Dustin Johnson
At 36, Adakai CEO Dustin Johnson employs more than 70 people through the company’s dispensary (Monarch Wellness Center), its cultivation center (Omaha Farms) and its extraction company (Huxton).
Johnson says operating in the Cole Memo era has allowed him to invest in the company without fear of random raids or being shut down at the whim of local officials, resulting in the multi-faceted business he oversees.
“The rules in Arizona are such that those licenses are fully integrated,” he says. “So, it allows us to have a cultivation, processing and a kitchen facility.”
Despite the size and scope of the Phoenix-based company, Adakai wasn’t the type of company that was born out of the so-called green rush. Johnson says it was actually the result of a boating accident that left his mother with neurological pain symptoms similar to phantom limb syndrome.
“Her knee was healed, but she was going through heavy amounts of pain on a daily basis,” he says.
Doctors prescribed 12-13 Vicodin pills a day for his mother’s pain and the effects ultimately drove Johnson to seek a healthier alternative with cannabis in 2010.
In 2013, he opened Monarch, the first licensed dispensary in Scottsdale, and the Adakai brands can now be found in more than half of the licensed dispensaries in Arizona, Johnson says, helping his mother, as well as others.