As a cannabis activist and entrepreneur, I’ve been in the cannabis industry for several years, seeing first hand the healing power of this miracle plant.

For me, sharing my knowledge and experiences with cannabis is more than just a business venture. It’s a way to give back to the community that I love and have been a part of for most of my adult life. I’m passionate about spreading awareness about the benefits of cannabis and helping others navigate the industry with ease.

In this blog post, I want to take you on a journey of how I started building my cannabis business. It’s been a wild ride, filled with ups and downs, but I’ve learned valuable lessons that I believe can benefit anyone interested in starting their own cannabis business. From navigating legal hurdles to building a brand and establishing a customer base, I’ll share my experiences and insights to help you succeed in the cannabis industry.

So join me as we explore the world of cannabis entrepreneurship together, and let’s uncover the secrets to building a successful cannabis business.

The Early Years of My Life 

I’m an Egyptian American born in Cairo, and my father passed away when I was a baby. My biological mother was not able to take care of me and my sister, so my Aunt who lived in the Bay Area in California flew out to Cairo and adopted me and my sister. I grew up in a loving household. My parents loved me, and I had a very great childhood.

But as someone growing up with severe ADHD, going to school was difficult for me. I never seemed to do well in any subject, which, if you are a Middle Easterner, you know that the pressure of being a doctor, lawyer, and engineer is REAL. However, it didn’t stop me from becoming who I am now. My lack of being a good student didn’t hinder my adult life, and my love of learning came later in life.

Learning the discipline necessary to achieve my goals came later in life, but it was easier for me because of my genuine interest in business and plant-based medicine.

The Corporate Ladder

I started out on this path of looking for a job that I could work hard at and concentrate on moving up the corporate ladder after graduating from Skyline High in Oakland. Then, I got my first big role job when a local developer gave me a shot at assisting the team to revitalize the Oakland Fox Theater Project. My job was to be in charge of our fundraising efforts, which meant that I asked local businesses to donate money. At the time, cannabis clubs surrounded that theater and ended up becoming the largest private donor behind Bank of America to that project.

Since my job is all about fundraising, it led me to learn how to raise money for elected officials, which included our city council and the mayor and all the way up to Barack Obama, Gavin Newsom, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hillary Clinton, Tom Vilsack, Jerry Brown, and so many more. I learned a lot of things during that time, from knowing how political capital works to networking. I was able to meet a lot of people, and I grew up a lot because of that job. However, it was really wearing on me. As a young 20-something-year-old, I worked six or seven days a week non-stop, which left me feeling exhausted.

The Start of Something New

I was sitting at my desk, staring blankly at my screen, trying to muster the courage to just get up and leave my job when Richard Lee, the cannabis godfather and pioneer, came into my office. He was about to hand me a copy of West Coast Leaf when I declined and mentioned that I was getting ready to quit my job.

Then he asked me what my plans were after, which I had not thought that far ahead. Long story short, he offered me a job being his assistant, and this seemed mutually beneficial at the time. Richard Lee is the founder of Oaksterdam University, which was the first-ever cannabis school, and he had one of four licenses to sell cannabis in Oakland.

This was the beginning of my career as a cannabis activist and an entrepreneur. Back in 2008, it was not cool or okay to be part of the cannabis industry, and there were all sorts of stigmas and problems associated with it. Making that switch from doing political fundraising to working for Oaksterdam University required me to go deep and figure out as a cannabis consumer if this is something that I wanted to help other people get safe access to. After a lot of thought, I said YES!

The Career

I worked with Oaksterdam University, where we were leaders in cannabis education and advocating for drug policy reform and legalization. At the time, Oaksterdam University seemed unstoppable. We were hosting students from all over the world, and classes were always full. It was such an exciting time, and Richard Lee rode that momentum and decided that it was time to launch what was then the Prop 18 Campaign to legalize cannabis in California, which was long and hard but ultimately lost by a super small margin, but paved the way for Colorado to take the lead.

One of the consequences of losing that campaign was, unfortunately, in April of 2012, our government, under the Obama administration, led a raid on Oaksterdam University that included the DEA, the FBI, and the IRS. It was absolutely terrifying.

A mass shooter was across town committing an unthinkable act of violence at another Oakland College, resulting in seven people dead and three more injured, while our cannabis school was being torn apart and raided. This resulted in seven people dead and three more injured. During that time, the police department was occupied and short-staffed guarding the DEA, the IRS, and the FBI against the stoners who just wanted their plants back. This made the press and forced the conversation on how the federal government is going to battle states that have laws that may contradict federal law. It forced the Democratic Party to take a different position and say that these biting cannabis businesses in states where it’s illegal are no longer a priority and a poor waste of resources. It’s terrible that it took a situation like that for our government to implement sensible legislation.

Ups and Downs, Highs and Lows 

We all lost our jobs after the aftershock of the raid wore off, and we all just had to figure out how to pivot and what we were going to do next. At that point in my life, I had nothing to lose, so I decided to take a chance and applied for a dispensary permit. Winning the permit was a significant achievement for me because I was in my mid-20s and competing against individuals who had more experience and seemed more professional.

I applied for the permit, and the permit evaluators ranked my partners and me as number one. I then brought on partners who had more qualifications, experience, and capital. My partners and I grew that business to an on-site vertically integrated booming business. At its height, we were doing more than $14 million a year.

While things were hot, we sold it to a public company and became the first plant-touching company to uplift on the American Stock Exchange in March of 2016 on the OTCQX. My world changed at that moment. From there, I helped spearhead the pubcos expansion into multiple markets, applying for and winning licenses in retail, manufacturing, and cultivation. But like every good thing, it comes to an end. I parted ways with that company right as California was gearing up for legalization, and everyone was in a frenzy to raise capital. So, I placed some bets on some of the most notable players in the game, including Cookies and Canna Craft. My partner and I also opened a huge indoor cultivation with over 1200 lights and a six-acre greenhouse.

Navigating the Cannabis Market Correction and Starting Anew

On the policy side, we observed that the regulations only permitted the sale of weed at county fairgrounds during the race for a new legal market. Our company, Highland Events, successfully lobbied to expand permissions and allowed for cannabis to be sold at other venues, such as concerts and other types of events.. In August 2019, we were the first company to compliantly sell weed at a mainstream music festival, which made international headlines. It was a huge win both professionally and for the culture. We closed 2019 by opening the Cookies Oakland dispensary in the old Oaksterdam University building.

Then came 2021 and 2022. These two years were some of the hardest in my life, as California was going through a huge market correction or collapse. We had to close down a bunch of our businesses and untangle a lot of very complicated financial and legal knots, which resulted in a bunch of money, time, energy, and effort down the drain. I can 100% say that these were the hardest years of my life. It was difficult, depressing, and heartbreaking in many ways.

It was truly heartbreaking to have to tell our staff and friends that we could no longer support them. It’s not something I ever want to do again. But one thing I will say is that while I was going through this whole thing, let’s call it a reset, I was able to observe a lot of what was happening as a learning lesson. I vowed that I would never repeat these mistakes. So, to keep that promise to myself, I started this podcast.

The High Class Podcast

The idea of launching this podcast and putting this whole project together came to me as a form of therapy and to give me something to really look forward to. This podcast is all about learning the business of plant-based medicine, including the rules, hurdles, and pitfalls.

In future episodes, I’ll break down some of the events that I highlighted here in greater detail so that we can both learn from them. I want to share how I got here as a baseline and bring in experts to discuss how we can make this industry and business work better. I’m taking this as an opportunity to share how I messed up, but also how I built some safety nets and how I’m going to set myself up for success in my next endeavor.

If you’re competing, or you’re thinking about competing for a license, but you don’t know where to start, I went ahead and cleaned up all of my application material, and updated a lot of it and you can get your own copy here: https://highsalwa.com/business-downloads.  It is what I use to win licenses in multiple different markets. I have cultivation, production and retail that’s currently available and I’m looking forward to adding more to give you a head start.