Last Week in Cannabis #4
Last Week in Cannabis
August 24–30, 2026 | Issue #4
Hey friend — welcome back to Last Week in Cannabis. A big week in North America — a new sales record, a hostile takeover bid, and a Gallup survey that puts the state of cannabis culture in sharp relief. Let's get into it.
1. CANADA — Canada Just Had Its Biggest Month of Cannabis Sales Ever — and Beat California
Statistics Canada data released this week shows that legal cannabis sales across Canada reached $517.8 million in June 2026 — a new all-time monthly record. To put the number in perspective: converted to USD, Canada's June total of approximately $374.5 million exceeded California's $372.4 million for the same month. For the first time on record, Canada generated more cannabis revenue in a single month than any US state.
Through the first six months of 2026, Canada's legal cannabis market has generated approximately $2.9 billion in total sales.
Mary Jane's Take: Canada was the first G7 country to federally legalize cannabis back in 2018, and eight years later it is — at least for one month — the largest cannabis market in the world by revenue. That is not a small thing. A nationally regulated market with consistent rules, tested products, and legal retail access across the entire country is demonstrating that it can out-compete one of the largest and most established state markets in the world. The legal market is winning consumers month by month, and these numbers show it.
2. NORTH AMERICA — A US Cannabis Company Just Launched a Hostile Takeover Bid for Canada's Aurora
This is the biggest corporate cannabis story in North America in years. US-based cannabis operator Curaleaf Holdings formally launched a hostile takeover bid for Aurora Cannabis on August 18th, going directly to Aurora shareholders after Aurora's leadership declined to engage in a deal. Curaleaf is offering $4 per Aurora share — representing a 45% premium over Aurora's recent share price — for a total deal value of approximately $272 million USD.
Aurora has urged shareholders to take no action, rejected the bid as undervaluing the company, and announced acquisitions of two UK pharmaceutical entities to expand its British medical cannabis footprint while the takeover plays out.
Mary Jane's Take: What Curaleaf is really after is Aurora's global medical cannabis infrastructure — its EU-GMP certified facilities, its established presence in Germany, the UK, Poland, and Australia, and the regulatory relationships built over years of international expansion. Whether Curaleaf's offer is fair compensation for that platform is something Aurora's shareholders will ultimately decide. Hostile takeovers are unusual in any industry and genuinely rare in cannabis — this story is one worth following closely.
3. UNITED STATES — 17% of American Adults Now Say They Smoke Cannabis
A new Gallup survey found that 17% of US adults say they currently smoke marijuana — more than doubling the 7% recorded in 2013. An additional 15% report consuming cannabis edibles. Cigarette smoking, meanwhile, sits at a record low of 11% — meaning more American adults now smoke cannabis than smoke tobacco.
Mary Jane's Take: The cultural shift this number represents is hard to overstate. Nearly one in five American adults uses cannabis — more than smoke cigarettes — and yet cannabis remains federally illegal in the US. The gap between where public behaviour is and where federal law sits has rarely been wider. Whatever the DEA's rescheduling process ultimately produces, the people have already made their choice.
4. GLOBAL — Germany's Appetite for Medical Cannabis Is Reshaping the Global Supply Race
Germany's rapidly growing medical cannabis market is triggering a race among major international producers to secure their position, according to reporting from MJBizDaily this week. Canada remains the world's largest cannabis exporter and currently supplies a majority of Germany's imports, but domestic German cultivation is expanding — nearly 900 applications for adult-use cultivation associations have been submitted to date — and producers from across Europe and beyond are working aggressively to qualify for the market.
Mary Jane's Take: Germany is the largest economy in Europe and has a healthcare infrastructure built for scale. Its medical cannabis program is expanding rapidly, and the country is becoming a genuinely significant force in global cannabis demand. Canadian producers currently have a meaningful head start through EU-GMP certifications and established supply relationships, but competitive advantages in fast-growing markets do not hold indefinitely. The race to supply Germany is one of the most consequential dynamics in global cannabis right now.
That's your week — one from Canada, one North American story, one from the US, one global. See you next Monday.
— Mary Jane
