LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PRESS RELEASE--GQ Magazine called Abbot Kinney “the coolest block in America.” It just got cooler.
MedMen Enterprises Inc., a cannabis brand with stores in Beverly Hills and New York’s Fifth Avenue, opened its newest store on Venice’s Abbot Kinney Boulevard on Saturday.
With banks of news media cameras surrounding the storefront, MedMen co-founders, Adam Bierman and Andrew Modlin, cut the ribbon. They were flanked by U.S. Congressman Ted Lieu, California State Sen. Ben Allen, Assembly member Reggie Jones-Sawyer and celebrity Rosario Dawson. Lines of customers waited to enter the store.
Lieu, whose district includes Abbot Kinney, welcomed customers and greeted the press. It marked the first known time an active U.S. congressman was featured in the grand opening of a marijuana dispensary. It underscored how mainstream marijuana has become, and how California is leading the way.
“I’m a big supporter of MedMen. It’s the second store in my district and I’ve always been a big supporter of cannabis legalization,” said Lieu. “In Washington D.C., I have been a co-author of numerous bills to legalize marijuana, to decriminalize it and to make sure that we can have federal banking for cannabis related transactions.”
California is the largest legal cannabis market in the world, with total state-sanctioned annual sales projected to reach $7.7 billion by 2021. Nationally, state-sanctioned marijuana sales are projected to reach $75 billion by 2030.
MedMen is the largest U.S.-based company in the emerging cannabis industry with cultivation, manufacturing and retail facilities in California, Nevada and New York. The company recently announced it has acquired a medical marijuana license in Florida with right to open 25 dispensaries. MedMen Abbot Kinney showcases the brand’s signature iPad menus, bud cases and stylish décor. It is the company’s thirteenth store nationwide. Abbot Kinney Boulevard, in the heart of beachfront town Venice, is one of the trendiest shopping districts in Los Angeles. Forbes calls Abbot Kinney “quintessential LA.”
“Abbot Kinney combines the comfortable, laid back feel of Venice with some of the best retail, food and drink the West Coast has to offer,” Bierman said. “Today is a truly historic moment. We are standing in front of a marijuana store among some of the most popular restaurants and shops in a major American city, in one of the most popular shopping destinations in the world. This is what mainstreaming marijuana looks like.”
