Ontario orders SNDL to sell stores 🏬

OH, CANADA
Ontario orders SNDL to sell stores 🏬

What happened: Ontario's Alcohol and Gaming Commission told SNDL in April that it had determined the company holds "de facto control" of Spirit Leaf Ontario and Superette Ontario — giving it effective ownership of 46 cannabis stores in a province where licensed producers are limited to a single farmgate location on the same site as a production facility. 

The regulator gave SNDL a choice: divest or face license revocations. SNDL has not yet publicly disclosed these challenges, The Globe & Mail reports.

What they're saying: "A proposal for a genuine, verified and complete divestiture of SNDL's de facto control of SLOI's and SOI's Ontario retail operations – to the satisfaction of the registrar – may provide a basis for an alternative resolution that addresses the substantive regulatory concern without the necessity of contested public proceedings," said AGCO director of licensing and registration Jeff Longhurst in a letter.

Why it matters: SNDL is publicly traded on both the CSE and Nasdaq, and a pre-enforcement notice threatening to wipe out dozens of retail licenses is obviously material information, but the company has so far stayed quiet.

Meanwhile, a previously announced acquisition of 27 Ontario stores quietly fell apart last month. 

What's next: SNDL has to propose a full divestiture that satisfies the AGCO — terminating all management, supply chain, and brand licensing agreements with Nova Cannabis, with independent verification by a regulator-approved professional. 

The regulator also won't process any new retail applications or license transfers for Spirit Leaf or Superette until the situation is resolved. The clock is running.

-JB

“Throughout this year’s legislative process, my end goal has been to finally set up a safe, well-regulated retail cannabis market in Virginia,” Gov. Abigail Spanberger said. 

Spanberger said that she and state lawmakers reached an agreement on a proposal to legalize cannabis through the budget process. Spanberger vetoed a bill that would’ve finally set up a regulated market in the state, over five years after Virginia first legalized it.

Spanberger and lawmakers including Del. Paul Krizek (D) will hold a press conference and share further details about the plan soon. A draft version of the language shows the start date for legal sales as July 1, 2027, Marijuana Moment reports.

On Friday’s This Week in Cannabis Live, the usual crew broke down Trulieve’s first few trading days on the NYSE, New York’s new labor rules, and, of course, the New York Knicks!

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Cann CEO Jake Bullock shared The Goodness of Hemp campaign on social media, which aims to “unites farmers, rural manufacturing, trucking, multi-generation family owned stores and American entrepreneurs driving high quality, safe innovation.”

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