Illicit Makes Company 100% Employee-Owned, Employees Immediately Flip It for a Sack

In a move that briefly restored everyone’s faith in humanity, Illicit Gardens announced it was transitioning to a fully employee-owned company.

No VC vampires.

No private equity spreadsheet necromancers.

Just workers owning the thing they actually show up to every day.

For about twelve beautiful seconds, the cannabis industry stood still. LinkedIn wept. Consultants nodded solemnly. Someone used the phrase “stakeholder alignment” without irony.

Then, according to sources close to the situation, the employees immediately turned around and tried to flip the whole thing for a sack.

Not a metaphorical sack.

A real one.

We’re talking brown paper, vaguely crinkled, smells like freedom.

A Noble Idea Meets the Cannabis Brain

To be clear, this is objectively cool as hell. Employee ownership is rare in any industry, and basically unheard of in cannabis, where the standard operating model is “work really hard, get laid off, watch your former employer raise another round.”

Illicit did the unthinkable. They handed the keys to the people who grow it, package it, sell it, and actually know where the bodies are buried. It’s progressive. It’s ethical. It’s the kind of thing every cannabis company claims to support while quietly doing the opposite.

And yet. Sources say within hours of the announcement, at least one employee allegedly asked a very reasonable question: “So… hypothetically… what would this be worth in weed?”

The First Emergency Ownership Meeting

Insiders describe the first all-hands ownership meeting as “historic” and “unhinged.”

Agenda items reportedly included:

• Whether equity could be converted directly into flower

• If “dividends” could be paid out in eighths

• And who technically gets to call themselves a CEO now that everyone owns the place

One attendee allegedly proposed selling the company, splitting the proceeds evenly, and “never working again, spiritually.”

Another suggested holding onto ownership but only if meetings were capped at 15 minutes and snacks were mandatory.

Democracy is messy.

This Is Why It Actually Rules

Here’s the thing: the joke lands because it’s true in spirit. Cannabis workers aren’t chasing abstract valuations or five-year exit plans. They want stability, respect, and enough money to live without pretending a mission statement pays rent.

Employee ownership forces a rare moment of honesty. When workers own the company, suddenly every decision gets filtered through a brutally simple question: 

“Does this actually make our lives better?”

Not “Will this impress investors?”

Not “Can we spin this at MJBiz?”

But “Is this worth doing?”

That’s dangerous energy. Beautiful, but dangerous.

The Sack Was Never the Point

Did anyone actually flip Illicit for a sack? Probably not.

But the fact that it’s funny tells you everything you need to know about this industry.

Cannabis has spent years trying to look respectable, institutional, and serious. Illicit just reminded everyone that the plant still belongs to the people who work closest to it.

Employee ownership isn’t soft. It’s radical. It’s messy. It’s the opposite of sanitized corporate weed.

And if the new owners occasionally joke about cashing out for a bag and a long nap, that’s not corruption. That’s honesty.

Which, frankly, is rarer than any cultivar on the menu.