FILE: Cannabis flower products for sale at the Green Goddess Collective legal cannabis dispensary on Feb. 15, 2023, in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles.
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
In the 30-second clip, Norman Yousif, founder and CEO of the dispensary chain Off the Charts, is shown apparently bragging that he has saved money by “not paying the vendors.” To add insult to injury, Yousif seemed to specifically say that it was the “f—cking mom and pops” that his company wasn’t paying.
“We’ve saved hundreds and hundreds of thousands. I mean, if you don’t have to pay, you don’t have to pay,” Yousif said in the video.
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With that comment, Yousif touched on a problem that has been rampant for years: California’s cannabis farmers keep getting stiffed. They send their pot to cannabis stores, yet their invoices never get paid. They lose sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time, and those losses put these smaller enterprises, including third-generation family farms, out of business.
The video quickly ricocheted across social media where hundreds of people posted angry comments, calling Yousif’s comments “disgusting” and an example of “everything that is wrong” inside California’s pot industry.
Yousif apologized for the statement