Police & Thieves is a woman and minority owned and operated luxury cannabis company based in Denver, Colorado forwarding aesthetic inclinations in a planet-positive manner.

While the name alludes to the roots reggae classic that became the bassline riddim of late 1970’s counterculture around the world, it is simultaneously an encapsulation of our larger teleology of symmetry via disparate forces.

“Police and Thieves” is a song by Junior Murvin

about ceaseless violence in 1970s Jamaica.

The lyrics suggest that cops and criminals -

both armed – are two sides of the same coin.

As a young gang member, company co-founder

David Tomas Martinez used to frequently listen to

the song in his friends’ cars – a rare moment of bliss

in an environment studded with risks.

Decades later, when Martinez was thinking of starting a

marijuana company that playfully blended the subversive

with the sophisticated, he remembered this song.

Though the lyrics describe an age-old dichotomy, the

fact of the song’s creation hinted at a much larger duality

– that out of great violence and oppression (British

colonialism, the War on Drugs, etc), profound art often

emerged (reggae and rap being two prime examples).

Mainstream marijuana brands were whitewashing this

entire history.

The brand name Police & Thieves is thus a potent

reminder and a line in the sand about where this culture

came from, and how to move it forward.