I probably should not comment on your question BT6
Post# of 56323
However, I can speculate to some degree. The United States government had laws in place - that have since changed - that made it criminal for financial institutions to loan money to anyone trying to get into the mj industry and grow and sell pot.
So my guess is that investment capital (money) was needed to get an operation such as this one off the ground and it had to come from somewhere other than a bank. And in return for that infusion of capital investment they were given shares. Pretty common theme amongst most all companies operating in this particular market. My guess is that if the laws were less strict governing the capital funds 2 years ago then this would never have occurred.
Of course I'm probably completely wrong.