Okay, before we start, and so you should know, it is absolutely prohibited by the SacTown ordinance to transfer ownership of ANY dispensary permit. Yet the Office of Cannabis Management facilitates an illegal and unlawful pay-to-play scheme, which inconceivably allows current dispensary permit holder to circumvent the CORE social equity group and the city’s promise to provide 50 percent of overall dispensary ownership to CORE.
First of all, the current ordinance states that any transfer (direct or indirect) of ownership, automatically revokes a dispensary permit. Currently the city refuses to enforce the ordinance; instead the city facilitates a pay-to-play scheme which ultimately discriminates against participants in the CORE program.
As evidenced by the fresh off the presses breaking news from WeezyLeaks; the sale of Sacramento’s 2nd Social Equity dispensary has been tentatively consummated. Through nefarious means, Bryan and Ashley Smith have (allegedly) unlawfully transferred and obtained ownership of Off the Charts dispensary owned by Mike Snell a military veteran. You can find the official opening of Off the Charts dispensary (Aug 2023 here: 2nd Social Equity Cannabis Club to Open in Sacramento
After just 10 months in operation; this dispensary has been unlawfully transferred in direct violation of the city ordinance that prohibits transfer of ownership of any social equity dispensary. In addition, It is expressly required that the licensee, in this case Mike Snell, must maintain majority share for 10 years. Again, the office of cannabis management is obligated to enforce the ordinance; revoke the permit and open it up for CORE ownership.
Instead the Office of Cannabis Management gets a kickback from the participants of an unlawful sale, and worse yet; OCM does this in direct contravention of the promise it made to CORE members of 50 percent ownership; 32+ dispensary’s out of 40 have been bought and sold since inception of the cannabis program; despite the ordinance which STILL requires any transferred dispensary to be revoked and returned to the pool of available dispensary permits.
Allowing the Office of Cannabis Management to continue contravention of CORE is a travesty, but this is exactly what the Mayor, former CMs, and current CM allow OCM to do.
The following dispensary’s have also been unlawfully sold in contravention of the CORE social equity rights and privleges; since 2018:
- NorthStar Dispensary permit – Allegedly transferred from original owner to Mike Boyd, facilitated by Joe Devlin – 2018
- CannaCare permit – transferred from Lanette Davies to Rob Fong/Bryan Smith/Ohana; facilitated by Leyne Milstein\Davina Smith – 2020
- 515 Broadway – transferred from Anthony Gonzalez to Kana Co.; Facilitated by Leyne Milstein\Davina Smith – 2022
- Off the Charts – transferred from Mike Snell to Ashley and Bryan Smith; pending unlawful facilitation by Leyne Milstein\Davina Smith – 2024
Furthermore; the Office of Cannabis Management admitted in Nov 2020; that it intentionally allowed 18 dispensarys to be transferred unlawfully; many of those dispensary owned by Garib Karapetyan aka Justin Karapetyan who admitted to amassing control over 14 dispensary permits by nefarious and unlawful means under the watch of former city employee Brad Wasson.
In all cases these dispensary’s (all dispensary’s transferred; 32+ permits) should have been terminated and then released to CORE Social Equity for equal opportunity; but the Office of Cannabis Management, specifically Leyne Milstein, and Davina Smith refused to enforce the ordinance, because the entire office is conflicted and willing participants and conspirators in the fraud and corruption perpetrated by the crime organization.
Thus all 125 CORE applicants for dispensary selection have been been intentionally and maliciously defrauded and discriminated by the Office of Cannabis Management, and denied due process in the course of obtaining promised dispensary permit ownership-.
In addition to the above crimes, WeezyLeaks is suing the city for rigging the CORE RFQ Dispensary Selection, as well as co-opting and weaponizing the the CORE Grant distributions process and CORE Loan. Programs to benefit the crime organization and It conspirators, and beneficiaries.
Finally, WeezyLeaks has determined that the Office of Cannabis Management colludes with land-owners to price gouge and create land use regulations to intentionally cause the cost of leasing property to artificially inflate (over 3 times current market); to benefit the criminal organization and its conspirators, and willing participants.
The concept of known as “Green Zone” creation by the city in collusion with land owners (Agents Working for OCM) to artificially inflate lease costs. The city requires applicants to lease within the Green Zones. These green zones are owned in many cases by “agents” of the city. These agents intentionally obtain green zone property and then collude with city employees to extract awarded grant money from the permit applicants at 3 times market value or even higher in many cases. This is why the city “allows” applicants and permit holders to use grant money for lease payments which comprise the biggest expense to operating a cannabis dispensary permit or any other cannabis business permit.
Known agents (allegedly) include Garib Karapetyan, Rob Fong, Bryan Smith, Ashley Smith, Malakai Seku Amen, David Carlson, Garib Karapetyan, Randi Knott, and others.
Weezyleaks has identified these defendants, and has initiated a lawsuit and will be certifying the lawsuit as a class action lawsuit in the near future. If you are a CORE member and would like to be a participant in this class action lawsuit please contact Weezyleaks at 916-538-4215 or Weezyleaks@gmail.com.
Be sure to check out our other post here: https://weezyleaks.com/weezyleaks-files-lawsuit-vs-the-city-of-sacramento-and-the-office-of-cannabis-management-for-civil-violations-of-the-rico-act/
Visit us at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sacsterdam
Thank you,
Terry Colorado – President Sacramento Wellness Collective – Sacsterdam University – Military Grade Cannabis.
This article makes me very sad. Mr. Snell fell into an unintended, horrific situation through no fault of his own.
The cannabis industry is still in its beginning stages and can get deep fast. Often, the only way out for a CORE member is to sell and/or merge or walk away with nothing. Even when they get something for their businesses, it is not what they originally invested.
WeezyLeakes, if you are sincerely reporting on the Sacramento City cannabis industry, you should know all of this. You should also know that other CORE members are not in a position to purchase these dispensaries, which means it has to be outside funds.
Leyne Milstein and Davina Smith have been great supporters of the CORE Equity members and are doing the right thing by allowing these dispensaries to change ownership. I don’t want to see another CORE member lose their business and get “nothing.”
Hello Betty,
There is a good reason why permits are not meant to be transferred or sold. The ordinance clearly states that any “direct or indirect” transfer of a permit results in its automatic termination.
Equity permits are intended to be operated by social equity recipients, not sold to the highest bidder. Social equity dispensaries are designed to serve as hubs of opportunity for other social equity brands. Allowing permit holders to sell their permits undermines this purpose. Once a permit leaves the equity stable, the new dispensary permit holder is free to disregard other social equity brands.
Davina Smith has been terminated, and because her loyalty lies with her criminal organization, Leyne Milstein refuses to enforce the ordinance, which requires that when a dispensary is transferred, the permit is revoked and returned to the CORE for operation, not for sale to highest bidder. By unlawfully approving transfers, the city enables predators like Bryan Smith and Garib Karapetyan, who own numerous dispensaries, to take permits away from social equity operators. This is part of a larger scam.
Furthermore, the city collaborates with landowners like Garib Karapetyan to create green zones that inflate land prices. The city’s regulations require permit holders to acquire property within these green zones, benefiting landowners while harming social equity recipients. The city takes state grant money and feeds it back to CORE in the form of equity loans and grants. This means recipients end up paying (wasting) grant money for inflated green zone land leases at 6 to 10 times the market value. For instance, Karapetyan charges $20,000 per month for a green zone lease for an equity permit holder.
If the city would enforce the code and disallow transfers, as they should, (mandatory duty), investors could invest all the money they want into the dispensary permit, benefiting themselves, and the social equity permit holder. However, investors would not be allowed to take ownership of the permit. This means investors could either gain back or lose their investment, but the equity permit holder would retain the permit, ensuring true protection for social equity permit holders.
It appears that CannaCare was sold to Ohana for between 6 and 10 million dollars in 2018; which means the value of dispensary permits has plummeted, and now a predator white guy like Bryan Smith will pay less than $500,000 for a social equity dispensary permit.
I also want to point out that due to the “green zone” regulations, my understanding is that zero social equity dispensary permits are currently in operation. Mike’s was the 2nd to open, but from my understanding even the first one is no longer operating. The “green zone” regulations were a problem when Joe Devlin was in Smith’s recently vacated shoes, and permits were not being approved then either. The “green zone” regulations are the exact reason CORE equity permit holders can not operate their permits.
The space OCM makes available for cannabis is intentionally “not enough”, because OCM wants you to pay inflated prices so that ultimately … the permit will wither and die on the vine, and cease to exist or … if it is a dispensary permit, ensures it will be unlawfully transferred to a market predator in collusion with the criminal organization.
In conclusion, you may assume that Davina, and Leyne supported CORE, but that was an illusion; designed to keep you complacent and silent about the corruption. Think about it; what makes operating a dispensary so expensive? Back in the day when I operated a dispensary, we would open with nothing but the landlords consent, buy and sell weezy, and at the end of the day we made a buck and our patient was happy. Sure, it was labled the the wild wild west, but in my humble opinion it was far superior to the shit show we have today.
I suggest we ALL go back to that model (its still legal and viable) and screw this legal use bullshit.
Anyone wanting to learn how to operate in the Shadow Market with Weezyleaks; just let me know; we’ll make it happen.
Thank you,
Weezyleaks