The era of noisy IPOs, debt-fueled expansion and corporate promises of dominance appears to be behind us. A quieter cannabis era is taking shape, defined by grounded projects and a return to the plant. In this High Times exclusive, we reveal one of them: a collective built around breeder recognition, born from late-night concerts and gatherings of cannabis OGs. They’ve assembled some of the most influential names in contemporary genetics.
That collective is Arcana, and its founders are blunt about why they believe the industry needs a reset.
The legal cannabis industry has failed to live up to expectations and is at a crossroads. It has suffered from finance-driven, ‘get-rich-quick’ business models, entrepreneurs who prioritize profits over the plant, and a tortured supply chain, yielding a market flooded with subpar products and artificial, hemp-based cannabinoids. In the end, consumers suffer.
Arcana’s public face blends manifesto and mood board, pairing psychedelic visuals with the decades of knowledge its breeders have earned through dedication to the plant, the seed and the science.
Rather than focusing on mass retail or chasing market share through price cuts, Arcana is launching in Fall 2025 with seeds, slips, and tissue culture clones from foundational strains like Chem91, Josh D OG, Ghost OG, Koffee, Banana OG, Kurple, and Black Cherry Freeze. And they’ve brought together the breeders’ names behind those strains.
Its first facility, called “Ghost Town,” in Shelton, Washington, will serve as the base for breeding, DNA sequencing, and testing across environments. Alongside this infrastructure, Arcana introduces a novel business model aiming for breeder recognition.
Permission, Acknowledgement, Compensation
As a project, Arcana is structured through two big buckets of intellectual property: the right to market, promote, and sell IP owned by the breeders; and breeding know-how, including farming techniques, which Arcana members plan to offer through seminars, consulting, and courses. As a knowledge-based project, Arcana pushes forward a relevant and often overlooked debate about recognizing those who breed and shape original strains: a group of individual plants that share common characteristics resulting from years of technical breeding. Strains that sometimes have consumer recognition or even a brand.
A notable structural choice is Arcana’s PAC program. This system requires explicit breeder consent before genetics are used, ensures credit is given, and provides financial compensation.
For Arcana’s CEO, Andrew Berman, “this is the way we make sure the people who built cannabis genetics are treated with respect.” The PAC framework is designed for both the founding team but extends to external breeders.
Berman is a cannabis businessman who has been through cycles of exuberance and collapse before. As he explained in our interview, the years of cannabis companies chasing sky-high valuations left scars: “The mood was as one would expect it to be on the cusp of a new industry birthing: fantastic, exuberant, exciting, fun, exhilarating, unique… but by 2019 the floor was shaking.” During those years, Berman was running Harborside, giving him a front-row seat to the wave of state legalizations and the rush that followed.
“During the early boom of the legal U.S. industry, many values like the ones we grew up with were discarded to prioritize speed and scale. Money as a North Star blinded things such as the overproduction that was inevitably occurring,” he recalls.
For Berman, Arcana is about applying lessons learned during those years. It aims to be structured around measured growth, controlled finances, and a focus on genetics and breeders rather than branding.
“This industry is not for the ‘canna-curious.’ It is not for the ‘risk-averse’ types either. It is invigorating and remains exciting because whatever cannabis becomes in 20 years is happening now,” he stated.
Alongside Berman is Chairman Michael Klein, who co-founded bio365, an organic living soil company backed by ten patents and supplying both MSOs and OG growers.
Klein talks about Arcana as a knowledge-based business structured around content, services, and breeder reports as you have never seen before, with science as the core. “Quality genetics, from a trusted source,” he summarized.
The Ghost Town facility includes breeding rooms, tissue culture labs, greenhouses, and outdoor plots, and is built on science-based soils and organic practices. DNA sequencing is used to authenticate strains, assess stability, provide predictability for subsequent generations, and select plants with beneficial traits.
The purpose is straightforward: to provide genetics that are traceable, stable, and useful to cultivators. The initial releases will focus on seeds, slips, and tissue culture clones of well-known cultivars. The aim is to restore stability to cultivars that have often been diluted, renamed, or misrepresented in the market.
Exit Survival Mode, Enter Genetic Stability
Arcana is putting together a cannabis dream team. The project has gathered cultivators whose work defines part of the genetic backbone of cannabis today, and the collective notes they have been working together for more than a year, crossbreeding their strains and building the foundation for upcoming releases.
Every home grower familiar with the basics has heard about or grown OG Kush varieties, Sour Diesel, or other mainstream strains. But the OG Kush or Sour Diesel you may have encountered might not resemble the originals in the eyes of those who stabilized them. The aim of the project is to bring those originals back into circulation, in the hands of those who created them.
“I think I was fortunate enough to not be rushed to scale up, and never thought about dominating the space. I was ready to stay in my lane by primarily focusing on OG’s, but all of a sudden, weed is legal and the boom is on,” explained Josh D about his own experience during the early years of legalization.
He is the breeder who stabilized OG Kush during the 1990s and helped secure its place as one of the most influential strains in the United States. “We did learn a ton during the entire experience,” he said, but “the industry fell flat and innovation and creativity got pushed aside by being in survival mode.”
Chemdog, known for developing Chem91 and the Chem family line, still frames it in simpler terms: “My relationship with cannabis will always be the same. You have to be one with the plant and learn from it.”
Ras Kaya Paul, founder of Pacific NW Roots and one of the leading figures in regenerative farming and hash-making, linked Arcana’s work to a broader ecological view: “Our process, which is constantly developing and evolving, is very hands-on and begins with verified genetics that each of us knows intimately.”
Suny Cheba, a breeder associated with Double Purple Doja, Black Cherry, Neon SuperSkunk, and other cultivars, said about the team: “Every member of the Collective is their own unique character, bringing a range of personalities, backgrounds and experiences to the table. But what unites us is our deep respect for the plant, our drive to push the boundaries of our craft, and a shared vision to bring the finest cannabis genetics into the world.”
OG Ghost, who has kept Ghost OG alive through decades of underground circulation, reflected on his transition into Arcana: “I am blessed to work alongside some of the most respected breeders and cultivators in the game, fusing our expertise and leveraging this incredible lineup of foundational strains. This has made this transition process easier.”
Also on board is Rev Fuji, who has cultivated since the 1990s and created Kurple Fantasy: “Each of us has our distinct palates, so there are plenty of avenues for us to drive through, and cannabis’ ability to express such a diverse terpene combination allows us to do so.”
Alone, each of them has done something in the Arcana business, selling seeds, flowers, or licensing IP, but together they will synergize, through Pheno-hunting, flower production, and foundation strain crossing are all part of the mix.
The Science Behind It All
“If you can combine the latest scientific practices with the humility to accept the plant as your guide, growing quality cannabis with stability and consistency is possible,” says Chemdog, who has been producing cannabis since age 16 and now, at 52.
OG Ghost explained that for 18 months, they’ve all been breeding, selecting, and testing new strains at Ghost Town. Arcana is not currently co-breeding but is consolidating the results of individual team members, who bred their strains in one of the 16 specialized breeding rooms, a state-of-the-art tissue culture lab, and extensive testing facilities.
Collaboration will come soon. By the end of the year, they will be launching a new strain that’s coming together from this work.
“Together we can do more than any one of us can on our own. We share best practices and feed off one another,” says Suny Cheba.
Access to Mysterious and Specialized Knowledge
Arcana’s structure is an experiment in institutionalizing recognition for breeders, embedding science into genetics, and slowing the pace of growth to avoid past mistakes.
In itself as a cultural and structural gesture, Arcana is significant. Whether it succeeds commercially will depend largely on the demand for refined, higher-quality buds and for the kind of knowledge that holds such value within cannabis culture. Their ideal customer is the home grower for seeds, the craft grower for slips and tissue culture, and larger operators for licensing opportunities.
“We believe Arcana fills a gap in market offerings to those who care about the plant and its profile, and less about potency and price,” says Klein. The team is also founding a cannabis community focused on education and relationship building, and members can join their Discord to access the Collective’s extensive cannabis knowledge.
For now, Arcana stands as an experiment in what the next phase of the cannabis business might look like: less spectacle, more structure; less about conquering markets, more about building a durable institution; less about scale manufacturing and more about quality buds.
In an industry still searching for balance after a decade marked by turbulence and craziness, that alone stands as a meaningful contribution.
