Viola is the cannabis company Al Harrington started in Denver in 2011, while he was still playing for the Nuggets, and named for his grandmother. It began as Viola Extracts, grew into a flower, pre-roll, concentrate and edible brand, and runs an Allen Iverson collection that now reaches into THC drinks. In 2026 Viola is sold in Colorado, Maryland and Arizona, and in Canada through a licensing deal.
Al Harrington and the Viola name
Harrington grew up in Orange, New Jersey, and played 16 NBA seasons with teams including the Knicks, Nuggets and Pacers. He co-founded the company as Viola Extracts during his Denver years, named it for his grandmother, Viola, and later renamed it Viola Brands as the lineup moved past concentrates. He still runs it as CEO.
His reason for staying in is simple. "I fell in love with the plant and it changed my life," he said on the company's tenth anniversary, and he framed Viola as a way to create opportunities for people who look like him. Viola calls itself the largest Black-owned cannabis brand, and Harrington was in the business a decade before athlete-fronted lines like Ricky Williams' Highsman and Mike Tyson's TYSON 2.0 launched in 2021.
From Denver extracts to a multi-state brand
Viola started with concentrates and followed consumers into easier formats. In October 2020 it entered Washington through Shawn Kemp's Cannabis, owned by fellow NBA veteran Shawn Kemp, with concentrate strains including Jump Shot, Lemon Popsicle, Piece of Cake, Sunday Cereal and Grandma's Pie. By early 2022 it grew in Colorado, Michigan and Oregon across 122,000 square feet, employed about 100 people and sold in six states, and it had launched in Canada in November 2021.
In January 2022 Viola announced a $13 million bridge round, advised by Santa Monica investment bank DelMorgan & Co., with Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania on the target list. New Jersey came in March 2023, when Viola eighths labeled For Good Times, For Kick Back and For Lights Out landed at Rise dispensaries in Paterson and Bloomfield, run by Green Thumb Industries.
Vibes, flower and gummies
The catalog is sorted by mood rather than strain alone. Collections run Get Up & Go, Good Times, Kick Back and Lights Out, across flower, concentrates, pre-rolls and edibles, with flower split into indica, indica hybrid, sativa and sativa hybrid.
The gummies arrived in December 2022 in Michigan, made with PUFF Cannabis Company and mapped to the same moods: Uptown Espresso, a caffeinated coffee gummy, for Get Up & Go; Auntie's Punch for Good Times; Paradise Island in tropical punch for Kick Back; and Big Apple Dreamin' in green apple for Lights Out. California, Colorado and Arizona were next on the rollout.
Iverson '96, Iverson '01 and the Iverson drinks
In 2021, Viola's tenth year, the company started a strain collaboration with Allen Iverson. Iverson '96, named for his draft year, crosses Secret Kush Mints with Grape Stomper. Iverson '01, named for his MVP season, is F1 Durban x Gushers x Runtz; it launched exclusively in Michigan in March 2022, grown in Viola's Detroit facility and stocked at more than 70 retailers, including 3Fifteen in Hamtramck, Skymint in Hazel Park and Liv in Ferndale.
The partnership moved into drinks in October 2025. IVERSON, a low-dose craft THC soda made with Horticulture Co., came in Bubba Chuck Berry, Cran-Apple Crossover and 96 Nectarine and went to Spec's, Total Wine and Circle K. The Circle K program opened in North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida with limited "Sneaker Box" variety packs.
Viola had already teamed with Horticulture Co.'s Tempter's in July 2025 on three 10mg spritzes: Blueberry, Strawberry and Citrus. By August 2026 Harrington was behind four hemp beverage brands, Tempters, Iverson Soda, Sun Baby and Viola Pop, and bracing for a possible federal hemp ban that, in his words, "crushes a responsible company."
Detroit, then a tighter map
Michigan was once Viola's big bet. A 48,000-square-foot Detroit cultivation facility brought in its first harvest in 2020, and the company opened a store on West Jefferson Avenue. In March 2024 Viola suspended its Michigan operations indefinitely, citing falling prices, medical-only sales without an adult-use license and $8.9 million in denied insurance claims.
Harrington's retail bets landed in Chicago and New Jersey. A Viola store opened in Broadview, Illinois, in June 2023, backed by Harrington, Iverson and Chicago entrepreneur Dan Pettigrew, and now trades as Village Broadview. Harrington and Pettigrew opened Village in Hoboken, New Jersey, in September 2024 with Viola on the shelf, and Village lists a partner location in Pikesville, Maryland.
Headset tracked Viola in Colorado, Maryland and Arizona in August 2026, with 51 of its 54 U.S. dispensaries in Colorado, where it ranked No. 24 in flower, up from No. 74 a year earlier. Flower made up about 63% of sales, led by bulk smalls such as Crown Jewel and Glitter Bomb.
Canada and The Drop
Viola reaches Canada through licensing. A March 2021 agreement gave Avicanna the right to make and sell Viola-branded products there, through its own manufacturing and distribution, in exchange for royalties.
The standout is The Drop, a 20ml water-soluble THC extract built on Avicanna's QUIX nanotechnology, with MediPharm Labs as the licensed producer. It was Viola's No. 2 product in August 2026, when the brand ranked fourth in Alberta oils and eighth in Ontario oils.
Viola Cares and the Harrington Institute
Viola Cares launched in February 2020 with national nonprofit Root & Rebound, built on education, equitable offerings, expungement help and incubation. Its first project was a reentry guide for people with cannabis convictions, and the stated goals included 10,000 jobs and hundreds of new business owners. On the tenth anniversary Harrington added another target: 100 Black cannabis millionaires through mentorship.
In November 2021 the company launched the Harrington Institute for Cannabis Education with the Cleveland School of Cannabis, a six-course program covering every vertical of the industry, online and in person. The Viola Build Scholarship covers up to $3,000 in tuition for students of color affected by the War on Drugs.
For adults 21 and over.