MedMen was once the hottest name in cannabis—a billion-dollar juggernaut that promised to redefine legal weed. It became so culturally significant that South Park parodied its sleek, corporate image, a sign that cannabis had truly gone mainstream. But just like the fictional "Tegridy Weed," MedMen's story was about more than branding: It embodied the tension between corporate ambition and cannabis culture, the promise of legitimacy clashing with the industry's still-uncertain foundation.
That promise didn't last. Within five years, MedMen had collapsed under the weight of lawsuits, financial struggles and a dramatic boardroom coup.
Now, the company's controversial co-founder Adam Bierman is telling his side of the story in "Weed Empire: How I Battled Gangsters, Investment Banks, and the Department of Justice to Build the Cannabis Industry in America," set for release in April 2025 via Simon & Schuster.
Bierman's team provided early access to the book, which lays out a dramatic account of MedMen's meteoric rise, internal power struggles and eventual collapse. But was the company's downfall driven by federal interference, corporate betrayal or its own unsustainable ambitions? The reality, Bierman argues, is more complicated.
Read more at Forbes