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Issue 001 · Flower Expo Illinois 2026
ProcureCulture

Section

People & Culture

Profiles and conversations with the people who make cannabis: growers, extractors, brand reps, founders, buyers, budtenders, operators, artists.

Founder profile · Buyers

No. 01

The founding buyer

Before the Rulebook

John Hirsch sold ads to dispensaries, grew in an Oakland apartment, bought for some of the Bay Area’s earliest legal shops and ran his own delivery company for nearly a decade. Now he buys in Illinois, and ProcureCulture is where he shows his work.

Oakland · Berkeley · Park Ridge

Read the profile
John Hirsch smiling behind a dispensary counter with a boxer dog, a jar and a price sheet in front of them.
Behind the counter at Phytologie Wellness with the shop dog, Tyson, around New Year’s 2014. Courtesy John Hirsch.

Two decades, eight stops

From the profile

  1. 2005–08

    Weedtracker

  2. 2008–10

    Harborside

  3. 2010–12

    CBCB, Berkeley

  4. 2012

    California, 90420

  5. 2012–13

    Phytologie Wellness

  6. 2013–22

    Irie Care

  7. 2023

    Home to Illinois

  8. 2026

    ProcureCulture

“Buying isn’t really about picking products. It’s about allocating limited shelf space and limited dollars.”

Coming to People & Culture

  • Growers
  • Extractors
  • Brand reps
  • Founders
  • Buyers
  • Budtenders
  • Operators
  • Artists & culture