Week in Weed: David Beckham, Wiz Khalifa feel the brunt of restrictive social media policies, and how this Ontario town is tackling cannabis stigma

HEXO Corp. was founded by two entrepreneurs, who, as the story goes, “convinced their mother-in-law and ‘turned $35,000 investment into a billion-dollar cannabis company.'”

A strategic reorganization led St-Louis to exit his long-held position as the company’s chief executive in October 2021. And earlier this week Miron tweeted he has resigned from the company board of directors following an announcement of a “refresh”.

“We were the underdogs that have defied all the odds,” wrote Miron in a series of tweets, “Today, there is no doubt that the company is not in a state any of us wanted. While there are many things I would have done differently, my only regret is not making changes sooner.”

Earlier this month, investor Adam Arviv called for an ouster of the board of directors for the company’s underperformance.

“We helped my dying father, as our very first customer, find some comfort, appetite, and rest in his final months, and I can’t thank the team enough for that. Becoming the number one market leader in the country was the ultimate validation of the tenacity I saw every day at HEXO,” wrote Miron.

“My resignation is part of the Board refresh announced earlier today, which has my full support.”

Canada’s cannabis belt joins forces with agriculture to beat stigma

With some of the biggest pot producers located in Southwestern Ontario, the region is often referred to as Canada’s cannabis belt. Now the cannabis industry is getting support from the region’s agricultural community to fight stigma.

“We’re doing an event with this agriculture-cannabis base to stop the stigma and bring cannabis more into the agriculture area, where it should be,” Derrick Berney, the chief executive of CannabisWiki, tells The GrowthOp’s Sam Riches.

The two-day event is set to take place in June and will “showcase innovation in the Canadian cannabis industry, with a particular focus on the London and Middlesex region as a world leader in ‘agriculture, agribusiness and plant-derived medicines,’” Riches reports.

Buzz of the Weed

David Beckham-backed Cellular Goods is feeling the brunt of restrictive social media policies.

Taking a swipe at Google and Meta for the company’s underwhelming performance, a statement pinpointed that the social giants’ policies have “prevented Cellular Good’s products from being promoted there.”

U.K.-based Cellular Goods “raised more than $20 million after listing on the London Stock Exchange in 2021, with its share price climbing by more than 300 per cent after its initial public offering,” TGO’s Angela Stelmakovich reports. But by the end of 2021, the company has posted no revenue and a loss of $5.6 million.

Effects of restrictive social media policies have also visibly impacted American rapper Wiz Khalifa who owns the cannabis brand, Khalifa Kush.

“Instagram blocks my videos and not allowing people to like pictures of me smokin or holdin weed (which is legal and a form of expressing myself),” the 34-year-old tweeted earlier this week.

“So basically I can’t get likes on your platform for being myself?”