Berner, a Big Name in Cannabis, Hits Little Rock

Berner was the toast of Little Rock on Friday, and not just with the customers who formed a snaking line of at least 100 patients outside the new west Little Rock medical cannabis dispensary branded in his name.

A budtender at a competing Little Rock dispensary was asking patients all weekend if they’d seen the San Francisco rapper, retailer and co-developer of the Cookies brand, who ran a California cannabis club at 18 in his first blossoming as an entrepreneur.

The celebrity himself, along with his entourage, was beaming as he talked outside the powder blue store, Berner’s by Good Day Farms, at 11600 Chenal Parkway, directly behind the Purple Cow.

“This is a big milestone for us,” Berner told Arkansas Business after asking his DJ for a little less volume at Friday’s grand opening celebration. “Cannabis being available in the South, our ability to expand our footprint into Arkansas. It’s kind of hard to soak in, actually.”

The dispensary is the 48th nationwide and the first in Arkansas to be branded for Berner, given name Gilbert Anthony Milam Jr., founder of Cookies with Bay Area cultivator Jai and now the company’s CEO. The 4,034-SF Chenal dispensary’s opening was the introduction of the brand to the Arkansas market. [Read More @ Arkansas Business]