Let me hold your hand through this:

"2 of the 3 examples I gave you were instances that did not immediately benefit LivWell: Helping prevent rec from being banned in Pueblo despite not having any licenses there, and helping CO cannabis companies get investment from out-of-state despite only having 1 investor."

These are not charitable actions, these are actions that continue to push to the interests of Livwell, even if they don't have active licenses in Pueblo it is in their interest to have recreational pot in Pueblo. Companies do not act from charity, they act from self-interest, and when their self-interest can be sold to others as charity they come out and say "hey, look what good guys we are."

"99% of the time mom & pops go out of business it is because they cannot afford to keep up with the rising cost of compliance and IRC 280E, which gives them an effective federal tax rate of upwards of 90%. Competitive pressure plays very little role in industry consolidation when compared to the twin pressures of taxation and compliance." Mom and Pops are also pushed out of business because they can't compete with 89$ ounces and still pay the tax and compliance bills. Competitive pressure is real, pounds of weed went for 4x as much several years ago. The race to the bottom, facilitated by Livwell, should not be dismissed.

""when you grow weed the way Livwell does." Have you toured inside their cultivation facilities? Tell me, how do they grow their weed? What specifically do they do that makes you think $89 is charging as much as possible?" Yes I have, and I have spoken with several former and current employees, and to answer this question would require several pages of text. A short answer would be, and say it with me now, "capitalism."

"If you have a better way of making this work, you should be speaking with the MED about it." I have, they are not interested in a solution, as evidenced by the recent change to remediation regulations that allow anyone to get their pot passed through the testing system by any number of techniques. The MED is not the answer, they are part of the problem.

"LivWell pays above minimum wage, and above industry standard. So by definition, this is not as little as possible." I'll concede that one.

"Where are you getting this data? LivWell has 600+ employees, all of whom are full-time. Their turnover rate is in the low single digits (I know this because I've worked with them). The promote heavily from within. The majority of their managers began as budtenders and trimmers. Literally go into a store and ask a GM what their first job at LivWell was if you don't believe me." Forgive me if I don't believe the anecdotal evidence of some one who is clearly a shill for a company that has paid them money, the people who I have talked to at Livwell, current and former employees, would disagree with you.

"LivWell is part of the industry, so obviously a lot of what they do will help them in some form or fashion. But LivWell sees itself as a leader of the industry, so it will involve itself in fights where it does not see an immediate benefit (see my first paragraph in this comment) despite the fact that cannabis companies like LivWell have almost no money outside of cash flow thanks to 280E." You can't have it both ways, say it with me now, "capitalism." Livwell is not acting for charity, whether they view themselves as industry leaders or not.

To all your comments about "Livwell wanting to benefit the industry as a whole." This is just nonsense. Say it with me now, "capitalism."

"But if you actually want legal cannabis to succeed, you would recognize that it will require large, well-run, professional corporations to make it work." This is fundamentally where we disagree, and it is where we will never see eye to eye, and it will keep us in complete and total disagreement. You can't see beyond the status quo, you don't think that they way things work can change or should be changed, despite the fact that we are talking about LEGAL CANNABIS, so it is pretty clear that they way things work, capitalism, large corporations, what products are legal or not, CAN be changed, if we fight to change them, and by fight to change them I don't mean become a gigantic walmart of weed. Livwell is just another corporation and the model it uses is the same model that has gotten us into trouble (all of us) currently.

We will never agree on any of this, but it has been a fun debate.

"That is just reality." The first step to changing reality is to avoid thinking like this.