Dear everyone who never worked at or with us at MedMen

I've been wanting to say most of this for a while, and I believe now is the appropriate time.

In the cascade of news stories I’m being sent, LinkedIn posts, and conversations about MedMen, there's a trend that has caught my attention, and that really bothers me - the tendency to speculate about the company's internal dynamics by those who have never set foot in our offices or worked alongside our team. As MedMen stores close their doors, it's time for a candid discussion.?

Before I dive into this, let me be very clear: this is not me defending poor management and leadership, misuse of funds, or awful decisions. This isn’t about what we could have done, it’s not about pointing fingers. This is about understanding the depth of a story only those of us involved can truly know.?

It's easy to stand on the outside and critique, to say what should have been done differently. But here's the question: How can you be so sure your ideas weren't among the myriad we tirelessly tried? Isn’t it naive to assume that with that many dedicated and bright minds that we didn’t fight tooth and nail to push some of those ideas??

MedMen was more than a company; it was a battleground of ideas, a constant push against the impossible. From budtenders and trimmers to managers and executives, there were so many people that died on swords for ideas that they believed in to come to life. There were so many people that pointed out what was wrong, where we were failing, how to fix things, how to solve these issues, how to make us better. I know because I was there and I was one of them.

Do you think I backed down when a C-suite executive on the finance team, who’s name I won’t mention, getting paid way too much and how no real grasp of what was actually going on in the operations of our company, interrupted my presentation of a very simple and logical solution to a very compounding problem in front of the rest of the executive team and told me that my "opinions and ideas weren’t valid because I’d never had a real job before?"

No, first I reminded the a**hole that I’ve had plenty of great jobs before I got into cannabis, hold a MBA, and actually had been paying attention to what was going on in our organization, knew what I was doing, and I fought HARDER.

So when I see people speculating on what could have or should have been done, let me tell you this; I tried, WE ALL TRIED. If you weren't there, you have no idea what we we up against both externally and within our own company.

I watched plenty of intelligent people get treated poorly from a couple bad eggs, who unfortunately held positions of power and often were the end decision makers. I watched many of my coworkers fight hard to implement ideas, systems, processes and solutions be laughed at or ignored, only for those bad eggs to later implement those brilliant ideas and take credit for it. I watched my teams get kicked while they were down. Did they give up? Nope, they fought harder too.

Yes, there were failures, rejections, and missteps. But there were also victories, innovations, and breakthroughs that only happened because we dared to try what no one else would. And we stood up for ourselves and our ideas even when no one would listen.

The truth about MedMen, like any narrative, is multifaceted. Some stories you hear may be fabrications, others hold grains of truth, and many lie somewhere in between. I'm privy to the untold chapters, the ‘skeletons in the closet’, the ‘bodies buried’, and the unsung triumphs. However, even I don't hold every piece of this intricate puzzle.?I'd be lying if I said I did.

The discourse around MedMen, often speculative and sensational, overlooks the human element – the employees. It's not just about a company; it's about the people who sacrificed sleep, who shed real tears, who sweat real sweat, who bled real blood, and who gave their all to build something unprecedented. These individuals, many of whom I've had the honor to work alongside, deserve more than to be overshadowed by a narrative of failure and misjudgment. Their dedication, their hard-earned successes, and their unwavering commitment were the true heartbeat of MedMen. They deserve respect and they deserve to be acknowledged for all the great things they accomplished. So next time, instead of speculating, try giving these people a little credit where a lot of credit is due.

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END RANT