The Weekly Roll August 29th 2025

Happy Friday!

Welcome back to The Weekly Roll. I hope everyone had a lovely week! Here is what’s happening this week in cannabis and art:

Cookies Leaves MI : Six Cookies-branded cannabis stores across Michigan are closing this weekend as part of their operator's exit from the state's competitive market. The closures, affecting locations in Ann Arbor, Detroit, Jackson, Kalamazoo, and Oxford, come amid broader struggles in Michigan's oversupplied cannabis market where excessive competition has driven down prices. Article

Tactical Taxes : Cannabis companies are increasingly challenging Section 280E, a 1982 tax code that prevents legal marijuana businesses from deducting basic expenses like rent and payroll, creating tax burdens exceeding 70%. Major operators like Trulieve and Curaleaf have filed amended returns seeking hundreds of millions in refunds, arguing the provision originally targeting cocaine traffickers is unconstitutional when applied to state-licensed cannabis businesses. Article

Interesting Number : $6 billion. The total debt faced by the cannabis industry by the end of 2026, with top companies like Curaleaf, Ayr Wellness, and Trulieve accounting for $3.4 billion of that total. While some companies like Cresco Labs have successfully refinanced their obligations, others like Ayr Wellness are being forced to sell assets and wind down operations to satisfy lenders in what experts call a "debt time bomb."Article

Caught Stealing : An Egyptian doctor was sentenced to six months in prison for smuggling over 600 ancient artifacts into the US through JFK Airport, including items dating back to 1900 BCE that he falsely declared as goods worth only $300. Ashraf Omar Eldarir used forged provenance documents and fake photographs to sell the artifacts at US auction houses, with investigators finding the items still contained sand and dirt indicating recent excavation from archaeological sites. Article

Have a great weekend! 

Aidan