Weed Empire

How I Battled Gangsters, Investment Banks, and the Department of Justice to Build the Cannabis Industry in America

De: Adam Bierman, Herb Wesson - foreword

Narrado por: Adam Bierman

“The cannabis industry will be talking about this book for a long time.”—Forbes

From the cofounder of MedMen comes the unfiltered tale of the mainstreaming of an outlaw industry: the growers, dealers, lobbyists, tycoons, and titans of the industry that created corporate cannabis.

Adam Bierman wasn’t planning on selling weed—or developing a network of cannabis stores, or safeguarding his money in shoeboxes, or facing off with gangs in dark corners of parking lots, or taking on the public markets and justice system itself. But, of course, not everything goes according to plan.

Weed Empire is an inside look at the story behind MedMen, America’s first cannabis unicorn and the world’s first globally recognized cannabis brand. It’s the underdog story of how a kid from the suburbs entered the cannabis scene and later reimagined weed for the mainstream, jumping at an opportunity to shift the conversation about legalizing marijuana. It’s also the tale of how a one-room studio dispensary eventually turned into a public company valued at more than $2 billion, led by a CEO with no college degree—with politicians, entertainment moguls, and Wall Street heavyweights on his team.

An unconventional but intensely authentic memoir, Weed Empire is a cautionary tale of the high cost of ambition, documenting MedMen’s decade-long rise as well as all the slog of passing cannabis legislation, and the exhausting battle to start a public company, bring a dream to the world, and hold a family—and himself—together through the madness.

©2025 by Adam Bierman used with permission of BenBella Books, Inc. (P)2025 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Nothing Less Than Riveting

As someone who passionately managed one of MedMen’s busiest locations in LA, during the height of it’s retail success, who used to pickup trash with my hands in the parking lot every day because of the pride I felt for what I was bringing to the world…telling myself regularly “I’m going to help run this company one day”…this story told by Adam himself took me behind the scenes of everything I was a part of in ways I never thought I’d get to know…until now.

Listening to this brought back powerful feelings, intense passion and memories I had forgotten I even had. It reminded me of how I even got to where I am today. Adam brought me right back into that powerful vision, and that conference room, among many other places I knew well, and I finally got to see how the movie I loved & believed-in so much really ended (and began). Certain things I couldn’t understand have now become clear…the inertia behind the brand, the hurried expansion, the unexpected turn of events in government, etc. Were the guys thinking too big, too fast? It was always absolutely yes in my mind. After listening to Adam tell the tale, I’ve removed “absolutely.”

I’m grateful for this book and for Adam to have read it himself…an incredible storyteller and performer as displayed in this audiobook. If you ever were inspired by what MedMen represented for even a second, this book is a must-read.