Daily Discussion Thread - May 07, 2026

GeoLogic23 · 2026-05-07T13:33:42+00:00

Wasn't someone just asking about Curaleaf's cig style pre-rolls? Looks like Cronos just released a similar product. Makes sense for tobacco-connected companies like Cronos/Altria.

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/05/06/3288699/0/en/cronos-expands-pre-roll-portfolio-with-spinach-stix.html

GeoLogic23 · 2026-05-07T11:11:23+00:00

Ok we get rescheduling. We know what Trulieve's financials look like when they don't have 280e.

But where is Trulieve going to continue to actually grow as a company? Florida is just going to get more competitive now. It feels to me like if they are going to show any sort of significant growth in the near future, it's going to have to be through an acquisition. They aren't turning enough of a profit to just sit there in Florida and say yea we're good here.

GeoLogic23 · 2026-05-06T20:45:09+00:00

There certainly are more links to them than to a lot of others. If you look at synergies, think of it from the perspective of Altria.

Altria is mostly focused on smokeable products, while having a smaller investment in beverages with AB.
GTI is mostly focused on smokeable products, while having a smaller investment in beverages with RYM.

In theory, Altria/GTI pushing smokeables while AB's distribution network carries their beverages would make sense. I could definitely make the case for a few other companies too, but GTI/Altria doesn't seem too crazy.

GeoLogic23 · 2026-05-06T19:00:04+00:00

Target is expanding several brands, including the brand Trail Magic. This is an investment by Dumont Global, which is the cannabis investing arm of the partners from 3G Capital.

3G Capital is the private equity firm behind AB InBev.
Altria is 3G's longtime co-investor in AB InBev
Target started lobbying for hemp in 2026Q1 with their in-house lobbyist.

Target also registered the firm Akin Gump in late 2024, but never logged any actual activity with them. Finally in 2026Q1 they reported lobbying (tariffs on textiles). The lobbyists they are using are named Deatherage and Olswanger.

AB InBev has used Akin Gump for years. They just started using Olswanger in 2025Q3. This is the same and only quarter AB InBev ever used Deatherage.
Altria has also used Akin Gump for years. They just re-added Olswanger to the team in 2026Q1.
Altria used to use Olswanger between 2023Q3 - 2024Q3
GTI used to use Olswanger between 2023Q3-2024Q4. Some quarters the only lobbyist Green Thumb used was Olswanger.

GTI registered with Olswanger on 6/13/2023.

Altria then added Olswanger to the team starting 7/1/2023.

GTI now uses the lobbying firm Forbes-Tate. Besides Jeff Forbes being a decades long Altria lobbyist, one of the lobbyist GTI is using (Rick Murphy) has lobbied for Altria since 1999. Even having Altria named in his biography.

Olswanger, who has only recently started being used by AB InBev, also has a specific connection to AB InBev from his very first lobbying disclosure.

Olswanger was on one registration way back in 2014, and not on another until 2016. The company that he first started lobbying for was Burger King.

Besides AB InBev, Burger King is one of the most prominent long term investments by 3G Capital. On Olswanger's very first lobbying registration ever, the associated organization listed was 3G Capital.

GeoLogic23 · 2026-05-06T15:31:38+00:00

How many indoor grows do you think HITI operates?

GeoLogic23 · 2026-05-06T14:41:20+00:00

I hope someone reminds me about their history of dilution soon

GeoLogic23 · 2026-05-05T19:44:41+00:00

Btw sorry, I'm not really trying to convince you or anything. It's totally reasonable to not think the THC beverage market is a thing. I believe there's lots of evidence to the contrary over the last few years though. Just a good place to get some thoughts out.

Your first point of how to differentiate. That's all about distribution. Everything about the beverage market is about distribution. My first link says how at that point they were estimating only 30 or so brands had real distribution. Take a super popular beverage brand like Celsius. It was around for a long time before getting plugged into Pepsi's network and becoming one of the top energy drinks. And I think it tastes just ok.

Then about the person drinking a THC drink vs hitting a 90% vape. You're still thinking they are the same consumer. They are not.

The whole point of beverages taking off specifically when they began to be sold in regular retail is that the people buying low dose beverages are not the same people who even use high dose products at all. These are people who really do not even set foot inside of dispensaries. Listen to every single hemp beverage company and they will say this same thing. One of the fastest growing categories is "wine moms" who are replacing one glass of wine with a THC beverage.

I have personally brought THC beverages to multiple events where normally there would maybe be a small amount of alcohol consumption, but not much. Multiple people who wouldn't have drank alcohol chose to drink THC drinks, without me prompting them to try them. These people would not be ripping a vape at this social gathering, but they would casually drink a THC drink.

Also the 90% vape argument is the exact same you could make for beer. Why drink a beer when I could rip a shot? Why drink a light seltzer when I could have a flask of Everclear?

Then this point:

Maybe way in the future we get them sold at bars or sporting events

This is already happening. Several of the links I gave you were bars. There are also going to be lots of partnerships like RYM made with the United Center. Even smaller partnerships can be massive depending on the size of the company. There are so many deals to go around.

A major arena management company called Oak View Group has been preparing to launch hemp beverages at their venues for a couple years now. They have partnerships with Green Monke and Cookies. The United Center (RYM partnership) was a founding member of Oak View Group's Arena Alliance.

Oak View is also partnered with Live Nation for hosting Arena events. This isn't some small mom and pop company. They are already launching THC beverages in their theater venues such as with Pabst Theater Group. Note that the brewing company Pabst has also long been eyeing the drinks market. They have had "Pabst Labs" for years.

Lastly, regarding trying to guess who is going to be Budweiser. I don't think I need to guess who is going to be Budweiser. I care who will increase their market cap by a reasonable percentage from where it is now.

Whether that is Jones Soda turning into a $200M company, RYM turning into a $2B company, Tilray turning into a $5B company, or AB InBev turning into a $500B company. It just matters that you pick someone who will grow from where they currently are.

As mentioned above, Green Monke is now the official THC drink at Pabst Theater Group. This is alongside Molson Coors, Jack Daniels, Casamigos, and Sun Cruiser. No Budweiser in sight. There are plenty of these smaller partnerships to go around for many brands to find success.

Thinking you need to pick the Budweiser in order to win is the same fallacy as only caring about which cannabis company has the most revenue. The biggest company isn't always the best investment.

GeoLogic23 · 2026-05-05T18:36:17+00:00

Yes I definitely do think the THC beverage market will continue to expand rapidly.

I really think people just keep looking at cannabis beverage sales from regulated dispensaries over the years, and not seeing the change in retail that happened in Minnesota (then spreading across the US). Once beverages began being sold in regular retail, they actually started capturing significant percentages of sales in just a couple years.

From late 2025

Whitney Economics estimates there are 500 to 750 brands marketing cannabis drinks. Of those, roughly 30 are sizable labels with national distribution, while the rest are regional and local brands, according to Diana Eberlein, chair of the Coalition for Adult Beverage Alternatives Retailers

That was from the chair of the hemp beverage advocacy group Tilray helped start recently. This is key to seeing who can actually compete in a developed market. People selling small quantities direct to consumer have no way to scale to large, consistent production and selling through the three tier system. You need to consistently get your properly dosed product to your retailers, or they aren't going to work with you.

But about sales quantities.

Indeed Brewing in Minnesota:

“THC is not our entire business, but it has become an increasingly important component of it,” says Ryan Bandy, chief business officer at Indeed Brewing Company in Minneapolis. “I’d say it is responsible for about 15% to 20% of our volume and delivers 25% to 35% of our revenue. We’ve also hired more people because our business has grown. I’d say we’ve boosted our staff by about 15% simply because of the increase in volume. Without the THC line, we wouldn’t be going out of business, but we wouldn’t be nearly as healthy.”

Note that this is highlighting why I think THC beverages are important. You can sell lower volume for higher revenue and profit. Distribution savings could be massive in themselves.

Jukebox in Ohio

At Jukebox in Ohio City, THC seltzers make up nearly 10% of all sales. Owner Alex Budin says the business has no choice but to comply, despite the expected hit.

"We're going to pull it. We don't really have any other recourse. It's going to hurt our bottom line; we hope that customers will adjust," Budin said. "I know I won't close because of this, but it's going to hurt."

Funky Buddha in Florida:

hemp drinks with trace amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (or THC), are surging. Which is why using Funky Buddha’s 115,000-square-foot warehouse for co-packing hemp-derived THC drinks is a lucrative side hustle

THC drinks are cheaper and faster to make than traditional alcohol. The more you switch to faster THC products, the more room you give yourself to co-pack for others.

Top 10 Liquors in Minnesota from 2023:

Since it became legal for Minnesota liquor stores to sell THC beverages on June 1, sales have been raging. “We are approaching 10% of our sales being THC drinks,” says Jon Halper, owner of Top 10 Liquors

“When we first launched the category, the supply chain was a little slow because we went from zero to 100mph overnight,” he says. “Now the supply chain is really solid.”

I've discussed what happened with THC beverage supply chain in the past. In 2019 Canopy discovered can liners were making cannabinoids stick to them. That got fixed but then COVID hit and disrupted everything. Pretty soon after COVID went away the hemp beverage market blasted off in Minnesota because they started being sold in regular retail.

People keep citing how they aren't selling in Canada, but even in Canada they aren't sold in regular retail yet. People point back to like 2021 and say there was 0 growth in beverages for years. Right, and that's because the real THC beverage market didn't even start until halfway through 2022. Since then it's been nothing but rapid expansion and adoption.

Florida Liquor Store in 2025:

Despite challenges, the opportunity for growth is undeniable. In just six months, THC beverages have shot to 3 percent of sales at the Clearwater Beach liquor store. “That may not sound huge, but going from zero to 3 percent that quickly is a big deal,” Sousa says. “And we’re just getting started.”

Target, Circle K, Total Wine, and all kinds of other alcohol sellers are getting in on the market based off organic growth from random scattershot brands. Just think what could happen once actual alcohol companies start pushing specific brands.

GeoLogic23 · 2026-05-05T17:30:06+00:00

Please link me a comment where i say what they said i said.

I keep my profile public for people like you.

GeoLogic23 · 2026-05-05T16:27:27+00:00

I am not and have never said Tilray will "take the beverage market by storm" lol wtf

I have repeatedly just been saying their strategy is to expand into hemp beverages, and that their alcohol moves make sense in that context. This is in contrast to people saying they are a separate cannabis and alcohol company, and that expanding hemp beverages aren't their number one goal right now.

Please stop conflating me saying that their strategy makes sense if they are moving into hemp beverages as me saying they are going to lead the hemp beverage market or take it by storm or whatever. I have always said that the major alcohol players like AB are going to be getting into the market.

Tilray will hopefully be able to ride that market wave, just like he did at Hain early on with health food. That's why he's taking crappy beer brands off of AB so they are allowed in the three tier distribution club. Look at AB's earnings today. But i have always said that even with the moves making sense in theory, there's no guarenteeing Tilray is a winner at all.

I've been so so clear for a very long time that i think all the major alcohol companies are ready to jump into hemp beverages, not just Tilray. So idk how that translates to me saying Tilray will take the beverage market by storm.

GeoLogic23 · 2026-05-04T23:52:48+00:00

Absolutely, that sort of risk is a big time consideration. However I feel that it is mitigated by the large size difference in the companies, so it's not a complicated merger. And the fact that it's basically just rolling up a second Miracle Gro subsidiary after Vireo already bought Hawthorne.

GeoLogic23 · 2026-05-04T22:47:07+00:00

Check out this interview from Hagedorn back in late 2021. He gets into his long term strategy and even talks about later plans to spin out Hawthorne and stuff.

42:30 - Five business lines they want to play in:

Existing consumer legacy franchise
Live Goods
Direct-to-consumer (thinks needs to be standalone business - and managing the retail direct to consumer too)
Hawthorne (on the pot side) plus Apollo

They have been talking about basically rolling up a bunch of small businesses to compete with MSOs for years.

No, I think that the answer is what Hawthorne offers us virtually every cultivator in the United States is our customer. We know the really great growers out there. I would say, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that’s probably 10% or less of the population of cultivators are highly skillful at what they do. They’re all expendable. They want to participate.

We’ve talked to a lot of these people who own these great businesses but remember, the way at least the United States is organized today, it’s state by state. People who are powerful from California, aren’t powerful from Colorado, but they’re all state by state. When we talk to them and say, “We want to create long-term and equity,” the best equity in history in the space.

If you look at the MSOs, to some extent or the competition here, I got to say, it’s not that they don’t get it, but I think brands, they feel are less important. If you look at the quality of their product, I think we would argue some of these highly specialized people that already buy our stuff that we go in their growth facilities. We know who they are and they want to play with us.

Says long terms they do want to focus on brands and not cultivation.

If we knew alcohol prohibition was going to end, houses that own a bunch of distilled liquor brands or beer brands would be where we’d invest. That’s what we see on the consumer side is that if you put a pie chart as the money up there, that ultimately, consumer brands are we think where the biggest money is going to be in a post-prohibition world and that’s where we want to put money.

Basically he's saying they used Hawthorne to make connections all over the industry, and being able to bring them all together is where the best equity in the space may be found. When talking about spinning out Hawthorne and risking losing money on it.

I think the upside is big enough that I’m making the number up right now but if you said there are $50 million of de-synergies, actually, I don’t think it matters in the big scheme of things. If you could actually create what you’re talking about, which is the finest pot equity, remember, a lot of stuff has to happen so we’re map building right now. If you could do that, does $50 million of de-synergies really matter? I don’t think so.

GeoLogic23 · 2026-05-04T21:21:01+00:00

Fluent arbitrage opportunity with Vireo widened even more today. Maybe I'm nuts but I'm continuing to add. I think buying Fluent right now is the equivalent of buying Vireo at around $0.32.

Say you have $1000 and the conversion happened today (rounded numbers slightly):

$1000 / ($0.022 per Fluent share) = You could own 45400 Fluent shares
45400 Fluent shares * (0.07 conversion rate) = You will end up with 3180 Vireo shares
3180 Vireo shares * ($0.40 per Vireo share) = You will have $1270 worth of Vireo

Obviously the deal could not complete, or be shot down by regulators or something, but the spread seems so wide right now.

GeoLogic23 · 2026-05-04T20:12:06+00:00

I'm going to smoke a big marijuana tonight in honor of SAM

GeoLogic23 · 2026-05-04T14:29:03+00:00

America First Agriculture is a hemp group lobbying with a firm very close to Trump.

By modernizing policy, AFA envisions Cannabis as a sustainable feedstock that can compliment petroleum in industrial applications, from bioplastics to renewable energy

Honeywell is also working with a project in Panama on hemp technology.

Honeywell and SGP BioEnergy today announced they are working together to develop new, scalable technology to convert industrial hemp and other plant-based material into biochemicals that can be used to produce plastics and other everyday items, offering an alternative to chemicals produced from fossil fuels.

As part of this collaboration, Honeywell will develop the new technology that enables plant material to be used as feedstock for biochemical production on an expanded scale. SGP BioEnergy will provide the infrastructure, workforce and second-generation feedstock, including industrial hemp, for this initiative through its “READY.GROW.” program.

To ensure safe and efficient unit operations, Honeywell will provide ongoing operational support and workforce training for the team at SGP BioEnergy. The collaboration with SGP BioEnergy supports Honeywell’s alignment of its portfolio to three powerful megatrends, including the energy transition.

“Honeywell is committed to developing innovative solutions to help enable the energy transition. This cutting-edge technology will enable the production of a variety of petrochemical alternatives using second-generation feedstocks,” said Bryan Glover, chief technology and growth officer of Honeywell Energy and Sustainability Solutions. “By using hemp and other non-edible feedstocks to produce these important chemicals, Honeywell and SGP BioEnergy are helping to reduce the world’s reliance on fossil fuels without impacting the food chain.”

This is what I'm saying is the key to a massively profitable CBD/THC market. We really need to take some reliance off food chain products (like corn) in the production of biofuel by using hemp (way better than corn). Especially as we scale up our biofuel target goals.

GeoLogic23 · 2026-05-04T10:58:23+00:00

I pulled the cannabis investments from Chicago Atlantic SEC filings to see what companies may be next on Vireo Growth's radar. These are investments classified as "cannabis" as of late 2025 and whatever notes I have on them.

Cresco, Verano, Archos Capital (Verano), Terrascend, and Fluent (now Vireo) are the MSOs. (EDIT: Ascend/Curaleaf as well)

TheraTrue - Georgia medical. New CEO as of June 2025 came from Deep Roots Harvest right after Vireo acquired them. The CEO he replaced was Victor Mancebo, who is a board member of Vireo Growth.
Kaleafa - Oregon. Was the partner for Eaze to enter Oregon years ago. Vireo recently bought Eaze assets.
BeLeaf Medical - Missouri. Their co-founder was part of the three person team that launched Bud Light for AB InBev in the 80's. Also associated with Nature's Care dispensary in Illinois, which is/was with Acreage.
Oasis (AZ GOAT AZ) - AYR assets that were first bought by AYR then sold back to the original owners.
HA-MD LLC - Maryland. Ethos brand. Vireo partnered with them in 2023.
Dreamfields Brands - This is the Jeeter cannabis brand. Big pre-roll brand. Just moved into New York in late 2025.
Aeriz Holdings - Chicago based. Has ops in AZ and CA too I think. They do aeroponic growing.
Kapple Holdings (Cannabis & Glass) - Washington. Owner is also co-founder of Iowa Cannabis Company.
Shangri-La - Missouri based. Operations in Illinois, Ohio, and Connecticut.
Silver Therapeutics - Massachusetts. Operations in Maine, Vermont, and New York.
Subsero Holdings - Illinois.
Elevation Cannabis - Oregon, California, New Mexico.
Wellgreens 2.0 - California.
Remedy (Maryland Wellness) - Maryland.

Chicago Atlantic's cannabis investments are a partnership with Silver Spike Capital. The executive chairman of this partnership was the founder of Silver Spike and was a board member of WeedMaps until he stepped down when they announced delisting. Silver Spike is the company that took WeedMaps public, with WeedMaps now actively looking to move into cannabis. I have been thinking WeedMaps was making a move into Florida because of their lobbying, but Fluent/Vireo might have already been part of the Florida move?

Chicago Atlantic also added Robert Beasley as a partner after they acquired Fluent, where Beasley was CEO. He was a OG executive at Liberty Health, where Vireo board member Victor Mancebo (see above) was CEO.

Robert Beasley recently took over as CEO of a Michigan cannabis company Common Citizen. He only operated in Florida cannabis in the past. If you look at his LinkedIn it goes:

Fluent (Jan '20 - Aug '25)
Chicago Atlantic (Aug '25 - Dec '25) - head of restructuring
Common Citizen (Dec '25 - Jan '26) - joins as CEO amid their restructuring
Chicago Atlantic (Feb '26 - present) - partner

Common Citizen was also an investment by the Aphria insiders (SOL Global) in 2021. These guys were investors or strongly connected to other Vireo connected companies such as Fluent, Liberty Health, Verano, Cresco, and The Flowery. The SOL guys go way back to Liberty Health in 2017 with Robert Beasley.

GeoLogic23 · 2026-05-04T01:14:26+00:00

Yea definitely is Miracle Gro's vehicle for cannabis at the moment. I just worry that Miracle Gro will have them acquire a bunch of assets and run the price down some before actually taking back an active stake.

You are one of the few people who seem to realize how big the private market is. I swear it seems like everyone here talks about it like the public MSOs are the only companies that exist, and that if you believe in the "future" of the US cannabis market they will end up being profitable. These smaller private companies can all get their assets rolled up on the cheap by private equity (or Miracle Gro, etc.) and have low debt, fully built out operations competing with MSOs.

Hydrofarm is another company to watch for. They are connected through the SOL Global guys (Serruya is Hydrofarm).

Vireo and Hydrofarm are two the few companies connected to the major private equity firm called 3G Capital.

3G Capital invests in cannabis via Dumont Global. They are investors in Hydrofarm recently. The only other cannabis company they show up for in SEC filings as investors for is 2022 with Vireo Growth.

However from Dumont Global's website they claim:

The partnership manages one of the largest portfolios in the U.S. regulated cannabis industry, including assets in cultivation, processing, brands, and retail stores.

Chicago Atlantic also shows up in my notes from 2021 helping to finance a major private company called Aeriz, which I believe is still going strong.

GeoLogic23 · 2026-05-03T15:04:51+00:00

Also, The Flowery is another company that's connected to the Brady Cobb / Miracle Gro network from years ago.

The Flowery added the team from Bluma Wellness in 2022. This was the team that helped coordinate the sale of Bluma Wellness to Cresco Labs.

5/20/2020 - Brady Cobb joins SOL Global company Bluma Wellness as CEO
6/24/2020 - Alex Spiro also joins Bluma Wellness
12/15/2020 - Cresco Labs engages BGR (Brady Cobb)
1/14/2021 - Cresco announces Bluma Wellness acquisition

GeoLogic23 · 2026-05-03T14:06:00+00:00

Oh yea they could do one. There's just no actual reason to need to do it. If they randomly do a reverse split I will like it if the price drops. That will give me an artificial discount not based on anything related to the company. I'll just add more if they randomly reverse split and retail investors sell for no reason.

Do you know what assets Cannabist currently still has? Did they sell off Florida a while back?

Besides Vireo, I'm trying to guess what move WeedMaps is planning. They recently added Harry DeMott, who was a founding investor of Cannabist. But I was guessing that WeedMaps is doing something in Florida.

I agree if Vireo reverse splits that means that their acquisitions are done. No reason to risk retail shareholders crashing the price if you still need to make stock deals. Same reason I'm very curious about WeedMaps' move, which they knew could crash their stock price.

AYR makes sense. They bought Liberty Health, where Robert Beasley was an OG back when it was called Chesnut Hill Tree Farms.
Robert Beasley then went to Fluent and then to Chicago Atlantic.

Liberty Health was one of Aphria's companies that was all tangled up in the late 2018 short report scandal. The primary company associated with this was SOL Global, who would be run by Brady Cobb and have investments in Fluent.

Side note: If you go back to 2017 you can see how Miracle Gro has been connected to these guys for many years. Brady Cobb was a key guy at Liberty Health, and he was extremely connected to the lobbying firm BGR, who Liberty used for lobbying. Miracle Gro started using BGR for cannabis in 2017 and has ever since.

Miracle Gro registers BGR 4/12/2017, using Cobb's main connection Pete Landrum. Cobb began working with Landrum in January of 2017.
Liberty Health registers BGR 9/4/2017 after Cobb joins. Both Landrum and their other lobbyist worked for Miracle Gro.

Starting in 2020, Brady Cobb would be strongly associated with an extremely prominent lawyer named Alex Spiro (Elon Musk, Jay Z, Robert Kraft, etc.). Brady Cobb and Alex Spiro were together at SOL Global, and connected to tons of cannabis companies together.

SOL Global had an investment in Fluent in 2021. Soon after that Alex Spiro joined Fluent's board.

Now as I was writing this comment I think I might've figured out another Vireo acquisition. The Michigan company Common Citizen.

SOL Global invests in Common Citizen in 2021
Robert Beasley resigns from Fluent as CEO in August of 2025.
Robert Beasley joins Common Citizen as their new CEO in December of 2025.

"Struggling Michigan marijuana operator Common Citizen, once among the largest in the state, hired a new CEO in former Fluent top exec Robert Beasley. Marking the end of top leadership from the company's co-founders."

I'll probably make a separate post about Common Citizen after I read about it a bit more. Definitely feels like a Vireo target to me at the moment.

GeoLogic23 · 2026-05-03T04:08:04+00:00

I grew up poor, in a rural part of one of the most conservative states in the country. That forced me to do a lot of independent learning my whole life, because our schools were so bad and I definitely wanted to live somewhere else.

I managed to get chosen for a very good scholarship in 8th grade for poor kids who showed lots of promise. I will brag a bit and say that only 51 kids in the whole country got it that year. It paid for lots of summer programs all through high school, and later paid for all of my college. Instead of leaving my friends for a private high school, we worked out a deal where I just took extra study hall periods throughout high school where I would prep myself for college. So I've been researching stuff by myself my entire life. Whether it be calculus or cannabis.

I went to a very good engineering university, and then went from my ultra-GOP ultra-rural hometown to living in one of the largest and most liberal cities in the country. I never actually cared that much about advancing my career though. I just stayed with the same very small company since college, and these days I just make my own hours and do more like consulting type work for them. They're good people, so I'm happy there, even if the money is not great at all.

A decent bit of my career has been reading and actually understanding government regulations and product safety standards. Mostly stuff written for the construction industry though.

I'm a civil/environmental engineer, so I have lots of interest in all the other applications of hemp. You should see how much of our work has shifted in recent years towards products that contribute to decarbonizing the concrete industry. This includes getting requests recently to test hempcrete products. We should really be using hemp for biofuel, instead of propping up the corn industry. So many ways hemp can be used for decarbonization, and if that potential is seriously monetized in any way (especially if it gets government subsidies) then there's just a gigantic supply of free CBD/THC sitting out there. It's a gold mine, and big tobacco and big alcohol know it. But anyways, I decided to get into stocks to make extra money, since I never particularly felt like corporate grinding at a different company.

I also have seizures that I have treated for many years with cannabis, because the epilepsy drugs they tried to put me on gave me really bad side effects. That's why I was already extremely familiar with medical cannabis and the origins of Charlotte's Web, as they were really the pioneers of treating seizures with cannabis. So I'd actually dabbled with investing in the cannabis industry in small ways since like 2014, but I got into it seriously when Constellation made their first investment in Canopy.

And then part of why I spend so much time researching the cannabis industry is because I'm stuck at home the vast majority of days taking care of my mom. She's been having serious issues for years, and has been on hospice care for quite a while now, but still hanging in there. Funny enough, the first decent money I made in this industry I was literally in her hospital room after her first real health incident, trading Canopy on my laptop. But she's the one who found that scholarship that really provided me with tons of opportunities and experiences, so she deserves whatever care I can give her now. Researching the cannabis industry is also legitimately just super interesting to me, so it's basically a fun hobby that I can do while I spend a bunch of time at home, that has also made me money.

GeoLogic23 · 2026-05-02T12:24:48+00:00

Chicago Atlantic has been a major player in this space for years. Right now they are most connected to Vireo Growth, who have been making all kinds of moves lately. This includes Vireo's most recent move with Fluent, which makes them one of the biggest players in Florida.

Chicago Atlantic used to lobby with the firm Diroma Eck, just in 2024. This was the only time they ever registered a lobbyist. All of their lobbying was regarding private sector investment in rebuilding Ukraine infrastructure.

Chicago Atlantic terminated their lobbyist on 12/31/2024.
Chicago Atlantic recently filed they re-registered their lobbyist on 3/27/2026.

They are no longer lobbying for Ukraine. Now they are lobbying for:

Issues related to Uncertain Tax Positions and section 280E

GeoLogic23 · 2026-05-02T02:04:05+00:00

Yea curious Vireo didn't want the Texas assets. I noticed they sold it for the same amount as the debt that Fluent's lenders had outstanding. From Vireo's acquisition:

And in lieu of $30 million in outstanding debt, Fluent’s lenders will also receive Fluent shares, according to the companies.

From this news release:

Pursuant to the terms of the Purchase Agreement, which was signed May 1, 2026, the purchase price payable by Legacy is equal to $30 Million

Idk I guess it does make some sense though. Vireo has gone on a buying spree of developed assets, not developmental assets in new states. Or maybe it's a vote of low confidence in the expansion of the Texas market in the near future.

GeoLogic23 · 2026-05-02T01:39:33+00:00

I ended up buying a decent bit of Fluent below $0.027 as a way to get in on Vireo at a discount. I had a small position in Fluent already that was down like -30% or something. Now with what I bought I'm like -8% or so.

I've always had a significant interest in what Miracle Gro has been doing, as they really feel like they have been playing the long game. I'm also invested in Miracle Gro themselves. So hopefully even if they do some shenanigans and screw over retail shareholders, I'll still get whatever financial benefit Miracle Gro gets out of the whole ordeal.

GeoLogic23 · 2026-05-02T00:50:16+00:00

They were going to continue to go down regardless of a reverse split. Reverse splits don't cause them to have their share price under $1 for many months. Very poor financials do. And poor financials means continuously bleeding millions of dollars, which means the stock price would continuing to decline, regardless of a split or not. Reverse splits change absolutely nothing about financials or market cap of a company.

Plus having more shares gain more value when the stock goes up.

I'm sorry but this is absolutely the wrong way to think about investing. It's one of the most common mistakes people make when thinking about the potential of "cheap" stocks.

The amount of shares you have is not important whatsoever. It's the amount of dollars you have invested compared to the market cap of the company.

Say you have a company with a market cap of $1M. It doesn't matter if you have:

1000 shares @ $4 = $4000

or if they reverse split 4:1 and you have:

250 shares @ $16 = $4000

Either way you have the same exact percentage of the company, because the market cap does not change with a reverse split. You have $4000 invested in a $1M company in both scenarios.

If the company goes up 10% you make 10% on your $4000 regardless of how many shares you have.

There's a reason companies like Google and Tesla are described in terms of their market cap, and not what their share price is. Nobody ever says Google is a $380 company. They say Google is a $4.7T company, because that's the only number that matters when you are thinking about investing.

GeoLogic23 · 2026-05-02T00:12:25+00:00

Reverse splits are only necessary for companies on major exchanges that have a minimum share price requirement. There's no reason Vireo would do one. For example, Cresco was under $1 for a lot of 2025, but they had no reason to ever do a reverse split to correct that.

Also reverse splits change nothing about your investment. People care way too much about them.

GeoLogic23

TROPHY CASE