ATLANTA, Georgia – June 12, 2019 – PRESS RELEASE – Surterra Wellness, one of the fastest growing health and wellness companies in the United States, has announced that former Patrón Spirits CEO Ed Brown has joined the company as executive director. Brown is a key addition to the top talent Surterra has attracted to help build the company’s global brand recognition and shape its positioning in a dynamic cannabis market. In coming months, Brown will also join Surterra’s board of directors, and in that capacity will assist in furthering strategic partnerships and the company’s global strategy.

“I couldn’t think of a more capable and accomplished leader in business to join our executive team. Ed Brown brings over two decades of superior brand building expertise, developing a global luxury brand known for high quality and serious market share,” said Surterra Chairman and CEO William “Beau” Wrigley, Jr.. “We are thrilled to welcome Ed to Surterra and are energized by his ideas and perspective on how we can advance our goals of delivering iconic brands and high-quality cannabis products to our growing global consumer base.”

Brown previously served as the president and CEO of The Patrón Spirits Company, until retiring last year after nearly 20 years at the company. Under his leadership, Patrón grew from 25,000 cases sold in 1989 to more than 4.25 million in 2018, and is currently the top-selling ultra-premium tequila in the world and the most profitable spirits company in history. Brown will bring his expertise in the premiere spirits business to Surterra’s strategic global brand building, marketing, operations and sales execution.

“Surterra is setting the standard as a trusted leader in the cannabis industry with gold-standard business practices and an impressive slate of brands designed to satisfy the diverse needs of patients and consumers across the U.S., and soon in international markets,” said Ed Brown, executive director of Surterra Wellness. “Over the past six months, I’ve watched Beau execute on his vision with strategic acquisitions and partnerships to bolster innovation and accretive value. I believe in Beau’s vision and the all-star leadership he has in place to propel Surterra forward so much that I not only invested, I joined the company to help build its world-class sales and marketing team."

NEW YORK, June 17, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PRESS RELEASE -- RYAH Medtech Inc. has announced that it has signed an agreement with Northern Green Canada Inc. for the distribution of the RYAH dose-measuring dry herb vaporizers and RYAH proprietary dry herb cartridges in Canada.

“I am pleased to announce the commencement of RYAH’s footprint in Canada via our new distribution agreement. Northern Green Canada is a best-in-class LP with strong European ties that complements our model of delivering IoT devices along with AI powered data analytics in the medical plant industry. We are focused on commercial relationships that will accelerate commercialization of our products abroad, and the agreement with NGC is the first step towards achieving that goal globally,” said Gregory Wagner, CEO of RYAH.

The RYAH vaporizer is a dose accuracy and control device that is able to precisely measure the amount of vapor a patient inhales. By capturing the complete plant strain lab results in conjunction with unprecedented temperature and dose control, RYAH creates a consistent and reliable vaporizing experience along with real-time, state-of-the-art data collection and analysis. The RYAH cloud solution provides doctors and patients with the ability to track which plant strains work best for their specific needs, while continuously collecting data for growers, pharmacies, laboratories and pharma companies to help improve the effectiveness of medical plant dosing. The data is integrated into RYAH’s big-data, AI platform, identifying correlations between plant strains and medical indications.

RYAH is targeting entering into similar agreements in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region in due course.

NEW YORK, June 17, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PRESS RELEASE -- MTech Acquisition Corp., the first U.S.-listed Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) focused on acquiring a business ancillary to the cannabis industry, and MJ Freeway LLC, a seed-to-sale regulatory compliance technology provider and developer of the cannabis industry’s first enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform, announced they have completed their previously announced business combination—becoming the first compliance technology company in the cannabis space to be traded on Nasdaq.   

The business combination was approved at a meeting of MTech stockholders today. In connection with the transaction, MTech and MJ Freeway combined to form Akerna Corp. The shares of common stock and warrants of Akerna will begin trading on The Nasdaq Stock Market tomorrow, June 18, 2019, under the symbols “KERN” and “KERNW,” respectively. 

MJ Freeway Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jessica Billingsley will lead Akerna and is the first CEO to bring a regulatory compliance technology company in the cannabis space to Nasdaq. She stated, “As legalization of cannabis expands across the world, we believe it is imperative that businesses, patients, consumers and governments have the tracking and compliance technology they need to make informed decisions and comply with applicable regulations. We believe Akerna is well suited to meet these needs with the ability to scale rapidly across the world and offer a robust and innovative platform for growing industry demands.”

“We are very pleased to close this transaction and look forward to capitalizing on the substantial operating and financial benefits we believe the combination will create. From here, we believe we are well positioned to pursue our acquisition strategy to drive transformation for future growth in the regulatory technology sector,” commented Scott Sozio, CEO of MTech. “We believe comprehensive, compliant, scalable technology solutions will underpin the industry’s rapid growth, and serve as a backbone for sustained success.”

Roger McNamee, senior advisor to the Akerna Board of Directors, added, “Cannabis companies that want to be leaders are adopting MJ Platform, because it is the only ERP product with the technical foundation to support multi-line and multi-location operations. This transaction will enable MJ to better support customers manage high growth and complexity as the industry transitions from local to global scale.”

Upon the closing of the transaction, the former MJ Freeway equity holders exchanged their securities of MJ Freeway for securities of Akerna, and the former equity holders of MTech exchanged their securities of MTech for securities of Akerna. As a result the former MJ Freeway equity holders beneficially own approximately 62.7 percent of Akerna’s outstanding shares of common stock (including the shares held in escrow and unvested restricted shares); the former MTech stockholders beneficially own approximately 27.7 percent of Akerna’s outstanding common stock; and the investors in MTech’s previously-announced private placement that closed concurrently with the business combination beneficially own approximately 9.6 percent of Akerna’s outstanding shares of common stock. Legal counsel for the business combination was provided by Graubard Miller (MJ Freeway) and Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP (MTech).

In addition to her role as CEO, Billingsley also serves on the Akerna Board of Directors and is joined by senior leadership from MTech: Scott Sozio, Tahira Rehmatullah and Douglas Rothschild. The Board of Directors of Akerna also includes Emery Huang, Matt Kane, and Mark D. Iwanowski, who were formerly members of MJ Freeway’s Board of Directors. Roger McNamee, who served as senior advisor to MJ Freeway’s Board of Directors, will act as Senior Advisor to the Board of Directors of Akerna.

DALLAS, June 17, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via OTC PR WIRE -- PRESS RELEASE -- North American Cannabis Holdings, Inc. (USMJ) has issued an update on its plans with West Coast Venture Group, Corp.

WCVC is the owner and operator of Illegal Burger operating in cannabis-friendly Colorado and introducing their very own cannabis-infused menu. WCVC is a fully reporting company with audited financials reporting over $3 million in annual revenue. Based on a recent analysis published by WCVC, on conventional market comparable valuations, WCVC can support a $0.20 PPS. 

USMJ has piloted a concept restaurant called The AmeriCanna Cafe. In a strategy to expand the pilot, USMJ spun the AmeriCanna Cafe off into an independently listed company, Priority Aviation, Inc. In accordance with the spinoff deal, PJET is undergoing a name change in conjunction with its new business direction. Simultaneously, with the spinoff, USMJ entered into a partnership with WCVC to advance the AmeriCanna Cafe restaurant initiative. Based on WCVC’s momentum stemming from WCVC’s management expertise in the restaurant industry, USMJ and PJET management plan to give WCVC increased authority on the overall AmeriCanna Cafe initiative. USMJ will provide logistics services and PJET will work primarily as an investor on the AmeriCanna Cafe initiative.