The Cannabis Control Commission granted a retail marijuana license last week to Four Daughters Compassionate Care.

PLYMOUTH – The Cannabis Control Commission granted a retail marijuana license last week to Four Daughters Compassionate Care.

However, the company that owns the business is Verano Holdings, and the name of the business at 11 Richards Road will likely be Zen Leaf, if the company’s filing is any indication.

The Cannabis Control Commission records show Four Daughters as having obtained it when this company is no longer the owner. In a convoluted filing, it shows Four Daughters Compassionate Care as the establishment, with Verano Four Daughters Holdings LLC as the entity with indirect or direct authority having 100 percent control of the company. Its address is listed as the same as Verano Holdings.

In March of last year, the Select Board discovered that Four Daughters Compassionate Care, owned by Brian Striar, the company the board was inking a contract with was signing a contract transferring ownership to Verano Holdings at the same time. Select Board members expressed their concern that Striar did not inform them of this transaction. Striar is now listed as an executive/officer of the company, along with Darran Weizz, Geroge Archos. Samuel Dorf is listed as a director. The application shows business interests in a number of other states, mostly under the name of Zen Leaf.

These host agreements with municipalities are essentially local licenses. They’re valuable because businesses cannot obtain licenses to operate without a host agreement and state approvals. They need both.

While liquor licenses cannot be transferred without state and local approvals, including a public hearing before the Select Board as well as approval of the Massachusetts Alcohol Beverages Control Commission (ABCC), it was revealed that the same isn’t true for marijuana retailers. Some Select Board members at the time expressed their dismay, suggesting that this was a bait and switch. They said at the time that they should have been notified of the transfer, particularly since Striar had pitched the business as a family-owned operation, referencing his daughters in the name of it.

But there was more. Last year, around the same time, Verano Holdings was poised to ink its own deal with Harvest Health & Recreation for $850 million, which would have made two ownership transfers. That deal fell through, according to a Chicago Tribune story in March of this year, which leaves Plymouth, apparently, with a Chicago-based cannabis retailer named Verano Holdings.

The outcome of a lawsuit against the company, which made headlines in the Las Vegas Review Journal last year, is unclear. At that time, Verano Holdings faced a $125 million lawsuit in Nevada for alleged fraud when Verano allegedly applied for a number of licenses without consulting the partners.

According to online news source “New Cannabis Ventures,” Chicago Atlantic announced July 7 that it is loaning Verano Holdings $30 million in something termed a “senior secured term loan facility.” The two-year loan carries a 15 percent annual rate.

Verano is cited as one of the largest marijuana companies in America, spanning 12 states, 14 retail locations as well as six cultivation and production facilities. According to Chicago Atlantic, Verano plans to double the number of retail locations by the end of the year and bring more cultivation and production facilities online.

The ever-changing landscape of the marijuana industry, with its musical chairs of ownerships and sales, highlights this as one lucrative market interested businesses are doing everything in their power to harness. The Cannabis Control Commission states that between November of 2018 and November of 2019, legalized adult-use cannabis raked in $394 million in sales.