LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / September 1, 2021 / PRESS RELEASE / Planet 13 Holdings Inc., a vertically-integrated national cannabis company, has announced that it has entered into a definitive license purchase agreement with a subsidiary of Harvest Health & Recreation Inc. pursuant to which a newly acquired subsidiary of the company to be renamed Planet 13 Florida Inc. will purchase a license to operate as a Medical Marijuana Treatment Center issued by the Florida Department of Health to the seller, and no other assets or liabilities, from the seller for US$55 million in cash.

Licensed Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers (MMTCs) are vertically integrated and the only businesses in Florida authorized to dispense medical marijuana cannabis to qualified patients and caregivers. MMTCs are authorized to cultivate, process, transport and dispense medical marijuana. As of Aug. 26, 2021, there were 22 companies with MMTC licenses with 371 dispensing locations across Florida. License holders are not subject to restrictions on the number of dispensaries that may be opened or on the number or size of cultivation and processing facilities they may operate.

"Florida has long been one of our most coveted markets with over 20 million residents, 130 million annual visitors and incredible consumer demand already demonstrated in the medical program. It was important for us to enter the market prior to a transition to adult-use to put the pieces in place to capitalize on this market in both the short and long term," said Larry Scheffler, co-CEO of Planet 13. "We are excited to introduce our best-in-class retail experience and portfolio of popular products to the Florida market and to continue to build the Planet 13 brand across the United States."

"After a lot of planning on how we wanted to approach this market, now is the time for action. We are well capitalized to complete the initial buildout of our cultivation and retail plan which includes a network of neighborhood stores in priority metro areas to support future SuperStores in Miami, Orlando, and other tourist destinations," said Bob Groesbeck, co-CEO. "We have a successful track record of completing large retail and cultivation buildouts on time and on budget. This expertise combined with our differentiated, experience-driven retail and diverse product portfolio gives us confidence moving into the Florida market."

As consideration for the license, the company will pay US$55 million in cash to the seller, with an initial deposit therefrom of US$2 million to be delivered by the company and held in escrow by a third party escrow agent upon execution of an escrow agreement as promptly as possible after the date hereof. The transaction is subject to certain closing conditions including the successful close of the Trulieve Cannabis Corp./Harvest arrangement transaction, the Florida Department of Health's Office of Medical Marijuana Use (OMMU) approval for Planet 13 Florida to acquire the license and other customary closing conditions. If the foregoing regulatory approval is not obtained, the company and seller will have the right to terminate the agreement.

Beacon Securities Limited is acting as financial advisor to the company in connection with the license acquisition.

BOULDER, Colo. (Sept. 1, 2021) – PRESS RELEASE – As many as 70 million people in the United States wrestle with unsatisfactory sleep. But today, sleep sufferers across Colorado have a solution—Wana Optimals Fast Asleep gummies. Fast Asleep is the first product from Wana Brands’ new line of daily wellness products, Wana Optimals, that are steeped in science and crafted to help people achieve different health goals through the power of plants.

Leveraging proprietary encapsulation technology for quick onset in 5-15 minutes, the Wana Optimals Fast Asleep custom sleep formulation—powered by Wana’s ongoing research on minor cannabinoids and terpenes—is carefully crafted to address the root causes of sleeplessness, such as stress and physical discomfort, rather than simply inducing drowsiness, as with most sleep medicines. The majority of other products on the market are designed to knock a person out to sleep, while the Fast Asleep formulation is designed to get better sleep, faster.

Each fast-acting gummy contains 10mg CBD for calming and relaxing effects, and promoting REM sleep; 2mg CBN, which can lower stress, relieve tension, and alleviate physical discomfort; 2mg CBG for its relaxing and anti-inflammatory effects; 2mg THC, which works with the CBD to help regulate the body’s circadian rhythm; 1mg Melatonin, a sleep hormone to enhance the effects of these powerhouse cannabinoids; 30+ Specialized Terpenes, chosen via extensive user research for their sleep-promoting properties. 

“At Wana, we are fully committed to harnessing the power of the cannabis plant and delivering on the many promises it provides for different consumer experiences and benefits,” said Nancy Whiteman, CEO of Wana Brands. “To do this, we are looking well beyond the two most well-known cannabinoids THC and CBD, at the many other cannabinoids and terpenes produced by the plant that are known to have their own pharmacological effects. Wana Optimals Fast Asleep is our first offering meant to achieve specific results like better sleep. Why use a sledgehammer when you can use a scalpel?” 

Fast Asleep is the first product in the Wana Optimals’ line of daily wellness products that leverage the power of a variety of rare cannabinoids, including CBG and CBN, for their unique effects. As consumer education about and research into cannabinoids grows, demand for these potent and dynamic plant compounds will continue to spike. Wana is at the forefront of cannabinoid research and development, and its Optimals line stands as a leading-edge product. Wana Optimals Fast Asleep Gummies are vegan and organically sweetened. 

Fast and effective, Wana Optimals harness Thermodynamic Individual Molecular Encapsulation (TiME), a quick-onset technology from Azuca. While traditional edibles result in metabolism of the cannabinoids by the liver, Wana Optimals feature individually encapsulated cannabinoids with greater bioavailability that work at the molecular level to bypass the liver and enter the bloodstream immediately. This means onset in less than 15 mins for most and feeling sleepy faster. 

Fast Asleep gummies’ efficacy also depends in part on the suite of 30+ terpenes included in the Fast Asleep formula. Wana partnered with Abstrax and Effects Lab by Budboard to harness consumer data and AI algorithms to find correlations between strains — and their terpene profiles — that were noted by users to help with sleep. These terpene blends were replicated in the formulations used in the Fast Asleep product.

In 2019, Maryland launched regulated hemp production under the 2014 Farm Bill, and roughly 65 growers partnered with various higher education institutions to study the crop.

Eleven of those growers joined forces with the University of Maryland for a study that primarily evaluated hemp’s nitrogen requirements.

And now, more than two years later, the researchers leading that study have a message for farmers contemplating hemp production: use caution.

“We never said don’t grow it,” Dr. Andrew Ristvey, a commercial horticulture specialist with the University of Maryland Extension, told Hemp Grower. “But we were saying, ‘Be cautious because we don’t know where we sit with the future market.’”

Through the university’s research, Ristvey and his colleague, Dr. Nicole Fiorellino, an assistant professor and agronomy specialist with the University of Maryland Extension, discovered several issues with hemp production in Maryland that could diminish the crop’s economic viability in the state.

For starters, Ristvey said, Maryland has some of the most progressive nutrient management regulations in the country to protect the Chesapeake Bay.

“Not many people know about it that aren’t from Maryland, but farmers are very much aware of the nutrient management regulations,” he said. “They have to deal with them every year, and it’s a complicated process, but any new plant that’s being grown, especially with the potential for high production, the University of Maryland needs to do the research to find out what the nitrogen and phosphorus requirements are. Those are the two nutrients that are being monitored because of their potential to disrupt surface waters with nutrient pollution.”

Another issue, Ristvey added, is pest and disease management. The Mid-Atlantic region’s climate is hot and humid—the perfect environment for various pests and diseases that can befall hemp crops.

Not many pesticides or fungicides are labeled for hemp, and Ristvey said, especially in 2019, there was almost nothing farmers could apply to control pests and diseases, and any number of them could decimate a crop.

“The biggest insect problem that we have is corn earworm, which jumps over from the corn and gets into the hemp flowers, and then it will damage hemp flowers and they rot,” he said. “If you’ve got a rotten flower head, how are you going to sell that? We don’t know the mycotoxins, the fungal toxins that might be transferred over to the hemp oil if it’s being processed.”

Photo by Edwin Remsberg, Remsberg Inc.

Many of Maryland’s hemp farmers started growing floral varieties for CBD production, Ristvey said, and another potential pitfall is declining CBD prices—that is, if farmers can find anyone to purchase the biomass at all.

“All these farmers were looking at this as being a huge boom,” Ristvey said. “It was fantastic. Everyone was excited. October came around, everyone harvested their hemp, and the price dropped 25%. Farmers didn’t want to sell their crop because they wanted those prices back again. So, they held onto it. Some … were selling floral hemp or the flowers, which were [for] smoking, and that was relatively lucrative if you could find someone who was going to buy it from you.”

Although some processing companies have started up in the state, there is still a shortage of processors to turn biomass into finished CBD products, Ristvey said, which adds another complication to farmers’ plans.

“A lot of the processors dropped out and didn’t do what they promised,” he said. “There were a lot of bad stories associated with that, which was really unfortunate.”

At the end of the 2019 season, many farmers struggled to break even, let alone make a profit, Ristvey said.

“It was an unfortunate loss,” he said. “And with the prices continuing to fall past October 2019 and the amount of labor involved in production, … it wasn’t working out for farmers. … Certainly, I think there’s a lot of potential of this crop for so many different reasons, but we’ve got to find the processing, and we’ve got to make sure our farmers investing in this are actually making a profit.”

Proceed with Caution

In early 2020, Ristvey and his team started warning Maryland’s farmers that hemp may not be an economically viable crop in the state, at least under current market conditions.

“My colleague, Dr. Fiorellino, and I … were saying, ‘Look, if you’re going to get into this, you’ve got to be careful. You’ve got to be wise. Don’t get into it thinking you’re going to make a million dollars because there are a lot of externalities, [like] the upfront costs. Where are you going to sell it?’”

Some of the farmers who launched into the hemp market in 2019 dropped out in 2020, Ristvey said, and the University of Maryland is now refocusing its research on whether hemp fiber and grain may be more lucrative than CBD production for the state’s growers.

However, successful fiber production hinges on additional processors coming into the state—and many farmers are hesitant to grow hemp until processors are up and running.

“There’s some interest in processing coming in, but processing means biomass, and no farmer’s going to grow it unless there’s processing,” Ristvey said. “So, what comes first, the chicken or the egg? My colleague, Dr. Fiorellino, and [I] are trying to figure out how to utilize hemp in different ways as a tool to maybe do some nutrient management, pulling phosphorus out of the ground, … so we have biomass, and then processors might come in.”

In the meantime, Ristvey urges hemp farmers to do their research and have contracts in place to sell their crop before it’s in the ground.

“Have a signed agreement that whatever processor buys your stuff is going to pay the price they promised you, … so people aren’t caught off guard by growing all this hemp, processing it, and then having tons of it in storage, waiting to sell it,” he said. “That’s pretty much the bottom line to what Dr. Fiorellino and [I] are saying. … Be real careful stepping into this one because a lot of people have already gotten burned."