Catalyst Cannabis is Elliot Lewis's Long Beach dispensary chain, run under the slogan "Weed For The People" with every tax folded into the menu price. It launched as a five-store chain in July 2020 and by September 2026 listed 34 California storefronts, including a Hawthorne consumption lounge and the former Planet 13 superstore in Santa Ana.
South Cord Holdings LLC operates the business as Catalyst Cannabis Co. from 401 Pine Avenue in Long Beach.
From Connected SoCal to Catalyst
Lewis was born and raised in Long Beach and spent about a decade in real estate. He first got into cannabis at UC Berkeley in 1996, the year California passed Proposition 215, and ran small grows in college, he told Forbes in July 2020. He later put the real estate background to work opening Southern California stores.
Those first shops carried the Connected Cannabis Co. name. Nuggnotes reported in October 2025 that Lewis's company ran them as Connected SoCal under a license from Connected's Northern California operation, never owning the brand. After the split, it kept roughly a 2% stake in Connected International and kept stocking Connected flower.
The switch came on July 31, 2020. Four Connected stores in Long Beach, Belmont Shore, Bellflower and Santa Ana took the Catalyst name, joining the existing Catalyst in Eastside Long Beach at 2115 East 10th Street. That address now carries the SWED by Catalyst name. The launch ran $5 eighths across all locations, and The Luniz performed at the Bellflower party. "Catalyst will continue to work in a strategic alliance with Connected," Lewis said at the time.
Taxes in the price and a pesticide panel
Catalyst built its pitch on price. The site states that all taxes are included in menu pricing, and the Catalyst Rewards program adds points and member perks on top. Lewis told Forbes in 2020 that the company wanted "to bring value to our workforce and the customers instead of paying ourselves inflated salaries," and he described its labor practices as pro-union.
The shelves mix top-shelf California labels with mid-range options. The about page names Alien Labs, 710 Labs and CAM among the brands it carries. It also credits Lewis with the Cat 4 movement, which asks brands to voluntarily submit products to more expansive pesticide testing than California requires.
Thirty-four storefronts across California
Lewis told Forbes in July 2020 he planned 13 stores within a year. The about page later counted 29 locations and more than 500 employees. By September 2026, the locations page listed these storefronts:
- Long Beach: Belmont Shore, Cherry Ave, Downtown, Retro Row and SWED by Catalyst
- Los Angeles County: Bellflower, El Monte, Figueroa, Florence Ave, Hawthorne, Lancaster, Lynwood, Mid City, Normandie, Pomona, Silver Lake and Van Nuys
- Orange County: Costa Mesa, OC3 Santa Ana, Planet Catalyst Orange County, Santa Ana and Stanton
- Inland Empire and desert: Hemet, Moreno Valley, Palm Desert and San Bernardino
- San Diego: Convoy Street
- Central Coast and Ventura County: Grover Beach, Marina, Oxnard and Watsonville
- Northern California: Antioch, Daly City and Patterson
Planet 13's Santa Ana superstore changes hands
On February 12, 2026, Catalyst announced it had taken over operations of the former Planet 13 superstore in Santa Ana, a 55,000-square-foot Orange County location. Planet 13 Holdings had exited California retail. The store now appears on the Catalyst roster as Planet Catalyst Orange County at 3400 West Warner Avenue.
Catalyst said it started right-sizing the building, cutting unused space, reviewing the register count and reworking customer flow.
The Hawthorne lounge and All-Star weekend
The Hawthorne store at 14115 Crenshaw Boulevard pairs a dispensary with a licensed consumption lounge under license C10-0001340-LIC. The lounge opens Thursday through Sunday, with booth and café seating, big screens, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and board games. The lounge supplies e-rigs, glass and Volcano vaporizers at no charge, and the calendar runs brand activations, workshops and artist pop-ups.
Catalyst worked NBA All-Star weekend in February 2026 with Respect My Region. The four-day run opened on February 12 with Terp Social x Cannabiotix, then an All Star Showcase with Sunset Connect and West Coast Cure. The Joint Effort Comedy Show debuted February 14, hosted by Brinan Weeks with Muha Meds sponsoring, and a February 15 watch party closed the weekend.
Catalyst Cares and the 2026 calendar
Catalyst Cares, the company's community arm, launched in September 2020 to push the Weed For The People movement past the sales floor. Its site lists Damian A. Martin as owner and LLC manager and Andrés F. Rivera as director, with programs that have included education workshops, beautification projects, expungement clinics, blood drives and necessities drives.
Brands keep showing up in the aisles. CAM's September 2026 demo calendar lists brand ambassadors at Catalyst stores in Hemet, Moreno Valley, Pomona and on Cherry Avenue on September 2, and in San Bernardino on September 16.
For adults 21 and over.