Happy Weed Wednesday. Thanks for checking out the newsletter that makes you smarter about weed in 4 minutes and 20 seconds or less. Here’s what we got for you this week: 

• Life in jail: Missouri man serving life in jail for weed

• Business highlights: Planet 13 increase revenue by 11%, New York's plan to equitably grow the cannabis industry, business is booming in Florida

• Burning money: Publicly traded weed businesses aren't doing very well

• Pot Politics: Medical cannabis registrations surge in Washington D.C., Thailand does not want pot smoking tourists, legalization heading to the ballot in North Dakota

Best of social media

Before we get to the news, here's the funniest thing we saw on social media this week. In case you ever wondered what cops did with confiscated weed, here you go. 

Serving life in jail for weed

There are certain things in life that just don't feel right. Like having to pay $100 for a tank of gas and seeing Kanye West with Donald Trump's hair.

Another thing that doesn't feel right is being locked up in jail for life because of weed. Especially if you are locked up in a state where businesses are now allowed to legally sell weed. Unfortunately, this is a reality for Rasheed Shakur, who lived and conducted business in Missouri prior to being incarcerated. 

Rasheed's story

In 2011, The United Stated Attorney for the Western District of Missouri announced that Rasheed Shakur was convicted by a federal jury for his role in a multi-million-dollar drug trafficking conspiracy. Specifically, Rasheed was found guilty of 6 counts contained in a 2009 superseding indictment, including drug trafficking conspiracy, participating in money laundering conspiracy that included purchasing real estate with drug proceeds, two counts related to distributing marijuana and cocaine, one count of being in possession of a firearm and one count count of possessing firearms in furtherance of those drug trafficking crimes. As a result of the conviction, under federal statutes, Rasheed was subject to a mandatory sentence of life in federal prison without parole.

Although cocaine was also included in the conviction, there was much more cannabis involved in this case than cocaine. Per FBI records, Shakur was receiving hundreds of pounds of marijuana and about 5 kilograms of cocaine each week at an airport in Missouri. 

Fast forward to today

Unfortunately, as of July 2022, Rasheed is still serving his life sentence in prison. Meanwhile, there are currently over 400 medical marijuana stores across Missouri that are legally selling weed to people across the state. This just doesn't feel right and people are taking action. 

Given the circumstances of Rasheed's story, Life for Pot, an organization helping nonviolent marijuana prisoners, has been advocating for his release. Thanks to the work of Beth Curtis and others at Life for Pot, they have been able to successfully help some prisoners obtain pardons and commuted sentences.

If you're interested in getting involved, make sure to check out to the Life for Pot website to see how you can help Rasheed and people in similar positions. 

Business highlights

• Planet 13 increases revenue by 11% sequentially to $28.4 million

• The Cannabis Conference is kicking off this week in Las Vegas

• New York's plan to equitably grow the cannabis industry

• 7 things to consider if you are thinking about opening a cannabis dispensary

• Cannabis business is booming in Florida

Weed companies are burning through money

Based on the crowds that Cookies and some other companies are able to draw, it looks like legal weed businesses are crushing it. Although the optics look good, the reality is quite the opposite. Based on the latest earnings reports from publicly traded cannabis companies, the green rush isn't generating much green.

Losing across the board

At the end fo the day, publicly traded companies are here to do 2 things: 1) make profit for their shareholders and 2) act liking they are doing good for the world (i.e., Facebook).

Per Marijuana Moment, here are some of the biggest losers from last quarter:

• Columbia Care Inc. reported quarterly revenue of $129.6 million and a net loss of $54.3 million

• Ascend Wellness Holdings, Inc. reported quarterly net revenue of $97.5 million and a net loss of $21.2 million 

• TILT Holdings Inc.  reported quarterly net revenue of $47.1 million and a net loss of $7.1 million 

• 4Front Ventures Corp. reported $28.4 million in quarterly revenue and a net loss of $6.5 million

• Verano Holdings Corp. reported quarterly revenue of $223.6 million and a net loss of $9.8 million.

• iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. reported quarterly revenue of $43.5 million and a net loss of $373.6 million

To save you some time, we did the math and added up the net losses: OVER $400 MILLION. And this is just six of the many publicly traded cannabis companies that are losing money. 

With numbers this terrible, we bet your local neighborhood weed guy is having a more profitable year than a lot of these companies. 

Pot politics

• Medical cannabis registrations surge in Washington D.C.

• Thailand Health Minister says pot smoking tourists are not welcome

• Cannabis legalization approved to be on the ballot in North Dakota

• Dr. Oz attacks his opponents legalization stance in PA Senator race

• Cannabis legalization has become a focal point in Texas political races

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Quick hits

• Dennis Rodman traveling to Russia to help Britney Griner

• Study shows that cannabinoids have anti-cancer properties

• Gallup poll shows that Americans think weed is better for people than alcohol

• Mike Tyson says he has weed and shrooms before fights

• Tiny homes are being made with hemp sheets in Europe

Meme of the week

Before we go, here's the best meme we saw this week. Not sure who this guy is, but we like him already.