Sean “Diddy” Combs is the latest musical entrepreneur to jump into the cannabis industry.
On November 5, MSOs Cresco Labs and Columbia Care “announced the signing of definitive agreements to divest certain New York, Illinois and Massachusetts assets to an entity owned and controlled by Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs. The divestiture of the Assets is required for Cresco to close its previously announced acquisition of Columbia Care. The Transaction is expected to close concurrently with the closing of the Columbia Care Acquisition. Total consideration for the Transaction is an amount up to $185,000,000.”
That’s a lot of pot the former Puff Daddy will need to sell in order to break even on this deal, which if it goes through “would create the largest black owned cannabis company in the world,” according to a press release.
“Let’s see if the deal closes before we celebrate,” writes New York’s newly appointed “cannabis czar” Dasheeda Dawson at Facebook. “Cannabis is good for announcing intended deals that don’t get executed.”
Some are questioning Combs’ bona fides, saying he’s had no role in the legalization movement and is just seizing the moment to rake in more money. But Dawson acknowleges “a lot of people are celebrating it being a milestone for Black ownership in the industry.”
Combs definitely puffs. In one of CelebStoner’s first posts ever in 2006, we published photos of P. Diddy smoking a joint in a Toronto club. When Vibe noted this in 2012, the magazine chastised the rapper:
“We’ve gotta admit that we weren’t exactly ‘surprised’ by Diddy puffing away on what appeared to be a small roach at a concert. But it’s still not exactly a good look for him and we have to believe that, with all of the business ventures he’s involved in these days, he would never get caught doing this so blatantly again. Then again, who knows? They don’t call him Puff for nothing, right?”
Twelve years later, Vibe reported the Cresco/Columbia Care news minus any irony: “Black people make up a large subset of those who have been imprisoned for marijuana crimes, and make up one of the smaller percentages of people who profit from legal cannabis.”
Vibe quoted Combs saying: “It’s diabolical. How do you lock up communities of people, break down their family structure, their futures and then legalize it and make sure that those same people don’t get a chance to benefit or resurrect their lives from it?”