Former NBA star Larry Hughes speaks to about 150 people that attended a rally and march against police brutality at Kiener Plaza in downtown St. Louis on Sunday, June 14, 2020. Children and adults marched to the Gateway Arch for a moment of silence before returning to the plaza to hear speakers. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Seems a hometown hoops hero is hankering to head a hemp business.
Former NBA star Larry Hughes, proud alum of Christian Brothers College High School and St. Louis University, has announced that he is a partner in Viola Missouri, or VMO.
The company plans to open two cannabis dispensaries and a cultivation and processing center in St. Louis in 2021.
“VMO will serve the medical needs of our community, particularly those suffering with physically and mentally debilitating conditions, including PTSD,” Hughes said in a statement released Thursday.
Missouri voters approved the use of medical marijuana in 2018 and the state granted VMO a license in 2019.
State records indicated in 2019 that VMO plans to grow its product in a warehouse in the 7100 block of North Broadway.
As reported in September in the Post-Dispatch, Missouri has issued 60 licenses to grow pot, 86 to make marijuana-infused products and 192 to open dispensaries. But many of the businesses are still setting up and working through a hurdle of state regulations.
The big man nationally for the company is Hughes’ former NBA teammate Al Harrington, who founded his first cannabis company in 2011 in Colorado.
The company now also operates in California, Michigan, Oregon and Washington. In the VMO statement, Harrington said Viola is the largest Black-led and owned multi-state cannabis operator in the U.S.
Hughes left SLU to play for eight NBA teams over 13 seasons. He and Harrington were teammates on the New York Knicks from 2008 to 2010.
Your weekly capsule of local news, life advice, trivia and humor from Post-Dispatch columnist Joe Holleman.
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