At a glance
Old Pal is a California-founded cannabis and lifestyle brand built around value, sharing and familiar formats rather than luxury positioning. Rusty Wilenkin and Jason Osni founded it in Venice in 2018; its multi-state reach is powered by a non-plant-touching licensing model that pairs the brand with locally licensed producers.
Rusty Wilenkin and Jason Osni
Wilenkin and Osni are the documented co-founders. The company’s California story describes two friends forming Old Pal in Venice in 2018 around “cannabis for the people”—approachable products intended to be shared.
The founders built a visual language from vintage workwear, surf culture and old American packaging rather than the jewel-box aesthetic common in premium cannabis. That design system became a meaningful part of the product.
The Ready to Roll idea
Old Pal’s defining product is Ready to Roll: coarsely pre-ground flower packaged with hemp rolling papers and crutches in a resealable pouch. Current official pages list seven- and 14-gram versions in broad sativa, indica and hybrid categories.
The company states that the input is whole flower, including smaller buds, rather than sweepings or shake. This uses more of the harvested plant while removing the need for a separate grinder and paper purchase.
Whole flower
Classic Shareable whole flower appears in multiple weights, historically including eighths, seven grams and ounces. The exact cultivars and pack sizes vary by state because Old Pal does not run one national cultivation facility.
That state variation is fundamental to the model. The logo and packaging system are consistent; the licensed producer, flower source, potency and menu are local.
Pre-roll formats
Old Pal’s pre-roll architecture includes two half-gram joints, Palitos packs of ten 0.35-gram mini pre-rolls and larger multipacks such as 14 half-gram joints. The products translate the brand’s “shareable” idea into different session sizes.
Availability and specifications should be verified in the relevant state. Historical limited editions, including the Lionsgate and Amuse “Classy Biches” collaboration, are not proof of a standing national SKU.
Edibles, vapes and provisions
The broader brand has extended into vapes and edible concepts such as infused sugar and Baked at Home mixes in selected markets. Old Pal Provisions carries the identity into apparel, trays, glassware, home goods and pantry products.
Hemp-derived or non-cannabis provisions can follow different distribution rules from state-licensed THC goods. Consumers should not assume everything on the lifestyle site is the same legal product class.
A non-plant-touching licensing model
Turning Point Brands described Old Pal as a non-plant-touching licensing company. Instead of owning every grow and factory, it licenses brand standards to approved operators working under each state’s cannabis rules.
Old Pal publishes a compliance page naming license partners from California and Arizona to New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia. This explains both its reach and why ingredients, genetics and producer names can change across state lines.
The 2021 Turning Point investment
In July 2021, Turning Point Brands invested $8 million in Old Pal Holding Company through a convertible note with follow-on rights. The stated purpose was to expand products, territories and infrastructure.
The investment did not itself make Turning Point the confirmed outright owner. It was a strategic convertible-note financing, and ownership should not be overstated without evidence of a later conversion or acquisition.
Culture and collaborations
Old Pal has used music, art, apparel and surfing to build a lifestyle layer around accessible cannabis. Its collaboration with Album Surf produced multiple board drops; industry coverage quoted Osni saying demand had been strong.
The brand also created GLCO, a record-label project, and film-linked products. These efforts are notable because they reinforce the same communal, analog identity as the cannabis packaging rather than acting as unrelated celebrity endorsements.
How to evaluate Old Pal. First identify the state and legal producer on the package. Then compare format, flower source, cultivar or category, ingredients, testing, batch and package date. A California Ready to Roll pouch and a Pennsylvania edible may share Old Pal branding while coming from entirely different licensed systems.
The accurate picture is a 2018 Venice brand founded by Wilenkin and Osni, scaled through licensing, anchored by Ready to Roll flower and extended through pre-rolls, selected vapes and edibles, and a recognizable provisions business.