Moxie CEO Hopes to Score Coveted N.J. Medical Pot License
*By Carlo Versano*
The competition is on for new medicinal marijuana licenses in New Jersey after Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy prioritized cannabis production when he took office. The CEO of one potential licensee, Moxie, thinks the state has "passed the tipping point" for accepting medical pot at the state level.
Jordan Lams, founder and CEO of the medicinal marijuana producer, told Cheddar as he awaited news on whether his company had been awarded one of the licenses that Moxie has a fully built-out, 16-acre farm and greenhouse operation at the ready ー which would help New Jersey get its operations up to scale quickly.
"The state can count on us to do what we say we will," he said.
Lams praised Gov. Murphy for "taking ownership" of medical marijuana policy after it had languished under previous administrations.
There is now so much pent-up demand from patients Lams said, that the state has concerns over shortages.
The license that Moxie hopes to win is a fully-integrated, "seed-to-sale" license, though Lams said he will also apply for licenses to just grow and process, if this one is not granted.
Lams, who started a career in medical marijuana after his younger sister died of leukemia, now advocates for responsible regulations in the nascent cannabis industry.
He said he's seeing a market that's "developing every day."
"Every day someone who never would have touched this before is really coming into the marketplace. It's global at this point."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/moxie-vies-for-nj-medicinal-marijuana-license).
Following a session in which investors saw gains across the major indexes, Wealth Consulting Group CEO Jimmy Lee says investors need to remember that midterm election years tend to be more volatile in general.
Stocks closed lower to end the last trading day of May, but the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones both rose over the past month. The Federal Reserve in early May raised interest rates by half a percentage point as it tries to fight inflation, but the question continues to linger: will we enter a recession as we try to tame inflation? Anthony Saccaro, Founder & President of Providence Financial, joins Closing Bell to discuss today's close, the possibility of a recession, where he is telling clients to look for opportunities, and more.
The semiconductor industry is at an inflection point as it tries to fully recover from the worst of pandemic-era headwinds. While Broadcom has announced it will buy cloud computing company VMware, Nvidia is lowering its current quarterly outlook. Meanwhile, TSMC and Intel are contemplating raising prices -- again -- thanks to higher materials costs. Where does the industry go from here? Ted Mortonson, technology strategist at Baird, joins Closing Bell to discuss.
Memorial Day rang in the unofficial start of summer here in the United States -- and with it, the unofficial start of summer travel. Whether consumers traveled by air or by land, they probably experienced some form of frustration over the weekend. Flyers faced delays and cancellations, and drivers faced the most expensive gas prices ever recorded on Memorial Day. Zach Griff, Senior Aviation Reporter for the Points Guy, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Next-generation gaming ecosystem Joystick recently raised $8 million in a seed round and is in the process of raising a $110 million Series A funding round. Gaming ecosystems are a relatively new type of platform in the Web3 space, allowing users to maximize their play-to-earn gaming opportunities, exchange crypto-currencies, and sell their digital assets. Joystick says its platform is flipping the current model on its head by giving players the opportunity to keep 100% of the revenue they earn. Robin Defay, co-founder and CEO of Joystick, and Michael Le, co-founder of Joystick and TikTok content creator, join Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Abe Stein, Head of Innovation at Sports Innovation Lab, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he explains why the top four spots on his company's 2022 list are European soccer clubs and discusses Sports Innovation Lab's plan to publish data on women's pro sports teams in the not-too-distant future.
