Redondo Beach cannabis initiative proponent, 20, found by ‘cold call’

Samuel Nicosia plays bass with the DropOffs in August a R10 Social House.

by Garth Meyer

The man behind the Redondo Beach retail marijuana initiative graduated from Mira Costa High School in 2020. 

Samuel Nicosia, 20, is the proponent. He was approached last summer by Elliott Lewis, CEO of Catalyst Cannabis Co., based in Long Beach, about serving the effort.

Lewis found Nicosia, now a sophomore music business major at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., when seeking a Redondo Beach resident to serve as the required  proponent.

“I got out our customer list and said ‘Hey man, you want to be a proponent for the initiative?’ It was relatively a cold call,” Lewis said. “The youth. I love the youth. The youth are great.”

Lewis explained the initiative to Nicosia and gave him a draft, written by attorney Damian A. Martin, who is also a co-founder of South Cord Holdings, parent company of Catalyst. 

“I just decided that I would be a good piece to help them with that,” said Nicosia, who described his use of cannabis as medicinal. “For people like me, it’s kind of a pain to have to go to Long Beach or L.A. to get medicine. I believe that commercial cannabis in Redondo Beach should be legal.”

 

Catalyst Cannabis Co. CEO Elliott Lewis (right) and parent company co-founder and attorney Damian A. Martin. Photo by Nathan Avila.

GroundWorks Campaigns, based in Los Angeles, is now in the process of gathering signatures for the initiative, with a goal of 5,500, to put it on the Redondo Beach ballot next November. The $174,576 GroundWorks contract is being paid for by the Economic Resource and Development Coalition of Southern California (EDRCSC).

“I can never remember the frickin’ acronym,” said Lewis. “We paid all of it. It’s an alliance of cannabis operators who want the will of the voters to trump the actions of city councils.”

The alliance, at present, includes two operators — Catalyst Cannabis Co. and TradeCraft Farms —  based in Los Angeles.

Nicosia plays bass guitar in The Dropoffs, a band made up of a Mira Costa classmate and other peers, which has performed around the South Bay since 2018 (and will again Dec. 30 at the Hermosa Pier). 

The marijuana initiative was filed in Redondo Beach in August.

Nicosia and Lewis both said no payment was made for Nicosia’s role.

“I can’t even give him a discount on cannabis out of super-precaution,” Lewis said. 

The signature gathering — now the subject of a police investigation for alleged misrepresentation of the initiative — needs 10 percent of Redondo Beach’s registered voters to qualify for the November 2022 ballot.

“We’re crushing the signature count,” Lewis said. “It’s gonna be a wrap by the end of the month probably. We’re very confident.”

Lewis got into the cannabis business after a background in real estate, teaching English overseas, and earning a degree in philosophy from U.C. Berkeley. He is now a married father of four.

“When I’m playing with my kids, microdosing edibles brings me down to that joyful level, it gets me in the zone and makes me a better father,” he said. 

Catalyst Cannabis Co. has nine retail stores, all in Southern California. ER

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