Remembering Ali Ganji and His Love For Cannabis Compassion

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The world of Cannabis Compassion weeps at the passing of a man that cared about those in need. Giving to the less fortunate and helping anyone in need is what Ali Ganji did best:

Just days ago on Tuesday as we were wrapping up the 100 million mg. CBD/CBG Giveaway a call came in from Carly Goebel from Compassion Co… Instead of the happy and cheerful voice we’ve all grown used to – the aura of sadness touched my heart as a message that would change the course of 2020 again was delivered. Ali Ganji, the man with the compassion plan, had passed at the very young age of 41 to a heart attack. He was loved by so many for the nonstop giving to those in need. Whether it was cannabis or a good old-fashioned PB& “J” sandwich (he loved that joke) – Ali Ganji was there for you when you needed him. Working closely with me can be challenging for some but never was for him – one thing I’ll always remember is how this manhandled a very aggressive personality – always with class and dignity. Moods didn’t sway him, a bad day could turn to good with a simple joke and that’s how I want to remember him.

The cover photo from this tribute article comes from one of few LinkedIn posts he had – several are on how he wanted to build Genevieve’s Dream and this other was from this awesome experience he had in Las Vegas in February – Ali wrote: “After living in Vegas you get to enjoy its secret gems. I celebrated the second day of CHAMPS with my favorite table at my sushi spot with an OG cannabis Advocate Richard Marcella. He told me the story of him and Jack Herer getting arrested in September 1981 while collecting signatures for The California Marijuana Initiative. If you don’t know the history of Cannabis in California do your homework and pay respect and give back to those who have paved the way for us all!” This is the Ali Ganji many will remember, a guy that loved to laugh and have a blast.

From Veterans organizations he’s supplied with cannabis compassion over the years to the affiliates that worked with him and fellow compassion providers such as myself – this loss of a compassion provider is beyond great. It’s one that we can’t let happen without making a firm commitment to compassion and love within the cannabis industry. “Be the change you want to see” he joked with me in our last conversation just days ago on Sunday – as that’s the bio line on one of my social media accounts. Ali was serious in that joke as the cannabis industry has changed in a way that’s unpleasant for patients due to commercialization and lack of consumer care.

With his drive, motivation, and raw will he set out every day to make sure that people were okay – a very common denominator among compassion providers. He didn’t know much about Research itself but wanted it funded as he shared with me at one point that he wanted to make sure that cannabinoid medicine was legitimized and that kids like Genevieve had research behind what they used. He wanted her to have a carousel so bad that at one point Ali tried to get the builder of the Disneyland Carousel to allow Genevieve to be the guest of honor at their grand re-opening. The hard part of that memory is the fact that I was a bit irritated when it didn’t happen – now that he’s gone I realize that Ali’s heart didn’t ‘attack him’ to cause his death – it was just too big for this world. He loved so hard and showed it so humbly that most didn’t understand him.

Ali Ganji was in the midst of various different projects – 2 of them were funding research for Autism studies that involved the Global Cannabinoid Research Center as well as our daughter Genevieve and her love for horses. Since she can’t get on the Carousel’s she loves so much, Ali wanted a study done on Equine Therapy done with CBD and Terpenes – he wanted to do just about anything that would put a smile on Genevieve’s face. From day one of Anne Mari and I filing the S Corporations documents for “Genevieve’s Dream, Inc”, the strong-willed man started a chant with Carly “We’re building a team…. a team to make the dream” in regards to the project to create a CBG hemp extract and strain named after Genevieve that will someday create a product line that’s so unique it’s vast sales will fund the creation of a $25 million ‘Carousel Village’ Developmental Center. A review of his LinkedIn account today left tears rolling down my cheeks – his very first post was about his love for Genevieve and how he would make her dream come true.

Carly Goebel wrote a beautiful article about Ali from her personal perspective – I’m going to publish it as is next – but first felt it was necessary to express how much our own family will miss the presence of this man in the Cannabis Industry. He can’t be charged with a crime now so I’ll share that at one time when Genevieve was desperately in need of oils and Ali was contacted he had a 10 Liter tank from a C02 extraction yanked from the production line and delivered to me. It was far more than she could use in a year, when I made contact he was too humble of a man to even admit it was him – but his affiliates told on him. Who sends a very big collection tank full to someone in need? Ali Ganji did – that’s who. We can’t let his passing be in vain.

One of Ali’s favorite girls in the world was my daughter Genevieve, she was at one time a compassion patient in a large program I ran under Prop 215 that decided to adopt me.

Speaking to Michael Pratt earlier he stated ” With Ali’s passing there is great sadness, and I will completely miss him particularly when the industry itself draws near. He takes the cake as the funniest entrepreneur I’ve met. And knew this business, he spoke with depth and clarity. Spinning it five minutes later. It will take a while for me (us) to get over that loss. I am here for you however you need my help bro. Let’s fit the puzzle pieces together..” as we spoke about the Autism Studies and the necessity to carry on after this sudden and tragic loss.

“I’m startled, shocked, stunned. We’ll miss him so much and somehow we’ll get these studies done to honor him” stated Patti Harris who’s heavily involved in the same anticipated study as Michael Pratt and I – one that was to be done through the Autism Research Institute. When their grant wasn’t available it was Ali Ganji that had found the way to fund it – but before he could share with us how – he passed away early Tuesday. So now we’ll figure out ‘the how’ and make sure that the legacy torch is carried forward.

Let's hear from one of Ali's close friends, Carly Goebel:

The Life and Legacy of Ali Ganji: A Vision of Compassion

By: Carly Goebel

On June 21, 2020, our world and the cannabis community lost a great man, a warrior for compassionate care, and an example to all in this industry that you do not have to be cutthroat in business to be successful.

Ali Ganji, 41, died suddenly of a suspected heart attack leaving behind this world and the empire he was building. Ali was more than just a boss, he was our best friend and mentor first; he was family. Most people who have met Ali have felt the love that radiated from his soul, hell, you did not even have to meet in person you could feel it over the phone. Ali had a mission to build an empire through Persepolis Brands, along the way helping companies and people who could not afford to be in the legal game on their own. Through The Compassion Co, we were going to create the biggest compassionate care system in the state. Ali would not let his dreams stop there though. Everything he dreamed of, he dreamed big, and the biggest in California was not enough for him, he wanted to build into the biggest compassionate care program in the United States.

Ali had always been a hard worker, and he became a successful entrepreneur by age 19. Because of his hard work, he had access to everything he could have wanted, cars, traveling, possessions, but an experience he had changed his perspective on what truly makes you happy. “When I was (living) in Las Vegas, I started walking the streets and giving peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and water to the homeless, and I realized that’s the only thing that truly made me happy” Ganji once explained. Many people in the cannabis community and industry know this story about Ali and understand that it exemplifies the type of man that he was. He could have everything in the world and would not be happy if he were not helping people.

Ali then took this passion and entered the medical industry where he thought he would really be able to make a difference. It did not take long for him to realize that the health care industry was profiting off of people and their pain and that just did not sit right with him. He began working on alternative pain relief methods, like creams, to help pain patients get off Opioids. Until one day he saw learned of the incredible benefits of Cannabis and realized he was in the wrong industry. This was the moment when Ali came to understand that the real way he could alleviate people’s suffering and aid them in a way that would not hurt them, was through Cannabis.

Over the last decade, Ali made it his mission to help as many people as he could through Cannabis, whether it was supporting patients in need, helping small mom and pop businesses to get licensing, consulting for many different companies, and mentoring many different people; always willing to do whatever he could to help those around him succeed along with him. Ali was not just an ally to the Weed for Warriors group that helps veterans with cannabis access, but he was also their friend. For Ali, compassion was not just business, it was forming real relationships with real people so that he could know how to best help support them. When Covid-19 hit, Ali even helped manufacture a small batch of The Compassion Co hand sanitizers to include in the bags given out to the VA in NorCal. He was also passionate about helping the community including Genevieve’s Dream, TLC in Sebastopol, multiple Boys and Girls Clubs of America both near his home and work, paying the phone bill and sometimes rent for two individuals, and even taking in and housing and employing a homeless man. This was the man he was.

In 2016, I was introduced to Ali Ganji by a woman named Mary who was determined to get me help. I have a disorder called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, one of the worst chronic pain conditions known, and cannabis helps more than any medication the doctors have given me. Mary shared my story with Ali and asked for help and Ali jumped into action. For the next 3 years, Ali worked hard spreading my story to all the companies and brands he came in contact with. He would get donations and I would receive a box from Mary with around a hundred different items. Edibles, vape pens, bath bombs, topicals, you name it and I probably got to try it. It was this experience of seeing how much a full-time regiment of cannabis helped improve my condition, but also how I could not afford the cannabis medicine I needed being on a fixed income with a disability, that really inspired Ali to grow what we were doing into a full scale non-profit so that we could help so many others the way that he had helped me.

Thus, The Compassion Co was born. Our team, Ali, Logan, and I, we’re working hard to make relationships with brands and companies like Weed for Warriors, Seabright, DBC Infused, Tikva, Mike’s Medicines, Beghelli, and more to gather donations and find patients that needed them. We built an intake form on TheCompassion.Co so that patients could easily connect with us and we could evaluate their needs and match them with donations. Ali was even working with a partner on finalizing a delivery service, to be able to deliver the compassionate cannabis meds straight to patients. And really, this is just the tip of the iceberg of everything he had been working so hard on and was about to achieve.

Ali’s dreams, goals, and vision of compassionate care CANNOT die with him. We must come together as a community and realize how much we need each other as patients, shops, brands, cultivators, manufacturers, and distributors. As Richard Eastman, cannabis activist and dear friend of Ali Ganji would say, we need to end corporate greed and free the weed. Ali believed in this message wholeheartedly, and he set an example that all who knew him will remember of how to be a successful, kind businessman, willing to help anyone, and doing his best to help as many others in our community as possible succeed. I have even had countless people in the last two days make the same comment, “Damn, he was one of the good ones, and there aren’t many.” That needs to change. We need to remember we were a community before we were an industry. I hope that this story, the example Ali set for others, and the way that he visibly impacted so many lives inspire you to do the same.

When a community experiences such a great loss as this, it really stops people in their tracks and forces them to evaluate what they are doing. Today, I would challenge you to look at your life and your business and ask yourself, “Are you giving enough back?” or “What more can I do to help those who cannot help themselves?”. Better yet, ask yourself “What Would Ganji Do?”. Our community, and the world, rely on the love and passion of people like Ali Ganji and now his mission has been passed on to you and me I. Join us, and together we can bring his vision into reality, and flood our world with the love it needs to heal.

GoFundMe is being set up with information about the different community charitable programs he has worked with, and the family asks that donations be made here rather than to the family. At this time information has not been released about a memorial service, but many people in the community have asked that we do something. If you would like to send flowers, please contact at the info below. Two of Ali’s favorite givebacks were giving sandwiches to the homeless and donating cannabis to patients, so in honor of Ali, we will be planning a day to hand out PB & “J’s” to the homeless. For more information or to get involved with carrying on Ali’s legacy through The Compassion Co, please contact Carly Goebel (310)486-4863 or Carly@persepolisbrands.com ~

A final note from Mike: Without a doubt, it’s been a different week – unpredictable and hard to handle much like all of 2020. As our home celebrated the ending of a 90-day blitz of 20 hour days of nonstop compassion across the nation the news of Ali put a damper on it in a big way at first. But after thinking it over there’s nothing damp at all about what’s happened – it’s just another reason to push forward and make sure the legacy of so many before Ali is carried on along with his. In speaking with members of the original Prop 215 team there’s been talk of creating the Dennis Peron Compassion Foundation – something that’s desperately needed.

The biggest takeaway I have from the massive compassion giveaway just done is that people don’t know the history of cannabis. They don’t know who Dennis Peron was and other than a good cannabis strain and the writer of a book – many don’t know much about Jack Herer. There are so many more names that fill the cannabis history books and compassion books. With honor, I add Ali Ganji to the list of names that gave up a portion of his life for cannabis compassion. Some may argue that Ali was more of a corporate type of guy – but keep in mind that Genevieve’s Dream, Inc has/had plans to build a developmental center for the very people that use hemp and cannabis extracts.

Now that’s compassion that lasts a lifetime. We’ll miss you Ali Ganji – rest in peace brother. Don’t worry – we’ll do what I know you’d want us all to do. Carry on…..