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Cannabist execs highlight progress on ‘turnaround’ plan despite $200M loss

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Executives with The Cannabist Company Holdings Inc. (Cboe CA: CBST) (OTCQX: CBSTF) during the company’s quarterly earnings call said they’re about halfway through a “turnaround” plan to make the company profitable, but didn’t mention the financial filing this week which reported a $205 million net loss for the business last year.

“We are currently at the midpoint of our eight-quarter restructuring plan,” CEO David Hart said during the call. “We continue to operate in a challenging environment with uncertainty of timing of rescheduling, ongoing pricing pressures in key markets, and challenged liquidity across the sector.”

But, Hart emphasized, demand for legal cannabis continues to grow, and industrywide sales are up 9% year-over-year, as more states legalize medical or recreational marijuana.

“Despite the uncertainty at the federal level, this industry is here to stay,” Hart said.

The Cannabist, however, has been deliberately pulling back on its national industry footprint to “right-size” the business, Hart said. That’s included divesting from Arizona, Florida, Utah and parts of Virginia, he said, and closing “underperforming assets” in Colorado, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C.

At the end of 2024, The Cannabist had shrunk its cannabis retail footprint to 59 dispensaries, down from 73 at the end of the third quarter last year and down from 86 the prior year. The Cannabist has already closed three more shops this year, leaving it with 56 dispensaries, Hart said.

Not only that, but The Cannabist has been busy cutting staff as well. The company shrank its headcount by roughly 20% last year, Hart said, which saved the business about $23 million.

“Liquidity management remains of paramount importance and is a central focus for 2025,” he said.

To that end, CFO Derek Watson noted that The Cannabist filed an amended tax return with the Internal Revenue Service to claim exemption from 280E for the 2020 tax year, through which it expects to receive a refund of $5 million from the IRS. He also said the company is likely to file more amended returns in coming years for additional tax refunds.

The tax strategy was pioneered last year by Trulieve Cannabis Corp. and has since been adopted by several other multistate operators in the cannabis trade.

The closest that anyone on the earnings call came to mentioning the nine-figure net loss from 2024 was when Watson said The Cannabist expects “continued noise in our results until divestitures are fully complete” and until other new markets are fully operational, such as recreational marijuana sales launching in Delaware and The Cannabist getting permission from regulators to start adult-use sales at its dispensary in New Jersey.

Otherwise, everything seemed rosy to Hart and company.

“While we are not yet finished with the turnaround, we are (a) very different company today,” Hart said at the outset of the call. “As a result of these efforts, adjusted EBITDA on an apples-to-apples basis for the 12 remaining markets was essentially flat year-over-year, despite the challenging pricing environment.”



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Nebraska medical cannabis regulations stall in legislative committee

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A Nebraska legislative committee voted 5-3 against advancing a bill designed to implement and regulate the state’s medical cannabis program, leaving legislators and advocates searching for alternative paths forward, according to the Nebraska Examiner.

The General Affairs Committee rejected Legislative Bill 677, sponsored by State Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair, during a Thursday vote where committee members declined to offer amendments to the legislation, the publication reported.

“I don’t want to shut all the doors right now, but some doors are closing, and they’re closing fast, and so we have to act,” Hansen told reporters after the vote, according to the Examiner.

Nebraska voters approved medical cannabis in November 2024, with residents legally permitted to possess up to 5 ounces with a healthcare practitioner’s recommendation since mid-December. However, the regulatory commission created by the ballot initiative lacks effective power and funding to regulate the industry.

Hansen described his legislation as “a must” for 2025 to prevent a “Wild West” scenario in the state’s cannabis market. The bill would have expanded regulatory structure through the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission and extended deadlines for regulations and licensing to allow more time for implementation, the Examiner noted.

Committee disagreements centered on proposed restrictions. A committee amendment would have prohibited smoking cannabis and the sale of flower or bud products while limiting qualified healthcare practitioners to physicians, osteopathic physicians, physician assistants or nurse practitioners who had treated patients for at least six months.

The amendment also would have limited qualifying conditions to 15 specific ailments including cancer, epilepsy, HIV/AIDS, and chronic pain lasting longer than six months.

State Sen. Bob Andersen of Sarpy County opposed allowing vaping due to concerns about youth drug use, while committee chair Rick Holdcroft suggested selling cannabis flower would be “a gateway toward recreational marijuana,” a claim Hansen “heavily disputed,” according to the Examiner.

Hansen now faces a difficult path forward, requiring at least 25 votes to pull the bill from committee and then needing 33 senators to advance it across three rounds of debate, regardless of filibuster attempts.

Crista Eggers, executive director of Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, remained optimistic despite the setback.

“This will not be the end,” Eggers said, according to the outlet. “Giving up has never been an option. Being silenced has never been an option. It’s not over. It’s not done.”

The legislative impasse is further complicated by ongoing litigation. Former state senator John Kuehn has filed two lawsuits challenging the voter-approved provisions, with one appeal pending before the Nebraska Supreme Court. The state’s Attorney General is also trying to do something about the hemp question, akin to other states across the country.



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One of Las Vegas’ cannabis lounges closes its doors

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Nevada’s cannabis lounge experiment faces some expected growing pains, with one of just two state-licensed venues closing its doors after barely a year in business, according to the Las Vegas Weekly.

“The regulatory framework, compliance costs and product limitations just don’t support a sustainable business model,” said Thrive Cannabis managing partner Mitch Britten, who plans to convert the space into an event venue until regulations loosen up.

The closure leaves Planet 13’s Dazed Consumption Lounge as the only operational state-regulated cannabis lounge in Nevada. Dazed manager Blake Anderson estimates the venue attracts around 250 customers daily, primarily tourists. One other establishment, Sky High Lounge, has operated since 2019 on sovereign Las Vegas Paiute Tribe land exempt from state regulations.

Even with Nevada regulators conditionally approving 21 more lounge licenses, potential owners are struggling to meet the $200,000 liquid assets requirement – particularly social equity applicants from communities hit hardest by prohibition.

Recreational marijuana has been legal statewide since 2017, but public consumption remains prohibited. That’s created an obvious disconnect for the millions of tourists who visit Las Vegas annually but have nowhere legal to use the products they purchase. The state recorded roughly $829 million in taxable sales during the 2024 fiscal year.

“It always comes down to money, and it’s difficult to get a space if you can’t afford to buy a building. On top of that, getting insurance and finding a landowner who’s willing to lease to a cannabis business is a challenge in and of itself,” said Christopher LaPorte, whose consulting firm Reset Las Vegas helped launch Smoke and Mirrors, told Las Vegas Weekly.

Many think the key to future success lies in legislative changes that would allow lounges to integrate with food service and entertainment – playing to Las Vegas’s strengths as a hospitality innovator. In the meantime, the industry will continue to adapt and push forward.

“Things take time,” LaPorte said. “There’s a culture that we have to continue to embrace and a lot of education that we still have to do. But at the end of the day, tourists need a place to smoke, and that’s what these places are.”



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Psyence Group consolidates its shares

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Psyence Group Inc. (CSE: PSYG) told investors that it will be consolidating all of its issued and outstanding share capital on the basis of every 15 existing common shares into one new common share effective April 23, 2025 with a record date of April 23, 2025. As a result of the consolidation, the issued and outstanding shares will be reduced to approximately 9,387,695 on the effective date.

This is the second time a Psyence company has consolidated shares recently. In November, its Nasdaq-listed associate, Psyence Biomedical Ltd. (Nasdaq: PBM), implemented a 1-for-75 share consolidation as the psychedelics company worked to maintain its Nasdaq listing.

Psyence Group reported earnings in February when the company delivered a net loss of C$3 million and was reporting as a going concern. At the end of 2024, the company said it had not yet achieved profitable operations, has accumulated losses of C$48,982,320 since its inception.

Total assets at the end of 2024 were C$11,944,478 and comprised predominantly of: cash and cash equivalents of C$10,611,113, other receivables of C$159,808, investment in PsyLabs of C$1,071,981 and prepaids of C$68,243.

Still, the company is pushing ahead. Psyence told investors that it has historically secured financing through share issuances and convertible debentures, and it continues to explore funding opportunities to support its operations and strategic initiatives. “Based on these actions and
management’s expectations regarding future funding and operational developments, the company believes it will have sufficient resources to meet its obligations as they become due for at least the next twelve months,” it said in its last financial filing.

The company said it believes that the consolidation will position it with greater flexibility for the development of its business and the growth of the company.

 



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