Nation’s oldest marijuana retailer facing lawsuits over unpaid bills

Berkeley Patients Group (BPG), the nation’s oldest operational marijuana retailer, is embroiled in several lawsuits alleging the operator failed to pay invoices to vendors, landlords and service providers.

The Northern California retailer is facing at least three lawsuits that claim it owes various businesses more than $250,000 in unpaid bills, according to Berkeleyside, a nonprofit digital news outlet.

The lawsuits include:

• A December 2023 civic claim by BGP vendor Event Horizon Technologies, which does business in California as Flow Cannabis Co., alleging it’s owed $60,605 for goods, merchandise and other services. Flow Cannabis – often referred to by its flagship brand, Flow Kana – has had financial struggles of its own.
• A February 2024 filing by Oakland-based ABC Security Service claiming that BPG failed to pay $73,864 for security services.
• A claim early last year by AZ DV Real Estate alleging the cannabis retailer owes $127,160 in rent and other costs. AZ DV owns a Berkeley property at 1101 University Ave. that BPG intended to move to but didn’t.

BGP denied all these allegations in a July 9 court filing, Berkeleyside reported.

The company first opened its doors in 1999 with a mission to serve the sick and dying, especially by providing medical marijuana to those with HIV and AIDS.

MJBizDaily profiled BPG in a late 2017 series chronicling the company’s challenges and successes as it transitioned from the state’s unregulated MMJ market to a regulated adult-use industry in 2018.