As the chief marketing officer of Levels Cannabis, Zack Issa not only oversees several large and growing cannabis brands in Michigan, but also has the opportunity to put his creative energy to work with special projects that push the envelope of cannabis packaging and marketing.
For example, this summer, Levels customers will be able to buy “the Big Smoke,” a jumbo box with a dozen different cannabis brands and products — designed in the style of the firework sample packs that are popular around the Fourth of July.
“I think these types of brand partnerships really showcase our best foot forward in terms of how we differentiate ourselves versus our competitors in the market,” Issa says.
Levels offered a similar assortment last December with a holiday advent package; the “12 Levels of Dankness” promo turned out to be a massive hit, selling 500 packages at $50 apiece in a matter of two hours across eight retail locations.
Before officially stepping in to the cannabis industry, Issa worked in fashion for a number of brands and operators and also started a kids clothing company with his wife. After doing some consulting work in the industry, he began his cannabis career overseeing marketing at Cloud Cannabis and The Bloomery, before joining Levels in 2024. As a vertically integrated company with eight retail stores and three cannabis brands (High Neighbor, Hard Hitter and Candyman), in addition to a newly opened shop called Trapperz Alley in New Buffalo, Levels had the scale and the ambition that Issa wanted to be a part of.
“I felt like this was the best opportunity to put my footprint in a larger scale operation to show that we will be one of the bigger retailers come five to six years down the road,” Issa says.
Marijuana Venture’s 2026 40 under 40 feature was sponsored by MoonDust USA
MoonDust USA helps pre-roll brands and operators source custom cones, tubes, blunt wraps, and branded packaging with the consistency and speed needed to scale. As a women-owned direct manufacturer, MoonDust focuses on transparent pricing, dependable quality, and repeatable production, giving cannabis teams a supply partner they can count on as volumes grow.