New York Daily News

Get yer ash out of N.Y., pot biz told

- BY CLAYTON GUSE AND DENIS SLATTERY

The company behind New York’s “Apple Store of weed” is getting shoved out of the state’s smoking circle.

The New York Medical Cannabis Industry Associatio­n (NYMCIA) is cutting ties with MedMen amid accusation­s of racist and sexist remarks and financial corruption among its top executives.

MedMen, which opened a swanky new dispensary on Fifth Ave. last year and is planning to open another location in the Meatpackin­g District, holds one of 10 licenses for operating medical cannabis dispensari­es in New York State.

A lawsuit filed last month in Los Angeles Supreme Court by the company’s former chief financial officer James Parker alleges MedMen CEO Adam Bierman referred to an L.A. city councilman as a “midget Negro” and used the company as his personal “piggy bank.”

Parker says Bierman and other members of the California-based company’s top brass regularly used homophobic and racial slurs, and casually committed bank and financial fraud while having a cavalier attitude toward the company’s shareholde­rs.

“The associatio­n has a zero-tolerance discrimina­tion policy for any of our members who engage in this type of despicable behavior,” NYMCIA representa­tives said in a letter Sunday addressed to Gov. Cuomo, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.

MedMen was asked to resign from the associatio­n, which is currently advocating for the legalizati­on of adult-use cannabis in Albany. The group’s board chairman and president both said MedMen would be expelled if they refused to resign.

“We still support the org (NYMCIA) and its cause,” said MedMen spokesman Daniel Yi. “We have already addressed these allegation­s publicly. They are patently false. They were made by a disgruntle­d employee and are untrue.”

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