Oakland County weed entrepreneur creates ‘CannaBiz Rescue’ reality show to help save struggling dispensaries in US

First there was “Restaurant: Unattainable,” then “Bar Rescue” – tv reveals wherein business specialists dramatically revamp underperforming corporations.

Now the proprietor of an Oakland County hashish enterprise plans to do the identical for marijuana dispensaries throughout the US.

Enter ‘CannaBiz Rescue’.

It is a actuality present created and hosted by Jerry Millen, proprietor of The Greenhouse, which opened in Walled Lake in early 2019 as the primary licensed marijuana retailer in Oakland County.

The CannaBiz Rescue pilot features a struggling dispensary in Denver, Colorado, in addition to a behind-the-scenes have a look at the manufacturing and distribution of hashish merchandise. It was accomplished final yr and is being offered to TV networks in Los Angeles. And primarily based on the response thus far, Millen mentioned he is assured CannaBiz Rescue will probably be picked up — and he hopes to see the present on the air this fall.

Together with TV networks, a rising variety of individuals within the marijuana business and past are studying about CannaBiz Rescue and that is producing constructive suggestions, he added. “I get calls every single day from business individuals asking, ‘How can I be part of this present?’

“So many hashish manufacturers are crawling over one another to be part of it,” he mentioned.

Watch the CannaBiz Rescue promotional video right here: https://tinyurl.com/mrxezxxm

“A present like that is actually wanted to eradicate the stigma surrounding hashish use,” Millen mentioned. “And the largest hurdle is educating individuals about it.”

He mentioned the general public has been brainwashed by the federal authorities for many years and that hashish is the “satan’s lettuce” and has no medicinal worth.

“The alcohol business, the tobacco business and church teams run campaigns that perpetuate the negativity, however it’s time for the reality to return out,” Millen mentioned. “It is not the boogeyman that lives within the pharmacy, it is not all a bunch of stoners behind the counter.”

Trade in turmoil

It has been greater than a dozen years since U.S. voters started legalizing leisure marijuana use for individuals 21 and older, a pattern that now contains 24 states and the District of Columbia. Michigan voters legalized leisure hashish use for adults in 2018.

For some, the rising business represented an entrepreneurial alternative to seize a chunk of the so-called “fashionable gold rush” or “inexperienced rush.”

However it hasn’t labored out for almost all of those that ventured into the market as marijuana retailers. Trade statistics present that 75% of hashish dispensaries don’t make a revenue.

“The hashish sector is in turmoil, plenty of corporations are going bankrupt,” Millen mentioned. However his Walled Lake retailer has achieved very nicely since opening to medical marijuana sufferers practically seven years in the past, he mentioned, and leisure marijuana gross sales adopted swimsuit in 2020.

The monetary success has been a blessing to his household, Millen mentioned, and motivates him to “give again – expose the reality about hashish and assist different companies.”

CannaBiz Rescue is “a number of reveals in a single,” he added. “It is an academic present about hashish, a renovation present, a household drama, a enterprise present.”

In style style

The CannaBiz Rescue idea was developed in 2024 by Millen, a former tv sports activities journalist in Detroit who additionally labored for TV reveals in LA and New York Metropolis. Millen mentioned he’s on a mission to coach individuals about hashish and the hashish business, returning to his tv roots to take action.

“I believed, what if we had a TV collection that confirmed that hashish is not simply Snoop Dogg and Cheech and Chong … that it is serving to seniors and most cancers sufferers and other people with (post-traumatic stress dysfunction) and others — actually what’s occurring in a enterprise, and serving to struggling corporations flip the tide,” he mentioned. “But additionally do it in a method that’s entertaining.”

Millen put up $1 million of his personal cash to fund the pilot. He makes use of a “powerful love” strategy with the pharmacy house owners, describing the present as “much like ‘Bar Rescue,’ with a bit extra compassion.”

“Bar Rescue” is hosted by entrepreneur Jon Taffer, who claims to have based, circled or owned greater than 600 bars and golf equipment in his profession. The collection premiered in 2011 and now airs on the Paramount Community.

Every episode incorporates a struggling bar, typically highlighting deep-seated issues equivalent to poor administration or enterprise practices, well being code violations equivalent to mildew or useless vermin in ice machines, and unhealthy drinks – below the stress of a restricted timeframe to resolve the issue.

Taffer seeks to remodel failing bars by introducing new ideas, revamping menus, enhancing employees coaching and overseeing renovations utilizing his aggressive administration model and business experience to make them worthwhile earlier than they shut.

Hosted by Robert Irvine, “Restaurant: Unattainable” premiered in 2011 however was in the end canceled in 2023. It adopted Taffer’s script however targeted on eating places.

The makeover style of actuality TV is well-liked and profitable, attracting hundreds of thousands of viewers and hundreds of thousands extra in promoting {dollars} and sponsorship assist.

Superstar chef Gordon Ramsay, together with his fiery character and exacting requirements, has a variety of rescue reveals to his credit score, together with “Kitchen Nightmares” and “24 Hours to Hell & Again” for struggling eating places, and “Lodge Hell” for struggling motels and mattress and breakfasts.

Skilled TV producers Kevin Kay and Todd Nelson staff up with Millen for CannaBiz Rescue. Kay’s credentials embody president of Paramount Community, TV Land, CMT and Spike TV, and management at Nickelodeon Growth and Manufacturing. Nelson is credited with the success of a number of actuality TV reveals, together with ‘MasterChef’, ‘The Greatest Loser’ and ‘Bar Rescue’.

Within the promo video for the CannaBiz Rescue pilot, Millen says, “Every episode we tackle an actual dispensary on the brink… hemorrhaging cash, dropping clients and barely hanging on… from product to earnings, from tradition to compliance, we overview all the pieces. When all hope appears misplaced, we give them one final probability to outlive.”

And each makeover, he provides, “is an exciting, unpredictable experience.”

Casting administrators from 3 Ball Leisure, the corporate that produces CannaBiz Rescue, interviewed 10 dispensary house owners earlier than deciding on the Denver firm for the 44-minute pilot. Wendi and Malcom, the house owners of what was often known as Cross Genetics, had been headed for divorce and had already misplaced two of their three dispensaries earlier than CannaBiz Rescue stepped in, Millen mentioned.

Within the pilot, Millen and the cameras go to services that produce and distribute marijuana merchandise, and Millen observes and assesses the dispensary’s operations.

As monetary collapse looms for Wendi and Malcolm’s third retailer, Millen says bluntly, “You are dropping $30,000 a month, you are screwed.”

He then shares insights and techniques to assist the corporate on its approach to profitability. The corporate can even obtain a $200,000 makeover, a price constructed into the preliminary funding for the pilot.

“It is not simply the hashish business that wants this present,” Millen mentioned. “America wants us. Folks have to know it is okay to make use of hashish, and reveals like this will change the whole notion of America.”

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