Cannabis Distributors Compile List of Brands Who Don’t Pay

Two separate groups of licensed cannabis distributors in California have begun sharing information about which cannabis firms in the state tend to pay their bills and which don’t, Marijuana Business Daily reports. Businesses who become known for failing to pay could ultimately be blacklisted by the state’s distributors.

The effort stems from the ongoing pandemic, which has put most cannabis businesses in the uniquely difficult position of qualifying as an “essential service,” yet they are still being denied the federal coronavirus stimulus aid meant to help small businesses overcome the crisis.

One information network is headed by the Cannabis Distribution Association (CDA) — which includes some 30 businesses among its ranks, including 20 distributors — while the other is a smaller cadre of cannabis distributors called the Crisis Alliance, which is headed by Todd Kleparis, founder of Hardcar.

CDA board chair Lauren Fraser said their system gives distributors a chance to rate cannabis businesses on their likeliness to pay bills on time.

“Several of our members have built their own internal credit scoring and rating systems for businesses and we’re working on how we can synchronize those methods and those lists.” — Fraser, via MJBizDaily

Kleparis, meanwhile, is calling up a select few fellow distributors to ask for their “top-five most obvious really bad players” — those responses get added to “an industry blacklist that distributors can use to route out all the bad players and brokers that are doing illegal work or doing bad deals,” Kleparis said.

The groups are not working together yet, according to the report, and Kleparis said the Crisis Alliance would last only as long as the pandemic continues.