It should come as no surprise that one of the voices behind timeless classics like “Hits From The Bong” and “I Wanna Get High” is a major player in California’s legal weed industry.
B-Real (born Louis Mario Freese), OG member of Cypress Hill and Prophets of Rage, launched Dr. Greenthumb’s Dispensary in the Sylmar neighborhood of Los Angeles in August of 2018. The combined medical and adult-use dispensary offers a huge range of legal weed products, including B-Real’s own Insane OG strain, alongside rooms set aside for listening parties, videos, and digital content.
Last year, B-Real told MERRY JANE that Dr. Greenthumb’s would “give people an experience aside from being able to pick up quality flower, whether it’s the top shelf or somewhere in the middle. We tried to make it so we have something for everybody, affordable for everybody. Aside from that, we want to give them a positive experience so when they leave they want to come back, they want to tell their friends, and they left with something other than just the flower, concentrate, or edible.”
B-Real is continuing to expand his business this year, opening a second Dr. Greenthumb’s location in Sacramento last weekend. “As Sacramento is the capital of California, we are honored to be one of the limited number of licensees that the local jurisdiction and state have approved for business,” Freese said to Forbes. “We are thrilled to look toward a future where Dr. Greenthumb can continue to provide high-paying jobs and quality-tested products.”
“Dr. Greenthumb” was originally the name of a Cypress Hill track, but eventually became B-Real’s alter ego and the name of his cannabis company. “Dr. Greenthumb transformed from a song into an alter ego, and eventually into a symbol of part of our brand, in terms of what I do as a gangapreneur in the cannabis culture, aside from Cypress Hill,” B-Real explained. “I didn’t see that evolution happening when I first made the song due to the laws being what they were back then.”
Although Cypress Hill has been rapping about weed ever since the early ’90s, B-Real said he didn’t know whether he would live to see the day when people could hit the bong legally. “We had faith that [legalization] would occur, but whether or not it would smile upon our time to see it, we didn’t know; but, we knew we were fighting for it,” he told Forbes. “It’s been great to see the progress and change that has happened in the cannabis culture, as it relates to legalization, medical use, all aspects of it.”
Both Dr. Greenthumb’s locations offer home delivery, made possible through a partnership with Driven Deliveries, the country’s first publicly-traded weed delivery business. In a press release, B-Real said that “this is the first of many significant projects you will see us pioneering together.” In addition to the new Sacramento location, B-Real plans to open two more locations in Humboldt and Cathedral City later this year.
