The Cannabist Co. has informed the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment that it will shutter its north Denver growhouse and manufacturing facility and eliminate 50 jobs.
“All affected employees have been notified of their separation dates and that their separation from employment will be permanent,” Kristin Popek, vice president of talent at the company, wrote in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, letter.
Popek, who did not return a call asking for additional details, said the layoffs would start Sept. 11 and that all employees would continue to receive base pay and benefits for the next 60 days.
The facility, 4750 Nome St., initially belonged to Medicine Man, which The Cannabist Co., then known as Columbia Care, acquired on Nov. 1, 2021.
Columbia Care also acquired The Green Solution, once Colorado’s largest marijuana retail chain, on Sept. 1, 2020. That came with a large grow operation that was both indoors and outdoors. Those locations have been sold or closed.
Wholesale marijuana prices in Colorado have fallen from a peak of around $1,700 per pound during the pandemic boom to less than $600 a pound recently, according to industry sources.
That huge drop has proven devastating to growers and is pushing more vertically integrated companies to take the risk of relying on sourcing product in the open market.
Chicago-based PharmaCann, owner of LivWell Enlightened Health and The Clinic, announced in March that it would close a cultivation and processing facility near the National Western Complex, eliminating 132 jobs.
Eaze, owner of the Green Dragon, shuttered a 92,000-square-foot facility at 830 Wyandot in Denver in June 2025, resulting in the loss of 45 jobs.
The number of actively registered recreational cultivation licenses has fallen by nearly half since the market’s peak in 2021, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue’s .
The Cannabist Co. has faced severe financial distress. After a loan default this year, the and is liquidating assets across states to satisfy creditors.
