MJBizMag April 2021 - 64

Sweet Leaf
ew details have emerged from both sides in the high-profile
flameout of Denver-based cannabis company Sweet Leaf,
one of the most talked-about falls from grace in the regulated
marijuana industry to date.
A brief background: In 2017, the
company boasted 400 employees and was
on pace to become one of the largest retail
chains in Colorado. It held 26 marijuana
cultivation, processing and dispensary
licenses in Denver alone, with more in
surrounding communities as well as a
cannabis business in Portland, Oregon.
Then the wheels fell off.
By the end of that year, the Denver
police would raid the company's stores,
arrest more than a dozen budtenders,
destroy roughly 7,000 pounds of cannabis
and sentence the three owners to a year
in prison each for their roles in an illegal,
multimillion-dollar sales scheme.
In 2019, owners Matthew Aiken,
Christian Johnson and Anthony Sauro
each pleaded guilty to violating the
Colorado Organized Crime Act. Local
authorities found them to be fostering
the practice of " looping, " in which one
customer would buy the maximum
amount of marijuana allowed (an ounce)
multiple times during the same day.
The Denver prosecutors said some
consumers " looped " up to 40 times
per day, leading to almost 2.5 tons of
marijuana diverted to the illicit market.
But there's a lot more to the story, says
Nichole West, who was vice president of
sales for Sweet Leaf before the raid and
arrests. West pleaded guilty to felony
drug charges and served a 30-day jail
sentence for her role in the sales plot.
In an exclusive interview with
Marijuana Business Magazine, West
explains why she believes the company
was targeted by police and what she
would have done differently.
Nichole West
Workers at a Sweet Leaf location in Denver fill cones to make pre-rolls in February 2017.
Photo by Matt Staver
Sweet Leaf had made an effort to
(offer) the lowest prices in town. That
was literally our goal: to be the best price.
" Working man's weed " was our goal. We
wanted to be weed for the people.
With as many stores as we had
(operating), we had buying power. We had
huge volume and the ability to buy a lot
of product. We greatly affected the price
point of the (Denver cannabis) market.
Based on our ability to buy so much
more, we would get discounts. If I
said, " I will buy all of it, " I would get a
better price.
We were drastically busier than a lot of
Why do you think law
enforcement went after
Sweet Leaf?
My biggest statement about this is 60%
of the industry was practicing the same
practice.
64 Marijuana Business Magazine | April 2021
the other facilities around the state based
on the fact that we (had) the best prices.
Regardless (of whether) people were
coming back multiple times, sometimes
we would have lines out of our store.
We were in a lot of these really
cute neighborhoods around Denver.
We would end up with disrespectful

MJBizMag April 2021

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