There are countless reasons to be disgusted with mainstream media these days. The only reason I keep the subscriptions is to support good journalism, but the reality is, I am a puzzle freak, so my daily fix is the crosswords and games, and the NYTimes and WAPO have the best ones ( do the New Yorker too and they are a legitimate media outlet). If they were on another platform, I’d cancel all my subscriptions to mainstream media. As much as I am not a fan of Meta, the young journalists and those who have left old-school media have caught my interest, and that is where I get a lot of my news.
The NYTimes published an article on cannabis that is so infuriating, skewed, and not true. The title of the Oped is ” It’s Time for America to Admit It Has A Marijuana Problem.” The title is the only thing I agree with. Our country, although not Europe, which appears to be ahead of the curve on multiple things these days, is still living under an entirely false narrative when it comes to cannabis. Talking to doctors like Benjamin Caplan and other researchers on the plant would be a start before writing an Oped like this one. Makes me wonder if Pharma is paying the NYTimes for these OpEds? Cannabis has never killed anyone, but alcohol and pharma products certainly have.
Currently, cannabis is the number one growing industry in Europe and Canada, and from a tax perspective, that is good for those countries. The war on drugs was always bullshit. We should be leaning into how to make this new industry profitable, not dissing it. Look at how many people believe in full federal legalization, and how many people are consuming for sleep, for fun, for pain, for sex, and a slew of other things. Research and data are always key, and the information that the NYTimes is espousing is bullshit. This is my favorite line…..” People who are frequently stoned can struggle to hold a job or take care of their families”. Maybe they should come talk to me. I have been getting stoned on a daily basis my entire life (aka since 8th grade) and have had a family, built a company, and had several successful careers along the way.
The media isn’t covering much of what is happening on the paper’s front page, aka the Epstein files or ICE. We should all be asking ourselves why. My daughter refers to the New York Times as the “lying New York Times.” Unfortunately, she is 100% right.
Watching Trump demean women is so utterly disgusting. He is happy to demean anyone to avoid the truth, but his behavior toward women is taken to another level. It is not just him. When women run for political office, questions and comments about their hair, bodies, and personal decisions come into play. We do not see that with men. Women are judged on a totally different level than men, so when women achieve the same level of accolades as their male counterparts in sports, in business, in anything, we all know how much harder it was to get there because of all the negative forces being thrown at us.
Women, just like men, come in all shapes and sizes, yet why is it that women are body shamed? Have you ever seen a man body shamed? What would happen if someone body shamed men, and Trump should be at the top of that list.
I love this ad Nike put out, and I am seeing more like it from other companies, like Dove. More needs to come from the media, including Hollywood, to embrace women for who they are inside, and that must begin at a very young age. It is time for women to turn the tables on the shamers and shame them right back, or ignore them and succeed at the highest level possible. Either works for me.
Gotham Gives focuses on lifting up NYers. The Bronx Legends Boxing came to us through someone who chose to give back to an underserved community through a sport he loves. I value the community aspect, particularly empowering youth to feel empowered. These after-school activities make a huge difference in these young people’s lives, and they will carry that with them.
This past week, Gotham and Cultivated collaborated to put on The Highrise. The feedback has been incredibly positive, and we are already planning on how to make October even better with new conversations, more interaction with the audience (as in who is behind that question), and certainly, six months from now, the cannabis industry will have a whole new slew of topics to cover.
Of our two panels, one was titled “Investing in Cannabis Again,” although I was not sure “Again” should have been part of the title. Tony Repanich, the CEO of Shield Bank, and Carter Lewis of Aquinnah Capital, spoke with Dan Frommer about this topic. Tony and Carter were both insightful about capital in the industry, but no one really talked about how NY companies find capital for their brands, farms, and dispensaries.
This has been an ongoing discussion in the NY industry from the start. There was rhetoric from the government about funding that never materialized, and there are countless reasons for that. Investors care about returns, which means getting their money back and, if they are lucky, more than three times their investment within a given period.
In the early stages, MSOs (multi-state operators) began as private companies, which were savvy enough to raise capital primarily from private equity and family offices willing to take risks in the early days. Their rapid growth enabled many of these MSOs to go public on Canadian stock markets, resulting in a substantial influx of capital. People have made money buying and selling those stocks, but those companies are all laden with debt (taxes not paid), and few are profitable.
Why would someone give money to a singular dispensary that might hit $10M a year in revenue? In the past, banks would lend to owners who needed that type of cash, but they rarely do so these days. Instead, the few banks that are willing to touch the cannabis industry charge a pretty penny to operate in them. The money “lending” has been shifted to the private sector, to venture capital and private equity. There are differences among lenders in how much equity, at what price, the size of the business, opportunity, the size of the market, expertise, and many other factors, and cannabis businesses have yet to answer enough of these questions to make investors comfortable to take the leap.
Perhaps a brand could become a multi-million-dollar company, and Kiva has definitely pulled out of the gate. I have always believed you could build a $100m cannabis brand that sells only in California dispensaries, but now you really need to sell in every state to build something sizeable. That means making deals in every state, negotiating terms with farmers in each state, and selling to state-by-state dispensaries. That is really fucking hard. The government makes it nearly impossible, and the cash to get there could be prohibitive, given the need to reach profitability quickly because you don’t want to bleed cash, but you do want to pay your investors back with a return.
The farmers are operating as they always have, unfortunately, hand-to-mouth. The larger farms need equipment to operate, and that costs money. I have yet to hear a happy story about borrowed money for one farmer in the cannabis industry. The debt weighs on their shoulders, and they need to constantly upgrade and sell to an industry struggling to grow.
Everything comes down to the dispensaries. The ones that survive are at the end of the line, where all products are sold to customers. It is not easy to build a four-walled dispensary when there is still a robust illegal market. It might not be street-level, but there is ample underground, and the powers that be don’t seem to realize that, or are focused on it. The state needs to start thinking and talking with operators about our needs, not what they think they are. Nobody is looking to do anything illegal, but the state needs to work with us and react to help us build with a sense of urgency. We should be able to pull permits to bring and sell cannabis at events just like liquor stores and caterers do…and that means with ease. It will help expand all of our businesses. The product is being rescheduled (waiting for the DEA to complete the deal), and cannabis should be treated more like alcohol, at least for the time being.
The last thing is that this industry will never get out of the debt hole until cannabis becomes federally legal. Investors will then get into the game because the opportunity has changed tenfold. Everyone will benefit, including the government, with more taxes, because the amount that can be done with the plant from the medical industry has not even scratched the surface. Although ignoring the pharma lobbyists is a whole other ballgame. Medical research and the outcomes for consumers are the sweet spot for tax dollars. And our country will need serious funding in the future, because when a new administration takes office, we might find there is nothing left in our coffers.
Today, Gotham and Cultivated is streaming The Highrise live on LinkedIn — a high-signal conversation bringing together leaders across cannabis policy, science, and capital to dig into what comes next for the industry.
A keynote conversation on the future of U.S. cannabis policy. New insights into medical cannabis research and science. A candid look at what it will take to make cannabis investable again, or was it ever?
Thursday, January 29…TODAY Program begins at 4:30 PM ET Live on Cultivated’s LinkedIn
This week, Gotham announced the Gotham Growth Project. This is an idea that we have been discussing for quite a while. In an industry where everyone talks about the importance of social impact, not much has actually been done. Many are struggling; the capital isn’t there; the laws are frustrating and constantly changing; and the government doesn’t do much to ensure our success. There is not enough diversity of products on our shelves, and we are hoping that through this program, we can make a small dent and perhaps even a bigger one over time.
We’re excited to introduce the Gotham Growth Project – a new, cohort-based accelerator designed to support Black-owned cannabis consumer-product businesses in New York. Gotham Growth Project was built to meet founders where they are: offering structure, accountability, and strategic guidance to help move from early traction to scalable, sustainable growth. Through expert-led sessions, practical assignments, and peer learning, participants will work through real business challenges, from retail readiness and operations to long-term expansion.
This inaugural cohort is dedicated to Black-owned brands with products already selling in regulated markets. While GGP does not provide direct funding, founders will gain access to targeted feedback, industry expertise, and a growing network of peers and partners. The program culminates in a pitch showcase at The Highrise, Gotham’s semi-annual salon created to elevate the cannabis conversation, and a guaranteed opportunity to launch at Gotham stores upon completion of the program.
I have been a patron of a company for years. I recently found out that they do not pay their employees properly, and the reality is that the employees rely so heavily on customer tips that if they do not get a Venmo within a few days, the manager calls to remind you to tip them. My moral compass is telling me that I do not want to support that company anymore, but my heart aches for the employees.
As a business owner, I decided to shut down the stores on Sunday due to the storm. The safety of our employees is first and foremost. And everyone scheduled for that day will be paid in full. That is the right thing to do. As I have written about before, we pay our employees $25 an hour to start. There is an opportunity for upward mobility (all new job specs are sent to the company first), if you are full-time, you get full healthcare without having to pay into the system (and ours is quite good), we match your IRA at the end of the year, and there are perks and discounts, now commission on top of their salaries and an education series. Could I do what every other dispensary does? Sure, but I’d rather see our employees loyal to Gotham and be able to survive in NYC. Happy employees make me happy. By doing all these things, we have also created a community both inside and outside the store.
These days, our lack of leadership in this country is astounding. One of the things I love about our mayor, Zohran, is his commitment to community. He told the city (on Instagram) everything they were doing to prepare for the snow, and he picked up his shovel and helped, and that shows leadership. I found out that people can volunteer to shovel and get $19 an hour from the city; you gotta love that. He is setting new priorities that have a moral compass. We need more of this at the highest levels of government.
The press has become mute, or extremely one-sided. The NYTimes has not put the horrific shooting and protests happening in Minneapolis on the front page until this past Monday. They have ignored all the protests for the past year. That suggests to me that public sentiment is changing, or they would continue burying the lead. As much as I believe that Meta, Pharma, Google, and other large tech companies should be broken up, Instagram has given us a new home in the media. I am following all the young journalists who are covering what is happening on the ground, listening to people tell truths that they have witnessed or been part of, with real-time information all day long, vs. the slant and bullshit that our major media outlets are not covering for fear of losing their seat at the table. As much as I hate Meta, these new journalists give me hope.
During the ongoing war in Minneapolis, Trump and Melania screened her “documentary,” with Tim Cook as a guest. Really? Do all these CEO’s who have bent their knee to this horrific group running our country believe that this is the only way to make sure that their stocks don’t tank? Have we created companies with no moral compass except for profit? Is this what America has become?
America has lost the plot; we have lost our compass. Although I do feel profoundly proud of what we have created at Gotham, I ask other founders and CEOs: Why do you not do the right thing by your employees? Why do you not speak out against what is happening in our country, particularly those running multi-billion dollar companies?
It is time for change, and for all those who are not paying attention, shame on you. Pay attention to the environment around us; even in technology, people can now build their own software with ease, diminishing the need for large tech companies. We are in strange times, but there are always silver linings.
Caring about community and values seems to be way overdue.
I have been a culture hound the majority of my life. Museums, books, movies, music, and physical art (paintings, ceramics, materials, etc.). I can’t get enough.
This past weekend, considering it was 9 degrees when I woke up on Saturday morning, and we actually got a mega snowstorm, I have been digging into movies, which are now so easy to watch from our couches. I have watched old films, new films and plenty of docs.
Art represents culture. Films tell stories of a time, and that visual experience sticks with me. It also speaks loudly of the importance of art in society. I do not and never will understand why art – and that is a big umbrella – isn’t supported more by our government. Everyone can create art, but there are certain people who must create art; it is who they are, and we make it so hard for them to survive. Why?
The UK government is investing 1.5 billion pounds in arts and culture from 2025 to 2030, to revitalize museums, libraries, and heritage sites. The Arts Council England’s strategy is to create a truly creative nation. They want to support creative people, cultural communities, and a culturally creative country. There are a variety of initiatives planned, such as “What If,” using digital and environmental bases to drive change.
England has been around since the 10th century, so it is worth noting where we could eventually go. Culture and education cultivate artistic people, giving everyone an opportunity to be mentally productive every day. As we move into a more automated society and a stable, intelligent government emerges in the US, leaning into the arts is long overdue.
When I began Gotham, the concept was to develop products we could sell outside our four walls. Private label is a key component for multiple reasons. I saw a void in the market for a color- and elevated-CBD lotion that is incredible for your skin. We have had ample missteps and many lessons learned, but it appears we have finally nailed it.
The scents are incredible, the packaging (aka glass vs plastic) is good for the environment, and the colors pop. We all need a bit of color in our lives these days. Gotham is highlighting the new rollout of these products in our stores and also online.
There is the CBD lotion
Body wash.
The salve (one of our best-selling products in our stores).
Our daughter, Emily, who has returned to NYC, is a win for all of us. She began the Angel in LA (aka the name), writing profiles and other long-form content about the food and restaurant industries. She filled a void in the media business, and of course, the readership grew. Her partner, David, provided the photography, and the rest is history. She posted twice a week: the first was her piece on Tuesday, and the other on Saturday, where chosen people get to answer five questions she calls the Plugs. She will continue building in LA, but living in NYC, we NYers will get the same love that LA has captured. I was honored to be the first plug…and of course I must share. See below.
Plugs is The Angel’s recs column. Every week, you’ll get six picks—a restaurant, a bar, a shop, an ingredient, a person, and a treat—from someone in New York who knows what they’re talking about, plus a selection of Angel-curated links.
#96 (in all-time Plugs history, but #1 in NY Plugs history) is Joanne Wilson, also known as the Gotham Gal. Joanne is the founder and CEO of Gotham, the cannabis concept store with locations on the Bowery, at the Domino Sugar Factory, in Chelsea, and in Hudson, New York. Before getting into the weed biz, she was an angel investor focused on women-founded startups like Parachute, Clue, Sweet Loren’s, and Food52. She’s also my very own mother—and the person most responsible for my lifelong obsession with food. She taught me how to roast a chicken, and that chocolate chip cookies should be baked regularly and kept in a big glass jar on the kitchen counter. She gave me a proper education in dining, too: taking me to places like Tabla, wd~50, Momofuku Ssäm Bar, and Fatty Crab at the height of their popularity, and shepherding me to classics like Fred’s at Barney’s and Florent. She likes to call herself a woman about town, and I’d agree. Who better to kick off Plugs in New York City? Here’s Joanne.
For the first two weeks of January, The Angel is free. After that, all editions of Plugs and most of our reporting will be behind a paywall.
I have lived in NYC long enough that when asked to plug a restaurant, it all depends on the angle. Favorite (tough one), cuisine (multiple), old school (plenty), and the list goes on. We all have our go-tos. My husband and I eat out six days a week. I insist we stay home on Sunday night. I decided the plug must be a spot we frequent at least once a week, and sometimes more, because you can also go there for lunch: Anton’s. The vibe is great, the story behind it is great, and in full transparency, we ended up becoming investors when the former owners (The Franks of Frankies) left the space behind and handed the golden keys to Natalie and Nick, who made it their own. It has been an absolute success, and the food is delicious. Ask anyone who has been there. Anton’s is also our neighborhood spot, located on Hudson and 11th, an epic corner.
I love a good bar, particularly one you can eat at, and that is around the corner. We have been going to Barbuto from the start, when it was on the corner of 12th and Washington, where the bar had maybe seven seats. It was a miracle if you could score one. Barbuto closed when the landlord sold the building to someone who planned to convert it into a one-family, then four-family (and now currently stalled) project, which is not ok for the neighborhood, but the good news is that Barbuto found a spot a block away. The new bar is huge, and we can usually score a seat and have a drink. The bartenders all know us, they know our drinks, and they know to bring us an order of breadsticks.
I wanted to share my favorite food shop, but there aren’t many that I frequent. Besides Eataly, which works if you live in the area, and the H Marts springing up everywhere, there is a real void in the grocery store sector, particularly in the West Village. I pine for the old Dean & Deluca and Balducci’s. Citarella has gone downhill. So I am going to plug my favorite store in NYC (besides, of course, all the Gotham stores): Dover Street Market. Cutting-edge, cool building, constantly changing inventory, young designers, and of course lunch, a treat, or just a coffee at Rose Bakery, where they carry a great curated selection of food products. It’s the perfect way to spend a few hours once in a while.
A Rose Bakery scone. Photo by Joanne Wilson.
Ingredient — Lemon
I love when lemons get charred at a high temperature, making them soft, juicy, and ideal for squeezing hot juice over fish. I love a moist lemon cake with ample zest. I love a tart, oozing lemon pudding. Lemon rind in my vodka martini, always. Even when I was a kid, and we would go to Baskin-Robbins for a treat, I’d always order a scoop of lemon ice cream on a cake cone.
I usually would say my husband, as we are great together, and he is my favorite person, but I am going to choose Liz Neumark here. I was introduced to Liz by someone I had invested in. He thought we would make a good connection, so we all got together for drinks. After meeting her, I wrote about her for Women Entrepreneur of the Week, a column I used to write for my blog. Liz and I got together at Chelsea Market, and I interviewed her. She was a photographer who began to cater art openings on the side, turning her side hustle into Great Performances, one of the biggest hospitality companies in the country. We became fast friends. She loves food, and so do I, so I suggested we spend an afternoon at the Golden Mall Food Court in Queens. Since then, we have visited countless cities together to eat, learn, go to farmers’ markets, and have fun. Liz is a true New Yorker, and I am lucky to have her in my life.
My favorite treat isn’t especially gourmet, but it always hits the spot. Hershey’s Kisses make me happy, although sometimes I have to hold myself back from eating too many. They’ve been around since 1907, a classic. I peel off the silver foil, pop the kiss in my mouth, and let it melt on my tongue. For Valentine’s Day many many years ago, I got each of our kids a framed photo of a Hershey’s Kiss. It’s kind of the perfect treat.
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Thursday, January 29…TODAY
Program begins at 4:30 PM ET
Live on Cultivated’s LinkedIn
