Editor’s Note: New Yorkers don’t chase the industry—the industry chases New York. If you’re heading to Berlin, make it a vacation. Because sooner or later, every stakeholder worth meeting will find themselves standing in a Manhattan hotel lobby asking where the afterparty is. Save your money. They’ll come to you.

Editor’s Note: The entities named in this article declined to comment. As always, CANNABRITE does not condone bullying, harassment, or personal attacks, and we welcome any response from those mentioned. If any facts presented here are incorrect, they deserve the opportunity to say so.

Unlike publications that are content calling themselves journalists, we believe journalism requires identifying the players, following the money, and asking uncomfortable questions. This article examines the organizations and interests attempting to shape New York’s cannabis industry and the motivations that often go undiscussed.

New York’s cannabis market was built on the backs of people who faced arrests, raids, stigma, and criminalization long before legalization arrived. The guys who waited 55 years for the Knicks to win the finals. That history deserves recognition and protection. Readers can decide for themselves whether the individuals and organizations highlighted in this article reflect that legacy.

To those currently in Berlin, we send our warm regards. Enjoy the sightseeing. New York will still be here when you get back.

Pro tip- Youd be hard pressed to find a real New Yorker would miss seeing the Knicks win to go to Berlin for sightseeing this week.

By Cannabrite and Ariana Melis

In loving memory of Paul Melis

New York, NY — New York’s cannabis market was promised to New Yorkers. The pioneers, the grinders, the legacy crews who kept culture alive when the state still called it contraband. Instead, a different set of players are circling — dressed in global credentials, backed by glossy coverage, and positioning themselves as gatekeepers to the most valuable cannabis market in the country.

At the center of this infiltration: the Global Cannabis Network Collective (GCNC), Honeysuckle Media, the Cannabis Means Business (CMB) Expo, and the Global Cannabis Exchange (GCX). And behind it all sits 4Life Entertainment — the same company that owns PiffCon, the much-criticized event that flopped with New York vendors and exposed the disconnect between corporate organizers and the city’s legacy cannabis community.

By attaching themselves to CMB, 4Life and its partners are mounting a shameless infiltration of New York’s legacy market — packaging the culture as content while pushing out the very people who built it.

The Global Cannabis Network Collective (GCNC)

The Global Cannabis Network Collective (GCNC) was founded in 2020 by Jill Reddish and Chris Day, CEO of Denver-based Gateway Proven Strategies (GPS). Marketed as “an elite network of global cannabis leaders,” GCNC charged between $1,500 and $3,500 a year for membership.

At its core? Barely a handful of executives — about seven paying members — yet it branded itself as the center of the global cannabis conversation.

In September 2021, GCNC was acquired by Gateway Proven Strategies. The buyout wasn’t about cash flow; GCNC didn’t have it. The value was in optics. GPS gained a ready-made “global club” that could:

Sell exclusivity through membership badges. Open doors to boardrooms and panels. Project influence through ties stretching from cannabis investors in Germany to social clubs in Barcelona.

For GPS, the acquisition was about positioning. But in New York, that positioning rings hollow. What works in Berlin or Barcelona doesn’t work in a city built on borough loyalty, neighborhood trust, and legacy hustle.

GCNC’s global gloss doesn’t land here — because New Yorkers don’t need outsiders telling them how to run the culture they built.

Honeysuckle: The Media Partner That Assaults Women

Honeysuckle Media, led by Ronit Pinto, Jaime Lubin, and Sam Long, made itself the megaphone for GCNC’s ambitions. At CMB 2025, Honeysuckle published a feature interview with Jill Reddish, positioning her as the connector for New York’s global cannabis future.

But Honeysuckle’s credibility collapsed in July 2024, when video surfaced of Pinto and Long assaulting a Pakistani woman wearing a kufiyyeh. The backlash was swift and public:

Gotham Buds (Harlem): “We stand with our community. Hate and violence have no place in this industry. Honeysuckle will never be on our shelves again.” CONBUD (Bronx): “Our shelves are for legacy, for love, for the Bronx. Not for outsiders who disrespect our people. We’re done with Honeysuckle.” Terp Bros (Queens): “Queens built this culture from the ground up. We will not carry any magazine that disrespects women or our city.” The Emerald (Brooklyn): “Brooklyn doesn’t bow. Honeysuckle is canceled here.”

The city spoke with one voice: Honeysuckle was canceled.

Cannabis Means Business (CMB) The Failed Cannabis Expo of NYC

The Cannabis Means Business Expo is fronted by Trevor Titley and backed by Alex and Aaron Diamond through their companies: 4Life Entertainment (owners of PiffCon), Lighthouse Network Management, and The Ticketing Co. (TIXCO, LLC).

In 2025, they staged their first New York “Global Edition.”

Onstage: Jill Reddish and Chris Day’s GCNC, selling “international programming.”

In the press: Honeysuckle, acting as media partner despite its scandal.

The result wasn’t a platform for New York’s culture. It was an optics show — outsiders patting themselves on the back while Harlem’s Gotham Buds (Jeffrey Lopez), Queens’ Trends (Rodney & Rob), and the Bronx’s CONBUD (Cos & Manny) — the real backbone of the market — were sidelined.

The Global Cannabis Exchange (GCX)

Affiliated with GCNC, the Global Cannabis Exchange (GCX) pitched itself at CMB as the future of cannabis finance — cross-border investment, deal flow, cannabis as an asset class. In other words: Wall Street suits parachuting in with no cultural footprint, no neighborhood roots, and no respect for the communities that carried cannabis through prohibition.

The Disrespect Factor

For outsiders to return to New York — after being so publicly canceled by the city’s dispensaries — is more than tone-deaf. It’s disrespectful.

New York told them “No.” Gotham Buds, CONBUD, Terp Bros, The Emerald, and others said it loud and clear: “You are not welcome on our shelves.”

Yet less than a year later, Honeysuckle was back at CMB as media partner, and GCNC smiled through interviews as if nothing happened.

What does that say about the Global Cannabis Network Collective? That it values optics over community. That it would rather partner with a disgraced magazine than respect New York’s operators. That it can take rejection from the loudest voices in the city — and still assume it deserves a stage here.

To New Yorkers, the message was clear: if you can’t respect our ‘no,’ you don’t respect our culture.

The New York Question

So the question hangs heavy: Who gets to tell New York’s cannabis story?

The legacy entrepreneurs who risked arrest to keep culture alive? Or outsiders — Jill Reddish, Chris Day, GCNC, Gateway Proven Strategies (its acquirer), Honeysuckle Media, Trevor Titley’s CMB, 4Life Entertainment (owners of PiffCon), Lighthouse, The Ticketing Co., and GCX — who parachute in with global branding and shamelessly infiltrate a legacy market they don’t understand?

Cannabrite calls it like it is: New York doesn’t need a seven-member collective bought for optics to validate its weed. From Harlem to Queens to the Bronx, the city speaks for itself. And anyone who tries to rewrite that story will find out fast — this city doesn’t bend.