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Backlash Against TreatWell Health CEO Alison Ettel Following Viral #PermitPatty Video

Cannabis companies are pulling away from Ettel's products after a video made national headlines.


Permit Patty 800x430Alison Ettel, CEO of TreatWell Health, was thrust into the national limelight over the weekend after she was caught on video while allegedly calling the police on an 8-year-old black girl who was selling water on a sidewalk in San Francisco. According to news reports, Ettel, who is white, was upset that the girl did not have a permit to sell water.

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"She asked me where's my permit? And I didn't know what a permit was," the girl told CBS News.

The viral video then produced the hashtag #PermitPatty and a subsequent wave of business backlash against Ettel and TreatWell Health.

As of Monday morning, Magnolia Wellness in Oakland, Calif., had pulled TreatWell's products from its line of vendors and publicly boycotted the company.

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“As of [June 23], Magnolia will no longer be carrying Treatwell Tinctures. After seeing this video of their CEO, calling the police on an 8-year-old entrepreneur selling water on a hot day, we decided without hesitation that we could no longer patronize her company,” according to a Magnolia Wellness Instagram post. “To our amazing patients who use the Treatwell products, please know we are working to ensure we can bring on some new amazing and ethical brands. Treatwell was one of our best-selling products but to us, integrity is always before products. For our remaining inventory, we are doing blow-out deals and donating all proceeds to a local non-profit.”

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SPARC, Barbary Coast and Berkeley Patients Group have similarly decided to stop selling TreatWell products in their stores, according to Leafly. And Leafly has pulled TreatWell products from its products and brands listings.

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“It was stupid,” Ettel told Huffington Post. “I completely regret that I handled that so poorly. It was completely stress-related, and I should have never confronted her. That was a mistake, a complete mistake. Please don’t make me sound horrible.” 

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