For years, CU Regent Wanda James has cultivated a public reputation based on three pillars: marijuana pioneer, business leader, and serial entrepreneur. 

Now, as one of two Democratic challengers to U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado’s 1st Congressional District, she’s running on that image. 

Her campaign biography touts how she and her husband, Scott Durrah, “built Simply Pure, the nation’s first Black-owned cannabis dispensary,” and “opened six restaurants across Colorado.” 

Here’s the problem: James’ flagship company, Simply Pure Colorado LLC, no longer exists. She quietly dissolved it on April 21 while campaigning as its CEO. Her shop at the corner of West 32nd Avenue and Tejon Street in northwest Denver is “permanently closed,” as Google Maps attests. 

Visit Simply Pure’s website and you’d never know it. At deadline, the site appears operational unless you try completing a purchase, and her LinkedIn still says she’s CEO. Yet, the Marijuana Enforcement Division confirmed to me the company notified MED before ceasing operations. James told the state she was closing; she just didn’t tell the public. 

Since 2005, James and Durrah have filed roughly 30 business entities in Colorado and elsewhere. Most ultimately went delinquent or dissolved, and only one restaurant — Jerk Pit — remains. 

As a pot-industry pioneer who helped shape Colorado’s cannabis laws, James should know the rules better than anyone. Yet, her own compliance record hasn’t been exemplary. 

In 2021, James agreed to a rare “Assurance of Voluntary Compliance” after her company failed a MED underage check, simply promising to follow the law. Two employees lost their jobs and licenses; James avoided the typical penalties without even a slap on the wrist. 

Meanwhile, James’ persona prominently features Cannabis Global Initiative, where she’s billed as “founder and president.” The original entity went delinquent in 2019, months after she’d formed a new one simply called “CGI.” The firm’s website is defunct. Last month, James filed a new trade name for CGI: Wanda James Consulting. 

For Wanda James, branding has always been the point. 

When outside investors joined Simply Pure in 2016, the operating agreement granted the landlord a 10% equity stake in exchange for “$100,000 and one year of no lease payment (valued at $101,100).” 

Three other investors contributed a combined $436,000. James and Durrah didn’t put in a penny; their controlling stake of nearly 56% rested on “Simply Pure Branding, Management, and Day to Day Operations.” 

That was their contribution. Others brought the capital. Yet the company never owned the brand; James did. 

In January 2019, James formalized her brand ownership when she filed a federal trademark on the Simply Pure name — in her own name, not the company’s. The trademark was registered in June 2021 and belongs to James personally.

Entities created to expand into Illinois and Massachusetts never opened and remain delinquent with Colorado’s secretary of state. Likewise, Simply Pure New Jersey was revoked by New Jersey for failing to file annual reports. 

Instead, as trademark owner, James personally licensed the Simply Pure brand to a New Jersey operator, Simply Pure Trenton, in 2023. Her company is gone, but the brand — and any licensing revenues — are hers. 

In March, a month before dissolution, James told Westword she was negotiating an updated lease with the company’s landlord (once an equity-stake investor), or she’d find a new location. Except Denver has more pot shops than Starbucks, and it’s illegal to open a new one within 1,000 feet of an existing shop. So, it could be a challenge to find new digs. 

“That business survived as long as it did because of that location,” Chris Chiari, one of the company’s original investors in 2016, told me. 

In February 2020, Chiari won a Denver District Court judgment of over $202,000 against Simply Pure after prevailing in arbitration, essentially recouping his investment plus costs and interest. 

According to Chiari, the company’s dissolution means he’s no longer bound by a nondisclosure agreement. 

Another of James’ many ventures was Black, Brown and Red Badged, LLC (BBRB), formed in July 2020 and formally dissolved in February 2023 — after months in delinquency, cured the day I pointed it out in a column. 

BBRB was instrumental in crafting Colorado’s Cannabis Business Loan Program. Executive Director Hashim Coates presented the Senate Appropriations Committee’s only testimony, claiming credit for BBRB having “put forward” the policy at the invitation of the governor’s office. 

In September 2023, Simply Pure received one of the first two loans for the maximum $150,000 at 6.25% interest. The money was intended for “Puff Pass” home delivery, digital marketing and an exterior remodel on a building the company didn’t own. 

Less than three years later, Simply Pure itself was dissolved. 

As of deadline, the Office of Economic Development and International Trade couldn’t tell me what happened to the money. They said NuProject — the lender administering the taxpayer-funded program — “is in communications with the company on the status of its loan.” The company, of course, no longer exists. 

James did not respond to my emailed questions by deadline. 

Let’s be clear: Even after outside investment, unparalleled media attention and a sizable taxpayer-backed loan, James’ flagship claim-to-fame closed. 

“It is entity after entity. It is delinquency after delinquency,” Chiari said. “And that’s been true since the beginning. There is a hat. There ain’t no cowboy.” 

Wanda James wants voters to judge her by her business record. It isn’t nearly as impressive as her brand suggests. 

Jimmy Sengenberger is an investigative journalist, public speaker, and longtime local talk-radio host. Reach Jimmy online at Jimmysengenberger.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @SengCenter.