this COVID thing as a gap year. And what are they doing during that gap year. They're applying for jobs in the cannabis industry or they're actually going to school to study cannabis. And the reason why is that is because the college in California enrollment is up and I suppose that comes as no surprise because jobs are available in the cannabis industry that continues to expand. So Kurt I guess you go to school now and then you come back and you teach your buddies about how to roll the joint the right way. I guess or wait wait college students are really interested in weed. Wow. Let's get that one rolling. So obviously it's nice to see him putting it a little bit into education and say hey maybe I can make some money in this industry whether it's it's growing or marketing or learning about how the plant works or extraction. That's obviously a plus. And people are seeing what sells where the jobs going to be when this ends or continues is cannabis sells men men's opening. I don't know where they're getting the money the terms of their $20 million loan were ridiculous. They have to hire people for grows and for retail. So good for the college kids to not only smoke it but to study it. There you go. Hey it's all about education and science anyway and that'll do it for this week's weed talk news. I'm Jimmy Young from Pro Cannabis Media and I'm Kurt Dalton with cannabis.net. Remember it's a whole new world of weed out there. Use it responsibly. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. Google Play and our friends at clnsmedia.com and our flagship cannabis.net. So subscribe share and like our videos on all the social media networks out there including LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook the weed tube and YouTube. We talk and in the weeds are two productions of pro cannabis media supported by revolutionary clinics. One of the top medical cannabis dispensaries in the Massachusetts area now with three locations in greater Boston to in Cambridge and one on Broadway in Somerville Rev clinics has a patient first mission. They will customize your needs as a medical patient with the proper titration and combination of strains flavors and products Rev clinics where the patient comes first. We are pro cannabis media.