How one merch store takedown exposed the ugly truth about cannabis discrimination — and why Paragon refuses to play by those rules.
When Ganjapreneur Broke the Story, It Didn’t Hit Like News — It Hit Like déjà vu
When Ganjapreneur published the story of Squarespace suspending the online merch payments of Silly Nice, it didn’t land like a simple tech glitch or a policy misunderstanding. It landed like a wave of recognition — the kind of internal flinch cannabis operators feel before they even finish the headline.
According to reporting by Ganjapreneur on November 12, 2025, Silly Nice wasn’t selling flower, carts, gummies, edibles, or anything remotely regulated. They were selling hats. Shirts. Accessories. That’s it.
And still — without warning, without communication, and without a single cannabis SKU in sight — their online payments were shut down simply because the brand was associated with cannabis.
That word is the wound: associated. In this industry, you can follow every law, every guideline, every state regulation, every compliance checklist — and still get punished for the industry you belong to. It’s not an anomaly; it’s the ecosystem cannabis businesses operate in every day.
Here is the article referenced throughout this piece:
Ganjapreneur — “Squarespace Suspends New York Cannabis Brand’s Online Merch Payments”
https://ganjapreneur.com/squarespace-suspends-new-york-cannabis-brands-online-merch-payments/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=squarespace_suspends_cannabis_brands_merch_payments_maryland_task_force_recommends_legalizing_natural_psychedelics_and_more&utm_term=2025-11-12
This is exactly why Paragon stands by what we do — loudly, publicly, unapologetically — and why we say we’re cannabis committed, not cannabis adjacent.
When Silly Nice Was Shut Down, It Wasn’t About Merchandise — It Was About Stigma
Silly Nice is a state-licensed, veteran-owned, Black-owned New York craft brand known for selling out of small-batch, high-quality products. They added merch because it’s a logical, legal business extension.
But according to Ganjapreneur’s reporting, Squarespace didn’t see a small business expanding its brand. They saw a liability. A risk category. A cannabis adjacency they wanted to avoid. And the punishment came with no dignity at all: no message, no review process, no outreach, no chance to explain what wasn’t wrong in the first place. Just a silent shutdown.
This is how cannabis discrimination works in 2025 — behind automated policy walls, buried in compliance language, disguised as “risk assessment,” and delivered without recourse. It’s not that cannabis operators can’t sell merch; it’s that platforms don’t want to give them the same basic business rights every other industry takes for granted. And that’s the part that stings, because it reveals the truth: cannabis isn’t treated as an industry. It’s treated as a problem.
Being Legal Doesn’t Mean Being Safe — Every Cannabis Entrepreneur Knows That
Ganjapreneur’s reporting underscores what every operator already knows: state reforms didn’t erase the operational discrimination baked into the system. You can be licensed, audited, compliant, equity-owned, tax-paying, transparent, and rooted in community — and still be treated like you’re trying to slip something past the system. Federal illegality casts a long shadow that tech platforms use as justification, payment processors use as cover, and banks use as a reason to opt out entirely. Corporate legal teams default to their favorite sentence: “Due to policy guidelines, we are unable to continue supporting your account…”
What that really means is simple: You didn’t do anything wrong — we just don’t want to deal with cannabis.
Cannabis operators live with this quiet hostility daily. You can run a legitimate business and still be treated like a hazard, a question mark, a compliance liability that might explode at any moment. That’s the environment cannabis companies are forced to navigate. And that is exactly the environment Paragon chose to build against.
Paragon Didn’t Enter Cannabis Because It’s Cool — We Entered Because It’s Unfair
When businesses like Silly Nice get shut down for selling hats, it confirms the exact frustration that led to Paragon’s creation. We didn’t want to be yet another vendor who “supports cannabis” until compliance gets inconvenient. We didn’t want to be another provider who welcomes you with enthusiasm and drops you with a cold, corporate email. We didn’t want to be polite participants in an industry built on decades of exclusion and contradictory oversight.
We wanted to build something that didn’t exist — a room designed specifically for cannabis businesses. Not a seat at a table that wasn’t built for them. Not special permission. Not tolerance.
Belonging.
Security.
Confidence.
No apology.
When we say we’re cannabis committed, it’s not branding — it’s the foundation. It’s the architecture of our systems. It’s the banking partnerships we choose. It’s the policies we refuse to compromise. It’s the risks we willingly absorb so our clients don’t have to. What happened to Silly Nice is not rare — it’s the daily reality. And ignoring that would be negligence.
This Is What Cannabis Commitment Looks Like
Every vendor loves to claim they support small businesses — but what they rarely say is which small businesses they mean. Because cannabis-friendly is easy. Cannabis committed is not.
Cannabis friendly means:
• We’ll take your money when it’s convenient.
• We’ll list “cannabis” on a webpage to look inclusive.
• We’ll treat you like any other vertical — until we don’t.
Cannabis committed means:
• We know you’ll face friction, so we build for it.
• We stay when policies tighten, not when they loosen.
• We prepare backup plans before you ever need them.
• We refuse to charge you predatory “cannabis premiums.”
• We are honest about the discrimination you face.
• We design operations like you’re here to stay.
Paragon doesn’t dabble in cannabis. We don’t tolerate cannabis. We partner with cannabis — deliberately, structurally, and unapologetically.
The Story of Silly Nice Deserves More Than Sympathy — It Deserves a Blueprint
Because if a merch store can get shut down, then every cannabis business needs to think about what would happen if a critical system were targeted. Payroll. Banking. E-commerce. Employee onboarding. Compliance documents. Reporting. The lifelines that keep teams paid and businesses alive.
Here’s the blueprint:
Audit your vendors. Ask direct questions like, “What happens if your bank pressures you about cannabis clients?” If the answer isn’t immediate and confident, you already have your answer.
Map your vulnerabilities. If payroll, banking, or processors go down, does the entire business freeze?
Build a transition plan before you need one. A crisis is not the time to start problem-solving.
Choose partners who take a public stance. Private support doesn’t protect you. Public commitment does.
Stop accepting second-class treatment. The industry has been conditioned to accept scraps. It’s time to stop settling.
A Direct Message to Silly Nice — And Every Business Like Them
Silly Nice, what happened to you wasn’t just unfair — it was dismissive, stigmatizing, and delivered without respect. You are a brand built on craft, culture, and community. You are veteran-owned, Black-owned, state-licensed, high-demand, and fully compliant. And yet a platform still treated you like your success didn’t matter.
Hear this clearly:
Their decision does not reflect your integrity. It reflects their bias.
Your resilience — your refusal to fold — is the real story. And it’s the story shared by so many cannabis operators who have been historically denied access to the basic tools of business.
To every cannabis entrepreneur carrying this weight:
You are not overreacting for worrying about vendor shutdowns.
You are not dramatic for building backup plans.
You are not paranoid for triple-checking policies.
You are protecting something the system still tries to deny you: legitimacy.
And despite every barrier, you are still here. Still building. Still growing. Still showing up in an ecosystem not designed for you.
That’s not survival.
That’s excellence.
Why Paragon Stands By What We Do — And Why We’re Not Going Anywhere
We stand by what we do because cannabis deserves a partner that doesn’t flinch or fold. We stand by what we do because this industry has been failed repeatedly by vendors who claim support without offering stability. We stand by what we do because stories like Silly Nice’s are why our relationships, our systems, and our processes look nothing like traditional payroll providers. We stand by what we do because cannabis is not “high risk” — it is highly regulated, highly audited, highly misunderstood, and highly overdue for fairness.
We stand by what we do because this industry is filled with brilliant, gritty, inventive people who deserve dignity. We stand by what we do because cannabis has already endured enough punishment.
And we are one of the rare companies saying:
Not on our watch.
Not to our clients.
Not in our ecosystem.
If You’re Carrying the Weight, Here’s Your Next Move
If reading the Silly Nice story made you clench your jaw, tighten your chest, or think, “That could be us,” don’t dismiss that instinct. It’s accurate. But it’s also your turning point.
You deserve stable infrastructure. Transparent pricing. Real contingency plans. Honest communication. A partner who stays when the world gets noisy. You deserve someone who builds for your reality — not someone who tolerates you until the next policy memo.
If the world won’t make room for cannabis businesses, Paragon will. If platforms shut the door, ours stays open. If you’re punished for existing, we’ll build systems that protect your right to exist.
Cannabis businesses deserve a future — not apologies.
A partner — not a warning.
A foundation — not fear.
What happened to Silly Nice should never have happened. But the fact that it did is proof of why Paragon exists, why we build the way we build, and why we aren’t going anywhere.
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