Mar 302022
 

Friends,

I have gone on the record, with God as my witness, that reprehensible hooch pimp Tom Celani is the King of Sodom, pushing liquor and gambling on mostly poor communities in order to line his filthy pockets.

This trafficker of sin and vice, Tom Celani, first tried to keep marijuana illegal because he saw it as a competitor to his booze empire. He lobbied to keep people thrown in cages for possessing a medicinal plant, tearing families apart, devastating communities, in order to keep his profit margins high.

But Celani, his lobbyists, and the enemies of justice lost. The people won. The cannabis industry is a national powerhouse that cannot be stopped with legalization becoming a reality everywhere. This victory caused many to breathe a sigh of relief, but the uber-rich criminal class, exemplified by Liquor Pimp Tom Celani, saw dollar signs and the opportunity to seize another industry.

Celani, joined by his sons, who I will now call the Qusay and Uday Hussein of Michigan, became marijuana entrepreneurs overnight. They invaded the cannabis industry to run the same gangster tactics they did in the liquor industry to illicitly dominate market share. They want to run their competitors out of business, or have them under their thumb paying tribute, as so many party stores were forced to do for years, hurting minority entrepreneurs specifically.

The Celani family has founded High Life Farms, Kiva Brands, Kiva Manufacturing and Mountain High Products (or Wana Brands) in order to exert control in the Michigan marijuana industry. It should come as no surprise that they are fellow travelers of notorious dirtbag Steve “Dr. Evil” Linder and stand to gain from his agenda to put the caregivers out of business with burdensome regulations, an agenda which has involved Linder’s signature tactic of shuffling dark money around amidst the familiar Lansing backdrop of strippers, blow and debauchery.

They are making the case that it is the caregivers, the small growers, and the medical marijuana industry that are responsible for tainted and unsafe products. Although there is no concrete evidence showing that the caregiver product fails safety standards, the kingpins have repeated these absurd talking points to shiftless, corrupt and ignorant public policy officials who are already biased and bigoted against cannabis in general. They move at every level toward their takeover, but we at the Michigan Caregivers Association have raised awareness of their plans and slowed them down.

The gangsters, particularly Qusay and Uday themselves, have been accused of all the offenses that the caregivers have been cruelly defamed by the opponents of freedom and progress. A lawsuit filed in Feb. 2022 contains shocking allegations about how Qusay and Uday, through their shameful recklessness, put a pregnant woman’s life in danger by drugging her with falsely-labeled marijuana products.

The lawsuit names Qusay and Uday, whose birth names are Benjamin and Vincent Celani, as appearing at a vendor day hosted by the Kai Cannabis provisioning center in Adrian. The pregnant plaintiff was given products that were labeled as having no THC content in them. They allegedly included Kiva Confections and WANA Gummies, two brands tainted with the foul stench of Celani. She got behind a wheel believing that Qusay and Uday were reputable actors, a grave mistake. Soon, her life was allegedly in danger because of her trust in these wicked Sons of Gomorrah.

The plaintiff was lucky to arrive at her home “without physical injury” after she “began to feel the impairing, intoxicating, paranoia inducing, and euphoric effects of THC while driving home.” The plaintiff “experienced severe emotional distress,” which included “panic, racing thoughts, fear, hopelessness, loss of consciousness, memory loss, disorientation, dysphoria, anxiety and psychosis” as a result of Qusay and Uday’s negligent and disgraceful alleged acts.

Additionally, the plaintiff testified that she suffered from “severe physical discomfort,” which included “sweating, convulsing, general sickness, imbalance, temperature swings, and feeling her unborn child squirm, jerk and twist inside her womb.” According to the testimony in this lawsuit, Qusay and Uday put an innocent baby, nearly fully formed, in great danger because of their lack of concern for their customers and fellow man. Talk about living up to the family name.

She reported that other workers at Kai Cannabis who consumed the products experienced similar effects. The plaintiff said that the anguish over potential damage to her baby caused her to experience sustained distress. Although the baby was successfully delivered with no complications in Sept. 2021, she remains worried that the heavy dose of THC she unwittingly ingested may have long-term negative mental health impacts on her child, considering she has a family history of schizophrenia.

While I am a wholehearted supporter and enthusiast of cannabis products, drugging someone against their will is a despicable and criminal thing to do. Edibles can be very potent and do a great deal of damage if someone takes them not knowing what to expect. The fact that a pregnant woman was allegedly dosed with multiple edibles because of lies peddled to her by the Celani family should make everyone disgusted. The lawsuit also identifies certain criminal acts, involving an illicit interstate drug trade, that the plaintiff has alleged is being perpetrated by the Celani family.

The plaintiff noted that “some of the products appear to have been procured by Defendants from California and Colorado” and that “the delivery of marijuana products from foreign states is criminal under both state and federal law.” She noted that the products “alleged did not comply with the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Bureau of Regulation Rule 420, generally.”

This indicates that the Celanis may be involved in the illegal drug-smuggling trade that is meant to muscle Michigan home growers out of the cannabis industry. The word on the street for months is that tons of low-quality marijuana smuggled from out of state and out of the country is hitting the streets, with regulators looking the other way, in order to drive down prices and put the economic squeeze on the caregivers. A story from earlier this year showed that over 2,000 pounds of foreign marijuana was interdicted across the Canadian border by customs officials. This is just one of many examples of what is happening in our state. This is nothing short of economic terrorism and warfare against the rights of the people enshrined in the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act of 2008.

Stay tuned. We will provide updates throughout the legal process as Uday and Qusay are brought to justice. The Celani may lose some of their riches if they are found liable for the shocking allegations in this lawsuit. Regardless of how it is ultimately settled, this woman deserves massive plaudits for telling her truth. It is not easy staring down oligarchs like the Celanis, with their massive wealth and overextended influence, within this corrupt system. But more of us need to unite and stand against these interests. Our freedoms and the future of our families truly depend upon it. The Celani family wants to put us in a chokehold through regulations so we must kiss their rings in order to prosper. This is fundamentally un-American. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Together, we will repel the likes of the Celanis and achieve justice and preserve an inclusive American Dream for all.

Nov 172021
 

Friends,

I need to expose a lowlife who has victimized the people of Michigan and been particularly cruel and unfair to members of the Chaldean community. I am talking about the shameless booze jockey and greed mogul, Tom Celani.

For those who are unfamiliar with Celani’s machinations, this is a man who proudly traffics in vice and sin. He is the type of man who will happily sell hooch for alcoholics to go home and beat their wives and neglect their families. He will gleefully fleece the pockets of the ignorant and the destitute as they hand over their life savings at casinos where he exploits Native Americans in order to accumulate his nefarious millions.

Celani once served as chair for the Michigan Responsibility Council to oppose the legalization and mainstreaming of the cannabis plant. It was not because Celani, who revels in depravity and has earned the nickname ‘King of Sodom,’ wanted to protect the community or the children. Nothing could be further from the truth. What Celani was worried about was protecting his profits, seeing cannabis as a competitor to his poisonous alcohol.

It should go without saying the difference between alcohol and cannabis is massive. Cannabis is legitimate medicine, a miracle drug that can successfully cure or treat many illnesses and alleviate symptoms for extreme pain in all cases. This is why the cannabis community defeated the most powerful interests on the planet. This is why we defeated the federal government, the corporate machine, systemic racism, some of the most powerful lobbies in the world, and a multi-trillion dollar propaganda campaign. We defeated the bad guys, we defeated Tom Celani, we defeated prohibition.

Celani grew up in the cutthroat beer wholesaling industry before reinventing his image as an upscale wine merchant. He learned the ins and outs from his father, who gifted him with his business, to ruthlessly snuff out competition by any means necessary.  This is why Celani is now coming to swallow up the entire cannabis industry that he fought to destroy for decades and to shamelessly take money out of the pockets of the small entrepreneurs who put up the initial capital and took the risk in order to thrive. Celani, whose sons run High Life Farms, a monopoly cannabis firm at war with caregivers, is a major proponent of the HB5300-02 bills that will create a “Big Weed” monopoly, squeezing every dime out of the medical patients, turning caregivers into criminals, and making marijuana a monopoly similar to his Beer and Wine Wholesalers monopoly.

Celani has reveled in putting his thumb over Chaldean business owners trying to make a buck. He laughs from his $12 million dollar mansion as he puts Chaldeans out of business and leaves our families broken and destitute. I am not sure if it is a racial superiority thing with Celani, but from all who know the man personally, they will tell you there is hate in this man’s heart. Hate for his fellow man. Hate for others who are doing well. Hate for anyone who wants to make something of themselves. The way Celani sees it, he owns the plantation, and Chaldeans may toil for a pittance while he lords over us and allows us our ability to earn.

We had to pay tribute to the likes of Celani and his Beer and Wine monopoly in order to stay in business owning our stores, our gas stations, our grocery businesses in order put food on our family’s plate for years. Celani was happy to exploit Chaldeans as we came over from Iraq, many of us with little resources. He used his power to squeeze us, forcing us to work those 20-hour days, while looking down on us in contempt. He sees us as less than human, as human chattel he and his minions can toy with to his heart’s content. We will allow him to pull the same scam in the medical marijuana industry.

We came from America to escape indignities. We came from America to enjoy our freedom and to thrive. We have done so, despite the best efforts of connivers like Celani who wish to hold us down. We will kowtow to the likes of Celani no longer. Thousands of Chaldean families are THRIVING because of the medical marijuana industry and the caregivers system, which works so well for the patients. We are organized, we are formidable, we will not be exploited any longer. It is time to give Celani a much-needed reality check that we will not be his doormats and we will not settle for his scraps. I call on all Chaldeans to unite against Celani’s anti-American monopoly tactics that will hurt our community for his own ruthless profit-seeking avarice.