Curaleaf Holdings, Inc on Tuesday sent a letter to Aurora Cannabis Inc. shareholders urging them to accept its bid to take over the company. In the letter, Curaleaf CEO and Chairman Boris Jordan said Aurora shareholders “have an important choice to make about the future” of their investment. 

“Accept a 45% premium and become an owner of the world’s leading cannabis company with strong growth prospects. Or remain invested in a standalone business stuck in a multi-year turnaround plan whose own management has guided revenue and adjusted EBITDA lower next year.” — Jordan in the letter 

In a statement, Jordan described Aurora as “a shrinking business that is burning cash and getting less profitable by the day.”    

Curaleaf announced its hostile takeover bid of the Canadian company in August. The offer to shareholders would see the Curaleaf purchase all of Aurora’s issued and outstanding shares at $4 per Aurora Cannabis share, which Curaleaf said is a 45% premium to Aurora’s 30-day volume-weighted average price (VWAP) and a 110% to Aurora’s 30-day VWAP excluding balance sheet cash. 

Earlier this month, Aurora urged its shareholders to reject the proposal, saying it is debt-free and currently holds CA$149 million in cash, while Curaleaf has debts exceeding CA$1 billion.  

In the letter to Aurora shareholders, Jordan said combining the two businesses “delivers immediate value while allowing shareholders to participate in the future upside of the largest, most diversified global cannabis platform” and that a combined company “would create the global cannabis leader with operations across 17 countries, more than US$1.5 billion of last twelve-month revenue, nearly US$350 million of adjusted EBITDA and at least US$40 million of expected annual cost synergies.”    

In a September 2 statement, Miguel Martin, executive chairman and CEO of Aurora, called the would-be transaction as “harmful to Aurora shareholders as the hostile bid is inadequate.” 

“Shareholders of Aurora should understand plainly: Curaleaf is not offering you fair value for your shares, and your cash, your rights and your future upside are at stake,” Martin said in the statement. “Curaleaf is attempting to use Aurora shareholders’ own cash to help finance this bid, acquire Aurora’s assets at a discount and shift material risks onto our shareholders. The Board strongly and unanimously recommends that shareholders reject the offer, by taking no action and do not tender their shares. Aurora has been built for the long-term and staying with our Company is the right decision.”   

Ganjapreneur: Offering daily insights since 2014, the leading digital business journal for cannabis industry professionals. Subscribe to the newsletter to join our community of over 40,000 ganjapreneurs.

Source link

In December 2021, Malta became the first European nation to adopt a national adult-use cannabis legalization measure. The only other countries on the planet to adopt a national legalization measure before Malta were Uruguay in 2013 and Canada in 2018. Nearly five years after Malta modernized its cannabis laws, a lawmaker is calling for an independent review.

“Labour MP Mariah Meli has called for an independent, evidence-based evaluation of Malta’s cannabis legislation, saying concerns raised by residents about the impact of the reform on communities should be heard and addressed.” Malta Today wrote in its local reporting. “Meli said issues including cannabis odours and the location of cannabis-related premises close to homes and families needed to be examined in a “balanced manner”.”

“I believe the time has come for an independent, evidence-based evaluation of the 2021 responsible cannabis-use reform and its impact on health, young people, safety, and residents,” Meli said, according to the outlet.

Malta’s adult-use cannabis legalization model involves permitting people 18 years old and older to cultivate up to four plants in their private residences and possess up to 50 grams of cannabis for personal use.

National recreational cannabis sales are not permitted in Malta due to current European Union agreements that prohibit national adult-use commerce. However, adults in Malta can join one of the nation’s licensed cultivation associations and source cannabis legally.

As of the start of 2026, Malta has experienced an over 80% reduction in cannabis court cases related to simple cannabis possession post-legalization, significantly lessening the burden on the nation’s criminal justice system. Malta is a great real-time example of what happens, and doesn’t happen, when a country adopts national cannabis legalization.

“Malta has one of the lowest rates of cannabis use among young people in Europe, according to new EU data.” Lovin Malta reported last July. “Just 1.2% of people aged between 15 and 34 in Malta reported using cannabis in the past year, placing the country among the lowest in the European Union.”

“The figure stands in stark contrast to countries like Italy, where 21.5% of young adults said they had used cannabis over the same period, meaning more than one in five people in that age group.” the outlet also reported. It is worth noting that Italy has yet to adopt a national adult-use cannabis legalization measure.

Source link

In 2023, the Netherlands kicked off a multi-year experiment with regulated adult use cultivation and sales. The plan, which the country’s lawmakers first approved in 2019, is to collect data to determine whether to eventually make a regulated adult use system permanent. 

To that end, researchers published their first report on the pilot for the Dutch Parliament last week. While the short takeaway from the report is that it is too soon to say much that is definitive, the report still offers a glimpse into what is and isn’t working so far. 

First, some context: Ten municipalities were selected to participate in the pilot, as Cannabis Wire previously reported, and researchers will compare those ten with another ten municipalities that aren’t participating. In the participating municipalities, all “coffeeshops” (the tolerated storefronts that have long sold unregulated cannabis) have to sell cannabis only from selected growers.

From December 2023 to April 2025, shops were allowed to sell cannabis from both regulated and unregulated growers, as the regulated ones were just coming on board. This report is focused on what took place after April 2025, when the regulated system was fully in place.  

The Ministries of Justice and Security and Health, Welfare and Sport selected the Trimbos Institute, Breuer&Intraval, and RAND Europe to collect and compile data on the pilot, and to draft reports annually. In 2029, the government will assess the data and decide its next steps.

This first report begins by noting some early growing pains that appear to be easing with time. For example, the legal supply was initially perceived to be limited “both in terms of quantity and product diversity.” As “the availability of products from growers improved,” however, “concerns about the limited supply have diminished.”

There were also some “startup” issues with the seed-to-sale tracking system, which was seen as “complex and time-consuming, partly due to technical issues and limited compatibility with existing systems.” However, many of those issues “appear to have been resolved.”

Other areas will clearly need work looking ahead. 

On packaging and advertising, for example, stakeholders “report ambiguities in regulations and responsibilities,” so there isn’t consistency across shops. Therefore, the report notes that “more uniform rules and clearer agreements are considered necessary.”

A related issue is product potency with vapes, edibles, and concentrates, as “it is not always clear to users how strong these products are and what an appropriate dosage would be.” While the researchers note that there is no evidence that this has led to an increase in “health incidents,” stakeholders expressed “a need for clearer national guidelines, for example regarding maximum potency and information on packaging.”

Several other aspects of the experiment’s rollout have yet to offer any takeaways. For example, the researchers found no meaningful change in how many people visit coffeeshops, or how often, in either the participating or the comparison municipalities. They found “indications,” however, that visitors in the participating municipalities purchase more cannabis “per transaction” than they did when the researchers conducted a baseline assessment in 2022.

Still, researchers noted that “although visitors in the intervention municipalities purchase more grams of cannabis per visit, the frequency of use has not increased.”

Another area where little has yet changed is the illegal market. The one thing that researchers noticed is that the amount of hash bought outside of legal shops went up in participating municipalities and down in the comparison municipalities. “This may be related to the availability of regulated hash in the initial phase, although this cannot be established with certainty,” they note.

Overall, the report found that “stakeholders generally describe the functioning of the controlled supply chain as positive.”

Looking ahead, the report is clear that “further measurements are needed to assess whether observed trends persist or change over time, and to draw conclusions about the longer-term effects and policy implications of the experiment.”

Source link

Source link

The Netherlands is well known around the world for its rich history with cannabis. One could easily argue that Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, was the first international cannabis tourism destination. Cannabis consumers have traveled to Amsterdam to partake in local offerings for decades.

In recent years, the Netherlands has ceded, to some degree, its title as the world’s top location for cannabis. Several governments around the world have modernized their laws and regulations to permit various cannabis activities, including cannabis commerce.

Cannabis is now legal for adult use in Uruguay, Canada, Malta, Luxembourg, Germany, South Africa, and Czechia. Recreational cannabis is also legal at the state level in the U.S. in nearly half of the country’s states. Comparatively, while recreational cannabis activity has historically been largely tolerated in the Netherlands, it is not expressly legalized.

Regional adult-use cannabis commerce pilot trials are operating in ten municipalities in the Netherlands. The research-based pilot trials permit participating adults to cultivate, sell, and purchase cannabis in limited instances to gather data and information to help national lawmakers and regulators when crafting national policies. Pilot trials are operating in Almere, Arnhem, Breda, Groningen, Heerlen, Hellevoetsluis, Maastricht, Nijmegen, Tilburg, and Zaanstad.

According to reports from the Netherlands this week, researchers and lawmakers are finding that the unregulated cannabis market in the Netherlands is still thriving, which should not come as a shock given the limited nature of the pilot trials.

“Researchers are currently not seeing any significant differences between municipalities that are participating in the trial and the ones that are not, the first report since the start of the cannabis trial has stated. They do not want to draw any definitive conclusions as of yet.” reported NL Times in its local coverage.

“In questionnaires, cannabis users stated that they often buy their cannabis from outside the coffeeshops due to price, or because they can then buy more per purchase. Municipalities participating in the trial saw prices drop quicker than other areas; however, the price of hashish rose faster than in the other municipalities.” the outlet also reported.

The reported findings at this point should be expected by any objective observer. While the pilot trials are a great option for participants, a vast majority of cannabis consumers in the Netherlands are not participating in the trials. The fact that a proposed expansion of the pilot trial program to Amsterdam was previously denied by members of the Netherlands Parliament, and that the nation’s largest cannabis consumer market is effectively shut out of the pilot trial program, highlights how much more room for cannabis policy improvement there is in the Netherlands.

Until the Netherlands fully embraces the cannabis industry and has a regulated cannabis industry model that is more like what is in place in Canada or at the state level in some U.S. markets, the industry will obviously continue to cede considerable market share to the unregulated market.

Source link

Subscribe to Cannabis Wire Weekly

Source link

The multistate cannabis operator (MSO) Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. (TSX: CURA) (OTCQX: CURLF) announced Tuesday that it plans to launch a hostile takeover bid of Aurora Cannabis Inc. (NASDAQ: ACB) (TSX: ACB), a Canada-based global cannabis company.

The offer to purchase all of the company’s issued and outstanding shares includes cash and Curaleaf stock valued at $4 per Aurora Cannabis share, which Curaleaf noted is a 45% premium to Aurora’s 30-day volume-weighted average price (VWAP) and a 110% to Aurora’s 30-day VWAP excluding balance sheet cash.

“We believe this combination represents a win-win for Curaleaf and Aurora shareholders,” said Boris Jordan, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Curaleaf. “We are offering Aurora shareholders a unique opportunity to participate in a more highly diversified global platform and increase their exposure to U.S. regulatory tailwinds.”

Jordan said in the release that Curaleaf first approached Aurora on June 23, 2026, but that the company decided to make its intentions public after Aurora “refused to meaningfully engage.”

Meanwhile, Aurora Cannabis Inc. acknowledged the unsolicited takeover bid on Tuesday and confirmed the company had received letters from Curaleaf outlining plans for the takeover.

Aurora also contested the claims by Curaleaf that its management had refused to engage — “Aurora’s lead independent director did correspond with Curaleaf’s CEO, including as recently as July 24, 2026, noting that Aurora was focused on continuing to execute on its business plan over the short to medium term, and did not discourage an ongoing dialogue between the parties going forward,” the company said in its own press release on Tuesday.

“The Board intends to form a special committee of independent directors to consider the Proposal, with a view to determining the course of action that is in the best interests of the Company and all stakeholders,” the company said.

Ganjapreneur: Offering daily insights since 2014, the leading digital business journal for cannabis industry professionals. Subscribe to the newsletter to join our community of over 40,000 ganjapreneurs.

Source link

By Michael Sassano, Founder, Chairman GR, Interim CEO of SOMAÍ Pharmaceuticals

This is the first in a series. Each function gets its own deep dive.

Let’s be real about what medical cannabis actually is. Beneath the lush green canopy and the glossy brand jars, we are running a heavily regulated pharmaceutical machine built on endless paperwork, strict compliance, and mountains of data.

And guess what? That happens to be exactly what Artificial Intelligence eats for breakfast.

Over my next few articles, I’m taking us on a function-by-function breakdown across the entire enterprise — from finance, sales, and QA to cultivation, regulatory affairs, and the C-suite. We’re going to map out what AI obliterates, what it can’t touch, and what a hyper-lean, AI-driven medical cannabis operator actually looks like.

Spoiler alert: AI is taking over almost everything, except for the tiny sliver of operations where the law explicitly demands a warm body with a pen.

The Regulatory Floor: Why the Law Keeps Humans in the Building

Pharmaceutical regulators don’t care about your cool new AI tool. Under EU GMP Annex 11, every single computerized system touching product quality — your ERP, QMS, and LIMS — must be validated, generate an audit trail, and sit under a named, trained human who is legally on the hook for it.

The math is simple: AI takes the workload; an accountable human keeps the legal signature. That single rule is the filter for every department in this industry.

Department Breakdown: What Stays and What Shrinks

1. Finance: The Self-Driving Balance Sheet

Why do you have teams of people staring at spreadsheets when margins are razor-thin and vendors pay slow? AI runs the ERP, reconciles the books continuously, tracks aging receivables in real time, and hunts down cash flow gaps. You don’t need a finance department — you need one sharp administrator watching a dashboard.

2. Sales: AI Finds ‘Em, Humans Close ‘Em

The days of sales reps spending 80% of their week doing admin work are dead. AI bots identify pharmacy inventory needs, make first contact, and hand warm leads directly to a human closer. Once the deal is done, AI pushes the order through the pipeline and tracks the cash until it hits the bank.

3. Quality Assurance & Labs: Paperwork Gets Automated, Not the QP

An AI-driven QMS can track deviations and CAPAs 24/7. But under EU GMP law, the Qualified Person (QP) sign-off must remain human. AI flags the anomalies and prioritizes the issues, but a human QP takes the legal bullet for batch release. In the labs, AI speeds up testing analysis, cutting lab headcount down to the bare physical minimum.

4. Cultivation & Manufacturing: Data Over Instinct

Sensors and AI track plant health, environmental shifts, and yield predictions far better than a grower’s old logbook. While you still need humans on the facility floor for physical tasks (until robotics fully mature), decisions on genetics, lighting, and nutrient feeds will be driven purely by data — not gut feeling.

5. Warehousing: Robots Pick, Humans Validate

Robotic picking and packing take over the floor while AI manages shipping schedules and logistics paperwork. Under EU Good Distribution Practice (GDP), you still need one named Responsible Person (RP) to check compliance, but AI handles the heavy lifting.

6. Marketing: Fully Automated Except the Final Call

Labels, CRO-facing claims checks, and social media content all run through AI end to end. What stays human is one marketing architect who approves feel and direction — claims about a medicinal product still need a person accountable for what’s said publicly.

7. Pricing & Product: AI-Driven Feedback Loops

AI agents watch market pricing and demand trends across regional websites and feed that straight into decisions on which genetics to grow or which products to manufacture — faster and more accurate than a team of analysts.

The Executive, Legal, and Back-Office Reality Check

• Regulatory Affairs & Import/Export: AI can draft complex multi-jurisdictional filings for agencies like BfArM, Infarmed, or the MHRA, and auto-generate narcotics import/export permits for cross-border scheduled shipments. But the named Regulatory Lead and the licensed narcotics signatory still have to sign the final documents.
• Customer Service & Pharmacovigilance: AI handles routine pharmacy tickets and order updates. But the second a product complaint or adverse event hits, it routes to a human. EU law requires a named QPPV (Qualified Person Responsible for Pharmacovigilance) to legally report safety incidents — that role shrinks to one accountable person leaning hard on AI-drafted case reports, not to zero.
• IT Security & GDPR: Patient and prescriber data is sensitive-category data under GDPR. AI can monitor systems and flag anomalies continuously, but breach reporting and DPO-level accountability stay with a named person, not a dashboard.
• HR & Recruiting: Sourcing, resume screening, and scheduling are 100% automated. HR shrinks down to the human judgment calls — culture fit, disputes, and hard conversations.
• Investor Relations: AI can prep the numbers, draft updates, and flag trends worth raising. But the actual relationship with investors — the calls, the trust, the judgment on what to disclose and when — stays with whoever’s building the company. This one doesn’t shrink; it just gets better inputs.
• The C-Suite & Legal: Most executive work is just reading data and reacting. AI does that faster, cheaper, and without ego. Executive teams will shrink dramatically. As for legal? AI contract tools handle the NDAs and routine paperwork; lawyers only survive for the high-stakes battles that actually reach a courtroom.

The Bottom Line

The real question confronting global cannabis operators isn’t if AI is going to take jobs. The real question is: How few people do you actually need to run a multi-million-dollar, fully compliant medical cannabis company?

That’s what we’re going to map out in this series, function by function, with practical moves you can make today.

Which department in your business do you think is most vulnerable to an AI takeover first?

Source link

For decades, there has been one supplier of medical cannabis in the Netherlands: Bedrocan. That contract, however, has recently come to an end. The government is shifting away from a sole-supplier model and toward a landscape in which multiple companies can obtain licenses to supply medical cannabis. 

Source link

Licensed cannabis retailers in Canada set a new monthly sales record in June of CA$517.8 million, or about $374.5 million USD. This exceeds the $372.4 million USD generated by California during the same month, which means that Canada — at least for the month of June — became the world’s largest cannabis market, according to SF Gate.

As the world’s second-largest country by land mass, Canada is far bigger than California, but the territories have similarly sized populations. But while California’s cannabis industry has struggled with high taxes, strict regulations, local bans, and competition with a rampant illicit market, the Canadian market has continued growing with new businesses and overseas export opportunities.

California currently has 3.7 cannabis dispensaries or delivery services per 100,000 people, according to the report, while Canada has 7.9 cannabis stores per 100,000 people.

Los Angeles-based cannabis consultant Hirsh Jain told SF Gate that California had all of the advantages it needed to become a global leader in cannabis reforms, “Yet poor policymaking has turned what should have been the world’s premier legal cannabis market into a cautionary tale.”

Previously, Michigan outpaced California in total legal cannabis sales in 2024, although the California market still generated more revenue that year.

Ganjapreneur: Offering daily insights since 2014, the leading digital business journal for cannabis industry professionals. Subscribe to the newsletter to join our community of over 40,000 ganjapreneurs.

Source link