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Sen. Van Pelt’s CBD business pays back $144K to investors

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Illinois

* Background is here, here, here and here. From the Sun-Times…

State Sen. Patricia Van Pelt’s embattled CBD business has paid back more than $144,000 to investors as part of a settlement agreement stemming from an investigation by the Illinois secretary of state’s office, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

WaKanna For Life LLC, the Chicago Democrat’s Douglas-based multilevel marketing firm, is touted as a “movement” that has helped thousands of African Americans sell hemp-based CBD, or cannabidiol, a legal and nonpsychoactive compound also found in cannabis that’s used to treat a range of conditions. The company’s “founders” — Van Pelt, CEO Melissa Boston, Dr. Rita McGuire and Phyllis Nash — are all Black women.

Van Pelt began hosting cannabis investment workshops as Illinois’ pot legalization push gained steam in early 2019.

“I’m riding the wave with the rich,” she says in a promotional video that showed her talking to a crowd about becoming “marijuana millionaires.”

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Feb 28, 22 @ 3:10 pm

Comments

Sometimes you ride the wave. And sometimes the wave pounds you into the sea floor.

Comment by Huh? Monday, Feb 28, 22 @ 3:15 pm
==Van Pelt began hosting cannabis investment workshops as Illinois’ pot legalization push gained steam in early 2019.

“I’m riding the wave with the rich,” she says in a promotional video that showed her talking to a crowd about becoming “marijuana millionaires.”==

At that rate, it should be around the year 2043 that Sen. Van Pelt becomes one of those millionaires.

Comment by NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham Monday, Feb 28, 22 @ 3:19 pm
Speaking of Marijuana millionaires, any word on what’s holding up the cannabis suit? Hundreds of would-be Social Equity operators are just waiting in limbo.

Comment by Dankakee Monday, Feb 28, 22 @ 3:24 pm
There are a lot of these vertical marketing schemes out there around CDB. My cousin got into one in California. Who knows? Maybe this will be one of the vertical marketing schemes that works, like Amway did for the DeVos family. But more likely than not, it won’t end up doing much for anyone who isn’t at the top of the pyramid to begin with.

Fuller Brush, Mary Kay, Tupperware, Girl Scout cookies, some companies make it. Maybe this will be another success story, but I suspect the real marijuana millionaires won’t be making bank on CDB. The real money is in THC.

Comment by 47th Ward Monday, Feb 28, 22 @ 3:27 pm
Always best to avoid “Movements”.

Comment by Donnie Elgin Monday, Feb 28, 22 @ 3:29 pm