‘Cannabis Is a Tool, Not an Escape.’ Two Iraqi-American Brothers Built a $180 Million Brand Around That Idea.

Ali and Muha Garawi built Muha Meds from a $15,000 startup into one of cannabis’s most dominant brands — without outside money, without losing the culture and without losing each other.

“A lot of people wait for the right moment or for some perfect circumstance,” says Muha Garawi, “but when you have a background like ours, you know idleness doesn’t cut it.”

He’s 26. His brother Ali is 29. Together, they turned a $15,000 startup into a company clearing north of $100 million a year; no outside investors, no equity given up, no institutional scaffolding. Just two first-generation Iraqi-American brothers from Los Angeles who decided the right moment was whenever they decided it was.

Muha Meds is what they built. One of the most recognized cannabis brands in the country, with over 1,000 retail doors, 650 employees and a hemp division that went from $300,000 in 2023 to $24 million in 2025. Dialed Labs, its wellness arm built around cold plunges and saunas, came next. Dialed Moods, an elevated herbal superfood line, is where they’re going now.

All of it stayed in the family.

Failure Wasn’t an Option

The Garawi household ran on a different standard than the ones around it.

“What was considered over the top, exemplary and brilliant to our peers,” Ali says, “for us was the expectation.”

That is the immigrant household in one sentence. The ceiling that other people see as a finish line is just the starting altitude. Success is not celebrated as exceptional because it was always assumed. You don’t get credit for arriving because arriving was always the minimum.

Muha grew up inside the same standard and carries it differently, faster, louder, more kinetic. He remembers watching Arnold Schwarzenegger and becoming obsessed with how far a body could actually perform. He remembers the early California 215 days, when OGs and Sour Diesel had distinct identities and real communities around them. He was absorbing everything, always.

“You work hard, you hustle and you go for the big ideas,” he says. “Humility is also huge in our family culture, so we always try to keep that at the center of our operations while always pushing ourselves to be better.”

Two brothers, same foundation, very different frequency. That tension is not a liability. It is the whole business model.

Divide and Conquer

Running a company with your brother is either the best or the worst decision a person can make. In the early days, it was both.

“When we first started the business, we definitely had our share of clashes,” Muha says. “We found ourselves overlapping on responsibilities and trying to manage many of the same areas.”

The fix was clarity. Ali went deep on the back end: finance, deal structuring, manufacturing systems, the invisible architecture that keeps a fast-scaling operation from collapsing under its own weight. Muha took the front end: sales, marketing, supply chain, the outward-facing velocity that turns a product into a brand.

“Once we clearly defined our roles and took a divide and conquer approach,” Muha says, “everything began flowing and growing much smoother.”

Ali describes the dynamic simply. He builds the runway. Muha flies the plane.

Not Your Generation’s Cannabis

Muha sits at the edge of the generational divide: old enough to remember the 215 days, young enough to have built a brand for the generation that replaced all of that.

“Today the market looks very different,” he says, “with a lot of flower blending into similar candy or LCG crosses.”

He’s not complaining. He’s diagnosing. Vapes and pre-rolls evolved fast. Gen Z wants convenience and experience. Muha Meds was built to deliver both without selling out the product to get there.

“Chasing trends can make brands lose authenticity,” he says. “Gen Z consumers value convenience and experience, which is why pre-rolls and vapes have taken a larger share. As a brand, we focus on meeting that demand while staying rooted in quality and originality.”

Ali has the sharper take on the business reality underneath all of it.

“The market has industry to a point where it would be difficult for Gen Z to make a strong entrance,” he says. “It’s more old-school business development skills that are needed, while still pioneering the marketing aspects to Gen Z.”

The window was specific. The execution was specific. The work required was unglamorous in ways that don’t show up in the revenue number. What they built is not a template. It is a result.

What the Brand Actually Is

Walk into a Muha Meds event and you might be standing next to Dom Kennedy, RJmrLA, Nyjah Huston, Vintage Culture or Wax Motiff. The Los Angeles community the brand has embedded itself in spans skate, hip-hop, electronic and everything in between. Michigan has its own version: local fundraisers, retail partner events, music festivals, holiday parties built around community rather than product placement.

“We always try to stay true to our roots and our culture,” Muha says.

In a category drowning in celebrity partnerships and brand activations that feel engineered from a distance, showing up in real life is still a differentiator. The moment that confirmed it for Ali was not a sales milestone or a distribution deal.

“The moment people started defending the brand without us asking,” he says, “that’s when it clicked.”

Customers educating other customers. Trust becoming identity. That is not something you manufacture. That is something you earn over time by not cutting corners on the things that don’t show up in quarterly reports.

Beyond Cannabis

The wellness expansion was not a pivot. Both brothers are clear on that.

For Ali, cold plunges and saunas are ancient technology, not wellness industry products. They exist alongside cannabis in a personal framework built around nervous system regulation, presence and performance. The product line is an expression of the philosophy, not the other way around.

“Cannabis opened the door,” he says, “but the deeper mission has always been about helping people regulate their nervous systems, feel present and perform better in their lives.”

Muha traces the same thread back to bodybuilding and personal optimization, to a growing skepticism of mainstream healthcare and a conviction that the body already has most of what it needs if you stop masking symptoms and start addressing causes.

“There is an abundance of powerful herbs, minerals and natural tools available to us,” he says, “yet they’re rarely emphasized or integrated into mainstream wellness conversations.”

Cannabis, in both their tellings, belongs in that broader conversation, alongside breathwork, fitness, meditation and recovery. Not as a party favor, not as a personality, but as a tool.

The Reset

Ask Muha how he resets and the answer is immediate.

“Rolling a fat pre-workout blunt, simultaneously cracking a mango passionfruit Dialed Moods Energy can and enjoying a crazy workout.”

Ali prefers silence. Clarity over stimulation. When he unplugs, music becomes emotional — nostalgia, perspective, a way to slow down and see things from further back. Muha is on Carlita, Rüfüs Du Sol, some reggae, lately a lot of Loe Shimmy. Polar opposites, same destination.

They want Muha Meds to be synonymous with cannabis itself. Not a moment, not a trend, not a generation — the thing itself.

“As first-generation Americans,” Ali says, “we respected the opportunity while challenging the system to be better.”

He wants it remembered as something built with integrity. Not just success, but substance.

In cannabis, those two things are still not the same. The brothers are working on that.