Authentic Artwork By Anthony Haley
As the tip of the 12 months 2022 approaches and we start the cusp of 2023, I write this story in hopes that the majority of us within the hashish {industry} will mirror on the teachings A Christmas Carol has ingrained in all of us. Most within the rising hashish {industry} in all probability really feel akin to Bob Cratchit, making an attempt to feed our Tiny Tim’s whereas quietly, or not so quietly resenting these Scrooges on the high.
For the aim of this text, the quantity of cannabis companies that went under prior to now calendar 12 months will probably be metaphorically representing the chained ghost of Jacob Marley. Jacob Marley, who warned Ebenezer Scrooge, who will probably be for the sake of this text representing company hashish, that he was going to be visited by three ghosts.
If The Ghost of Christmas Past arrived to point out Scrooge his hashish previous, they’d in all probability level to the commotion, panic, and disruption attributable to Toronto-based hashish firm Ghost Drops. A company who within the matter of a 12 months, seemingly outsmarted the competitors, dominated retail gross sales, and altered the narrative of weed in Canada endlessly. They did so just by being true to what they imagine and who they’re.
The Ghost of Christmas Previous would convey that till Ghost Drops got here alongside, a lot of the hashish {industry} in Canada was targeted on the outdated narratives first set out by big billion-dollar licensed producers. “Educating” the general public by telling them that anybody concerned in weed earlier than legalization was a bunch of hippies, thugs, and stoners hiding within the shadows or underneath stairwells.
As a lot as they have been proper about us, The Ghost of Christmas Previous would additionally level out that the hippies, thugs, stoners, and shadowy stair-dwellers considered company hashish as overspending predatory traders. A bunch of shiny-shoed idiots who thought they might outsmart the “legacy market” by promoting mid-grade hashish at premium pricing. Not realizing that the buyer might inform the distinction even when they couldn’t.
I suppose in hindsight we have been both right.
Nevertheless, the supposed spirit of this piece is to come back collectively. Not proceed to level fingers, sabotage, or work towards one another within the hashish {industry}. In spite of everything, the teachings we study in any {industry} are transferable. A sentiment that has all the time rang true with the founders of Ghost Drops.
The Ghost Drops of Christmas Previous
The story of Ghost Drops begins with John Durante and Travis “Organik” Fleetwood and dates again to their early days rising up in Bolton, Ontario. A small blue collar city with small blue collar city issues. Each Fleetwood and Durante began hustling as younger children—as most in small cities do.
As a youngster, Fleetwood discovered a love for hip-hop and began battle rapping on the web, pre-social-media. Fleetwood’s ardour for limericks discovered him success as a self-professed “skinny white child”. He shortly made a reputation for himself on the web and commenced competing. He even made it so far as battling on the BET Spring Bling, which he gained in 2009, however didn’t obtain honors attributable to not becoming their goal demographic. Nevertheless, Fleetwood considers being underestimated as a youth a pivotal level in serving to him construct drive and character. “My best characteristic is constantly being underestimated,” he mentioned.
With little route, Durante took a unique path and joined the navy when he was 19 and served for 4 years. Within the navy is the place he discovered the rewards of self-discipline, onerous work, and perseverance. Little did each know, they have been creating the transferable expertise that might later assist them to construct a wildly profitable hashish firm.
Throughout this time, Fleetwood had launched what grew to become the King of The Dot (KOTD). Battle rap showcases and competitions that might flip the heads of not solely the perfect in Canadian hip-hop, however demanded the eye of the international rap community as well. KOTD steadily grew to be one of many largest battle rap leagues on the earth, showcasing among the finest expertise hip-hop needed to provide, gaining world respect, and ultimately making content material offers with Amazon.
When Durante completed serving within the navy, the 2 childhood pals reunited. King Of The Dot had blown up and Durante was discovering success in building. Nevertheless, hashish was all the time a real ardour for each of them.
In 2017, the 2 lifelong pals secretly began Ghost Drops. Each had expertise hustling, however they wished to begin one thing artistic whereas curating a singular expertise for the hashish client. The thought was to begin a weed firm that might characteristic and spotlight the true rockstars of hashish: growers, cultivators, and the seed-crackers. Those who would danger all of it to carry the perfect hashish to the lots. They might signify the perfect cultivators and the cultivators might stay ghosts, therefore the title, Ghost Drops. The 2 introduced new consideration to award-winning cultivators by assigning customized artwork, “illustrations,” and design to every of their develop companions.
Ghost Drops’ status grew to become an establishment in street-level hashish in Toronto and so they shortly grew a nationwide following, serving their large buyer base largely by mail order.
Ghost Drops on-line mannequin functioned as a hub connecting their respected growers with a brand new viewers, one thing Fleetwood already knew how you can construct from his time with KOTD. Fleetwood and Durante continued to develop Ghost Drops, however by no means affiliated publicly in order to not complicate their already sophisticated lives.
Ghost Drops continued to function on this vogue till they got here throughout Gene Bernaudo in late 2020.
Bernaudo had beforehand been the President of The Ignite Corporation—a company which is famously affiliated with the ever-polarizing determine Dan Bilzerian, who, in your humble narrator’s opinion, presents extra as somebody who ought to be selling cocaine rather than cannabis.
Bernaudo managed to construct a world community underneath the Ignite banner till he determined to search for one thing new. He was then launched to Durante and Fleetwood by a mutual buddy. His curiosity piqued as he had all the time wished to be in hashish, and that wasn’t the route Ignite had taken.
Bernaudo noticed main potential in taking Ghost Drops’ grey market platform to the legalized market.
The 2 events started to really feel one another out. A vetting course of which was briefly held again when Bernaudo instructed that Fleetwood and Durante go public because the faces behind Ghost Drops. A proposal that isn’t typically enticing to black market weed sellers.
A testomony to Bernaudo’s ingenuity, Durante and Fleetwood agreed to maneuver ahead and the group had severely begun working collectively by early 2021.
With Bernaudo on board the workforce now had the know-how to carry Ghost Drops to the legalized hashish market. They’d a plan on how you can scale the operation, and so they wished to incorporate everybody within the {industry}. A sentiment that struck an enormous chord with Bernaudo, as being a pioneer in authorized hashish doesn’t come with out battle scars, “What Ghost Drops was doing was catering to the buyer, not like the remainder of the {industry}, who have been catering to their steadiness,” Bernaudo mentioned.
The Ghost Drops of Christmas Current
With a like-minded method, the brand new workforce got down to construct Ghost Drop 2.0: the start of the Ghost Drops we see at the moment. They might turn into the primary Canadian hashish firm to launch with pre-existing model loyalty and the differentiator of deliberate transparency.
By means of pre-existing partnerships, Bernaudo had the means to create a enterprise construction with plans to carry high quality genetics and curated merchandise that they not solely wished to place in market, however felt deserved consideration. By means of well-vetted contract rising, Ghost Drops would construct an infrastructure with micro-cultivators, and established licensed producers alike. This may severely scale back the corporate’s overhead and provides Ghost Drops extra management of their messaging and expertise. A mannequin that many present upstarts have begun to emulate if not copy precisely.
Rumors swarmed the hashish {industry} round what these legacy “Ghost Drop guys” have been as much as.
A typical falsehood that unfold was that Ghost Drops didn’t care about packaging fines, in order that they put out fluorescent pink jars as a fuck you to compliance, difficult asinine shade restrictions set forth in Bill C-45’s (Canada’s Cannabis Act) advertising rules.
Nevertheless, the general public would later study that Ghost Drop’s vibrant pink branding was one Pantone less than the defined term of “fluorescent.” Ghost Drops skill to cleverly maneuver throughout the boundaries of presidency set regulation is one other level of pleasure for the corporate and by all counts, humorous as shit.
Lastly, there was a weed firm in Canada prepared to take probabilities.
By the tip of 2021, Ghost Drops had formally introduced they have been coming to market and the hype was actual. With Bernaudo in place as CEO, Fleetwood had publicly related his Organik persona with Ghost Drops taking artistic management of the corporate, and Durante had taken the position of President. The group was all in.
Those that had recognized beforehand about Ghost Drops founder’s affiliation with the black market model of the corporate, previous to the press launch, felt like that they had bragging rights. Those that discovered after the very fact have been thrilled that somebody they seen as a profitable artist, recognized for giving individuals a platform, had additionally been supplying them with the perfect weed within the nation. For sure the model caught fireplace instantly. Some detractors cried “promote out,” however the sentiment was onerous to keep up when it grew to become obvious that the brand new post-Ghost-Drops-era of hashish in Canada had opened the door for everybody within the “legacy market” to take part in: Authorized Land.
Whereas billion-dollar licensed producers struggled to reinvent the wheel, Ghost Drops steam-rolled in on custom.
Ghost Drops shortly started dominating the market. They purchased their very own storefront in downtown Toronto, and inside months had shortly introduced a brand new program referred to as The League—a division of Ghost Drops deliberate on funding hashish startups, the legacy gamers who bought them began, and hashish manufacturers they believed in.
Instantly, company hashish began associating their manufacturers with the time period “legacy” in hopes that they might appeal to a few of Ghost Drops’ rabid viewers, credibility, and gross sales—a phenomenon I wrote about intimately in a chunk referred to as “The New Narc”.
Nevertheless, rising quick doesn’t come with no few changes. Ghost Drops grew to become in such demand that their mandate of vetting the perfect growers to ship the perfect product needed to be reevaluated. This public pause in technique made a lot of these within the {industry} who have been envious of Ghost Drops delighted with glee. The pettiest of us have been hoping for failure as if Ghost Drops hadn’t already modified the sport endlessly—a hit in your humble narrator’s view that might by no means be taken away from its founders.
The lesson that the Ghost Of Christmas Present would seemingly need us to study is that as a substitute of making an attempt to do what others are doing, give attention to authenticity and servicing our personal viewers. Solely Ghost Drops will be Ghost Drops.
What many didn’t take into consideration is that if you construct one thing transparently, you earn your viewers’s belief and respect—one thing few licensed producers have been in a position to preserve. A supporter who doesn’t really feel talked right down to will all the time proceed to hear.
Respecting their base is one other large level of pleasure for the Ghost Drops workforce.
The Ghost Drops of Christmas Future
In November 2022, Ghost Drops took management of their very own future and introduced a serious enlargement with a 10,000 square foot processing and production facility. They’ve additionally taken management roles in educating the consumer and retailer alike on finest apply of ordering via distribution packages throughout the nation. Ghost Drops’ will proceed to curate the perfect cultivators, growers, and practices in an ever-improving {industry}, and are prepared to assist anybody alongside the way in which.
Nevertheless, as Ghost Drops continues to curate among the finest hashish within the nation, Fleetwood and the workforce acknowledge that the tradition wants servicing as properly. Their enlargement contains continued charitable neighborhood initiatives, and so they’ve just lately initiated a song-writing camp referred to as Creatives 1st by Membership Blvd, a program designed to foster the careers of up-and-coming Toronto-based musicians.
In 2023, Ghost Drops’ plans embrace occasions equivalent to a charity-driven industry-wide cannabis-infused poker match (March thirty first), which they hope will bridge the hole between neighborhood and communication amongst the {industry}.
Maybe probably the most thrilling is the return of KOTD to Toronto, one thing followers of Fleetwood have been clamoring for. Going down February twenty fifth, the return of KOTD is bittersweet for Fleetwood because it commemorates and honors legendary battle rapper and shut buddy, Pat Keep, who was tragically murdered in early September of 2022.
If the Ghost Of Christmas Future appeared and pointed to our graves, it could be as a result of we didn’t acknowledge that regardless of our opinion of Ghost Drops, they’re a wonderful instance of what can occur when company, street-level, and advertising genius respect one another’s strengths.
As soon as we begin recognizing one another’s strengths, we are able to then start to personal our weaknesses; we’ll be capable of construct a stronger hashish {industry} for all.
Increasingly more we’re seeing that like Ghost Drops, it takes the perfect of all of us, a mix of respect and distinctive expertise coming collectively and discovering success.
When the Bob Cratchits and Scrooges of the world discover respect for one another, then the world will assist extra Tiny Tims. We are able to share and chortle whereas all of us smoke large ol’ vacation blunts and share a style of Scrooge’s large ol’ vacation Turkey (or most popular large ol’ plant-based complement). As soon as this occurs, we’ll lastly get again to what hashish is actually all about: getting excessive.
And that’s how weed found Christmas.
The Finish.