New California cannabis venture from MedMen founders already bust

A small chain of licensed California cannabis shops that was launched in 2022 by the original founders of defunct multistate operator MedMen Enterprises has “closed indefinitely” after less than a year of operations, according to MJBizDaily.

Adam Bierman and Andrew Modlin, who oversaw the rise and fall of the high-profile MedMen, opened at least three dispensaries in the San Francisco Bay Area under the brand name Megabud in December 2022.

But the venture was short-lived, with the shops plagued by inventory shortages and funding problems, MJBizDaily found, citing anonymous sources and court records. All three locations were shuttered by September 2023, according to an email sent to shop managers.

Bierman was even locked out of one of the shops by a business partner, according to a lawsuit, and by June 2024, all state cannabis retail licenses for the three shops had expired.

Megabud and its owners also stiffed a security company on an $80,000 bill for guards that patrolled its shop premises, and a lawsuit is still pending in state court against the firm from security contractor Robert Bell, MJBizDaily reported.

“I think they just did a money grab,” Bell told MJBizDaily of Bierman and Modlin, and emphasized that the company didn’t pay a single invoice for security services provided to Megabud.

Megabud was at least the pair’s third marijuana business venture. After they were forced out of MedMen in January 2020, they helped launch another dispensary chain called Coastal Dispensary, which was sold to The Parent Company in late 2021.

MedMen is still being sold off for parts by a court-appointed receiver, and by the time it went bust last year, it still had roughly $560 million in unpaid debts, most of which will not be settled.