LEVEL is a San Francisco cannabis company built around one format: the tablet. Chris Emerson, PhD, a small-molecule chemist, started it in 2015 and runs it as founder, CEO and chief scientist. The catalog spans LEVEL 5 and LEVEL 10, the Protab family, Hashtab, Rosintab, a sublingual line and hemp tablets that ship nationwide.
The focus shows up in the numbers. Headset tracked LEVEL in 717 dispensaries in August 2026, and capsules made up 99.68% of its sales that month.
A chemist's detour through Mendocino
Emerson came to cannabis from the lab. He holds a PhD in small-molecule chemistry and did a postdoctoral position in the same field at Stanford University. Before that he served as a Chinese interpreter for the U.S. Navy.
Instead of taking the pharma or academic track, he spent a summer in Mendocino County on a medical cannabis farm, learning cultivation. LEVEL followed in 2015. The company describes itself as privately owned and science-driven, and it keeps that identity front and center on every page.
Emerson also holds two U.S. patents covering cannabinoid tablet delivery, including U.S. Patent No. 12,076,442, which LEVEL ties to its tablet technology. Metro Times identified Brie Emerson as co-owner and chief operating officer in an April 2025 profile of the company.
Protab, Hashtab, Rosintab and the rest of the shelf
The company's product page lists nothing but tablets. Instead of sorting by strain, LEVEL organizes the range by line, input material and cannabinoid blend.
- LEVEL 5 and LEVEL 10: swallowable THC tablets in 20-count and 10-count packs.
- Protab: the core line, in Sativa, Hybrid and Indica versions, sold in 10-count packs and 40-count refills. Protab+, Protab 50, Protab 100 and Protab Max extend it.
- Hashtab and Hashtab 100: tablets made from hash, with Hashtab 100 built on cold-water hash.
- Rosintab: live rosin pressed into tablet form, in Sativa and Indica versions.
- Tablingual: a sublingual tablet line.
- Hemp: hemp-derived tablets in 30-count bottles, sold online.
Beyond delta-9 THC, the formulas draw on CBD, CBDa, CBG, CBN and THCV. The Emerald Magazine summed up the approach in April 2022 as formulating cannabinoids in ratios not accessible from the plant alone.
Hashtab and Rosintab are the solventless side of the catalog. They put hash and live rosin, both concentrates, into the same pressed format as the rest of the range.
From California to seven states
LEVEL stayed a California brand until 2024. That March, TILT Holdings announced that its Pennsylvania subsidiary Standard Farms would produce and sell LEVEL tablets for the state's medical program. The rollout was set to begin in April 2024.
On October 8, 2024, LEVEL announced its first multi-state expansion, with offerings in seven states: California, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Michigan runs through Pleasantrees, the local operator that produces and distributes the tablets there, according to the Metro Times report from April 18, 2025. LEVEL uses a mobile manufacturing model in that market, bringing portable equipment in to press tablets in bulk rather than building a plant in every state.
What Headset and BDSA tracked
BDSA retail data put LEVEL at No. 1 among California pill brands by dollar sales for January–November 2021, a ranking the company published in February 2022.
Headset tracked LEVEL in 717 dispensaries in August 2026, 446 of them in California, across 127 SKUs. It ranked LEVEL No. 5 in California capsules, No. 2 in Nevada capsules and No. 2 in New York capsules for that month. The Sativa Protab led the brand's product chart, with Protab Max and Hashtab 100 also in its top five.
Headset's September 2026 California capsules chart put the Indica Protab at No. 2 and the Sativa Protab at No. 6. Breez, Kikoko, ABX and Los Angeles edibles maker Dr. Norm's filled out the top 10. Headset ranked Dr. Norm's No. 8 among California capsule brands for August 2026.
Consumer listings follow the same shape. Leafly keeps a LEVEL brand page that files Protab and Hashtab tablets under edibles.
License CDPH-10004472 and the hemp channel
LEVEL manufactures in California under state license CDPH-10004472, a number printed in the footer of its site. Its test-results library is sorted by state, with pages for California, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
The hemp line runs on a separate track. Sold through LEVEL's own online shop, those tablets are formulated under the 2018 Farm Bill at no more than 0.3% delta-9 THC by dry weight. The shop ships to all 50 states but not internationally.
The split keeps the high-THC tablets inside state-licensed dispensaries while the hemp tablets travel by mail, with one brand name across both.
San Francisco headquarters, national reach in 2026
LEVEL's site lists California, Nevada, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania as its state-licensed markets in 2026, with the Pennsylvania product page updated on June 11, 2026. The homepage, last updated June 16, 2026, names San Francisco as headquarters.
A May 21, 2026 company release, datelined San Francisco, describes LEVEL as a maker of precision tablets led by its Protab and Tablingual lines. It adds that every batch is independently tested and that LEVEL ships nationwide where state law permits.
Emerson still leads the company as founder and CEO, eleven years after starting LEVEL in 2015.
For adults 21 and over.