La Mota’s House of Cards: Oregon’s Favorite Cannabis Chain Can’t Stop Not Paying People

By Boof du Jour Investigations Unit

PORTLAND, OR — In Oregon’s booming cannabis sector, where “compliance” means remembering to unlock the door before customers walk in, one company has set a new gold standard for what it means to scale a business entirely on other people’s money.

La Mota, the sleek, influencer-friendly dispensary chain run by Rosa Cazares and Aaron Mitchell, isn’t just broke. It’s strategically broke. It’s serially delinquent. It’s financially incontinent. And somehow, it’s still opening stores.

According to lawsuits filed by multiple vendors—including Portland edibles powerhouse Grön, who alleges they’re owed $390,000—La Mota built its empire the old-fashioned way: by not paying fucking anyone. “They took product, promised Net 30, and then just never paid,” said one anonymous distributor. “When we asked, they offered store credit. I don’t need $12 pre-rolls. I need my money.”

WHERE DID THE MONEY GO?

Not to the vendors, that’s for damn sure.

One leaked internal memo obtained by Boof du Jour includes a bullet point reading:

“Delay payments until litigation or media attention — whichever comes first.”

Another item read:

“Rotate vendor list quarterly to avoid repeat complaints.”

One former La Mota store manager confirmed that none of their inventory systems ever reflected invoice status. “We didn’t even know if stuff was paid for. We just stocked it and hoped no one showed up with a lawyer.”

AND THEN THERE’S THE POLITICS. HOLY FUCK.

La Mota wasn’t just fucking over local brands—they were simultaneously donating tens of thousands of dollars to Oregon politicians, including then–Secretary of State Shemia Fagan, who resigned in disgrace after the news broke that she was quietly working as a paid consultant for La Mota.

Imagine being under regulatory oversight and paying the regulator to “consult.” That’s not even corruption. That’s a Groupon for white-collar crime.

Fagan’s excuse? “It wasn’t illegal.”Cool. Neither is putting your entire vendor network into financial distress while flexing new store openings on Instagram, apparently.

THE BRANDING? DELUSIONAL.

La Mota still describes itself as a “leader in the Oregon cannabis space,” which is true if you define “leader” as “most lawsuits per square foot.”

Their website brags about “expanding access to cannabis,” but fails to mention that “access” doesn’t extend to vendor payments, honest accounting, or basic fucking accountability.

Internal Slack logs obtained by Boof du Jour reveal discussions about which unpaid vendors were “most likely to stay quiet” and whether it would be “bad optics” to open new locations during pending litigation. (Spoiler: they did anyway.)

EVERYONE KNEW. NO ONE CARED.

This didn’t happen in secret. La Mota’s trail of bounced checks and dodged invoices goes back years. But Oregon’s cannabis ecosystem, desperate for star players and afraid to blacklist big names, looked the other way.

“They told us La Mota was too big to fail,” said one small grower.“Turns out they were too full of shit to stop.”

The Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission, true to form, did absolutely nothing. Their statement on the matter reads like a fax from 1997:

“We take these matters seriously and continue to monitor the situation.”That situation being: open fraud in plain sight.

CONCLUSION: NOT A COMPANY. A CON.

La Mota isn’t a brand. It’s a fucking parasite—a dispensary chain that feeds on trust, scales through silence, and survives by daring people to go public before they give up entirely.

And now, with lawsuits piling up, political allies burned, and suppliers finally calling bullshit, La Mota’s time at the top may be done.

But let’s be real—this industry loves a comeback story. Even if it’s built on overdraft fees and vanity signage.

Boof du Jour Final Recommendation:

• Never trust a company whose CEO is better known to regulators than their own accounting team.

• If your brand name is in a lawsuit and a campaign finance filing in the same month, you’re not a leader. You’re a liability.

• And if La Mota still owes you money? Send them a QR code for your Venmo labeled “Karma.”