MedMen corrects statement about acquiring marijuana store from Berkeley Patients Group

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(This story has been updated to clarify that the inaccurate statement MedMen released was accidental and not intentional.)

California-based marijuana giant MedMen released an inaccurate statement this week saying it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire a licensed dispensary from Berkeley Patients Group, one of the nation’s oldest cannabis retailers.

After the statement was reported by news outlets and shared on social media, Etienne Fontan, the director of Berkeley Patients Group (BPG), wrote on Facebook that the Bay Area retailer was “blindsided” by MedMen’s “misleading” release.

MedMen corrected the release Thursday to clarify it had in fact acquired the license from B12, a limited liability company owned by five individuals, two of whom are principals at Berkeley Patients Group.

“Because of the overlap of players between B12 and (Berkeley Patients Group) and the contacts we were in conversations with during negotiations, we inadvertently used BPG when we should have used B12 as the party in the release,” Daniel Yi, MedMen’s senior vice president of corporate communications, wrote in an email to Marijuana Business Daily. “It was accidental, not intentional.”

The inaccurate release prompted Berkeley Patients Group to clarify via Twitter that the 19-year-old dispensary is in no way affiliated with MedMen, had not been sold and is not for sale.