Opinion: The Weekly “Meh” 2-16-24

Delaware to remain dull, MedMen continues to bleed out, Nevada and Thailand both plan to follow through with plans

(Delaware, lol)

Time is a precious commodity here at Marijuana Venture, so when it comes to news briefs, we like let the more incremental coverage fall to the wayside.

Here is a candid, possibly even antagonistic, recap of the stories from the past week that we didn’t cover in full detail:

Photo by Gonzalo Arnaiz on Unsplash

Delaware delays adult-use launch

State regulators somehow found a way to make Delaware even more boring this week by delaying the launch of recreational cannabis sales to 2025. Recreational cannabis was legalized in 2023 and regulators were given until November 2024 to issue licenses. But the regulators caught a glimpse of their shadows as they left their dens this week and decided that retail and lab licenses won’t be available until March 2025. Apparently, the head regulator told Delaware Public Media that the commission doesn’t know how to award the licenses (i.e. it’s job) and will need at least another year of cashing checks from taxpayers to figure it out.

More layoffs hit MedMen

Shocking news hit earlier this week that MedMen still had employees. Needless to say, the company quickly cut the recently discovered 25 employees from its Chicago retail store.

All jokes aside, I sincerely wish the laid-off staff good luck in their future endeavors.

The layoffs were after the company laid off most of its staff earlier this year. An anonymous source told MJBiz the store had less than 20 items on its shelves as the company owes money to “every brand in Illinois.”

Las Vegas still expecting more consumption lounges

For nearly two years, Clark County’s first consumption lounge has been set to open in the next two weeks. This time they really, really mean it.

Nevada regulators legalized consumption lounges in 2021 and then scrambled to find every conceivable reason to delay the businesses. Which is odd because Nevada retailers sell nearly $1 billion in cannabis products to the 35 million or so vice seekers — roughly 10 times the state population — visiting Las Vegas every year, and they have practically nowhere to legally consume.

Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash

Thailand totally considering banning recreational cannabis

The never-ending coverage for stories such as Thailand proposing to reverse adult-use legalization is really what fuels me to put this weekly op-ed together. Yeah, the Health Minister didn’t like people getting all zonked-up on doobies when he proposed the plan a few weeks ago and he shockingly still doesn’t like it and occasionally says bad things about it. Stories like this routinely flood the internet with tons of nearly identical articles, all regurgitating the same information from the initial news and all the weekly piecemeal updates all because someone said something that may or may not be of consequence to anyone.

Photo by Jas Min on Unsplash

Least appealing of the week

Didn’t take long to put this list of irrelevant nonstories together. Here’s this week’s batch of stinkers: South Carolina Senate poised to approve medical cannabis bill; Republican plan for medical marijuana left for dead in Wisconsin; an elected official in Oregon said something about rescheduling cannabis; and a proposed marijuana tax in Pennsylvania might provide tax revenue. All right and in that order: Please, in detail, tell me exactly how poised are they; so, nothing happened in Wisconsin, that’s new; no rescheduling news, but maybe Oregon can use its cannabis surplus to make cars like in that Cheech and Chong movie; so, there’s a chance that the proposed tax plan might not generate revenue?