Weed Empire: How I Battled Gangsters, Investment Banks, and the Department of Justice to Build the Cannabis Industry in America - Hardcover

by Adam Bierman (Author)

"The cannabis industry will be talking about this book for a long time."
--Forbes

From the cofounder of MedMen comes the unfiltered tale of the mainstreaming of an outlaw industry: the growers, dealers, lobbyists, tycoons, and titans of the industry that created corporate cannabis.

Adam Bierman wasn't planning on selling weed--or developing a network of cannabis stores, or safeguarding his money in shoeboxes, or facing off with gangs in dark corners of parking lots, or taking on the public markets and justice system itself. But, of course, not everything goes according to plan.

Weed Empire is an inside look at the story behind MedMen, America's first cannabis unicorn and the world's first globally recognized cannabis brand. It's the underdog story of how a kid from the suburbs entered the cannabis scene and later reimagined weed for the mainstream, jumping at an opportunity to shift the conversation about legalizing marijuana. It's also the tale of how a one-room studio dispensary eventually turned into a public company valued at more than $2 billion, led by a CEO with no college degree--with politicians, entertainment moguls, and Wall Street heavyweights on his team.

An unconventional but intensely authentic memoir, Weed Empire is a cautionary tale of the high cost of ambition, documenting MedMen's decade-long rise as well as all the slog of passing cannabis legislation, and the exhausting battle to start a public company, bring a dream to the world, and hold a family--and himself--together through the madness.

Author Biography

Adam Bierman is the co-founder and former CEO of MedMen, the first American cannabis unicorn and once the most recognized brand in the marijuana industry. In his decade at the helm of the company, he grew the business to five states, 33 retail stores and more than 1,500 employees. Today, Bierman is working with cannabis companies and investors to expand consumer access on a global scale in his continued effort to take the industry into the mainstream and continue to de-stigmatize cannabis and end its prohibition. As an authority and go-to thought leader within the industry, he has appeared on several news outlets including CNBC, Bloomberg News, Forbes, CNN, Time Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, U.S. News & World Report, and many others.