The Bigger They Are The Harder They Fall

For months, rumors were circulating throughout California’s retails that HERBL, one of California’s largest cannabis distribution companies was teetering on the verge of collapse, despite Mike Beaudry’s CEO declaring that “These rumors are categorically not true. HERBL continue to be fully operational.

Just a couple of week later, HERBL shuddered their doors.

The distribution giant’s strategy is to go to the courts seeking recompense from the many dispensaries owe the company as it goes into receivership.

Ironically enough, at least one of HERBL’s former brand partners, Sunset Connect, is suing HERBL to recover a six-figure debt the San Francisco maker of pre-rolls claims that HERBL owners $130,000 and refuses to pay.

Many pundits say that this isn’t just isolated to, but California’s mandatory distribution model as well as current state tax structure—which is unworkable.

HERBL’s failure of $17 million in unpaid taxes is not the only California startup to collapse following companies like Flow Kana, which raise $175 million capital and MedMen—which earned a billion-dollar valuation.

California state coffers aren’t the only one tohit hard, Tyler Kearns, the founder and CEO of Seven Leaves, a Sacramento-based cannabis company, told SFGATE, he felt sickening in the moment when learned that HERBL had finally bit the dust owing Seven Leaves $880,000. “I know this was going to be the biggest failure in U.S. cannabis history,”

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