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If you walk past the neon green cross into a marijuana dispensary today, it's likely you'll see a wide array of cannabis products, generous budtenders quick to talk about favorite strains, and an altogether feel-good environment.
Pride shouldn't be limited to a single month — it should be supported, advocated for, and celebrated all year round. And the LGBTQ community's involvement in cannabis dates back to the beginning of weed's long, strange trip towards legalization.
Gay stoners, rejoice. We are living in two simultaneous golden ages — one being television, the other being weed. But with the surge of higher-quality gay television and even higher quality cannabis, it's hard to know where to start.
Queer edition
If you're in need of some personal TLC, consider one of these cognitively euphoric and physically pacifying strains for your next self-care day. A little self-love and a hit of weed can go a long, long way.
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Uprooted
From those who’ve been fighting from the start to those advocating for cannabis freedom today, we take a look back at lessons learned in California’s cannabis history and explore the path forward to safe, legal access for all patients and adults.
How cannabis can help America out of the opioid crisis
The Exit Drug documentary, created by Weedmaps, investigates how cannabis could play a major role in ending the opioid crisis, a public health emergency that kills an average of 115 U.S. citizens a day.
Defending Delivery
An estimated 15% of medical marijuana patients are mobility impaired. Weedmaps spent the day with Benny's Farm, Dr. Frank D'Ambrosio, and their medical cannabis patients to find out more about how delivery services are changing the lives of the people they serve.
Grow your impact
Why The Last Prisoner project is integral to the Black Lives Matter movement and how you can get involved.
Where you put your dollars matters
Black and Latino people are still being targeted, harassed, and arrested in the age of weed weddings and normalization.
The cannabis industry lacks diversity
Awareness breeds empowerment and social equity.
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Brianna Wheeler ∙ September 14, 2020 7:00 am PDT
In the age of COVID-19 and social unrest, many are questioning the systemic racism embedded in industries new and old. Yet, of all of America's essential economies, the cannabis industry, while not necessarily equipped to correcting long-lasting systemic inequities at large, could instantly benefit those most harmed by the drug war through reform and more just policies.
Part of that has to do with the existence of organizations like The Last Prisoner Project.
Founded by seminal cannabis activist and weed-trepreneur Steve DeAngelo, known to industry insiders as the "father of the recreational cannabis industry," The Last Prisoner Project's mission is stated right in its title. The nonprofit coalition of cannabis industry leaders, executives, and artists is wholly dedicated to freeing every American imprisoned for nonviolent cannabis offenses, as well as bringing restorative justice to the cannabis industry.
But it's far more than a collection of familiar faces extolling the virtues of weed and decrying its criminalization, it's also an assemblage of legal professionals working tirelessly on campaigns to release and provide retroactive justice to prisoners from the War on Drugs.
“Marijuana, we know, is not a gateway drug, but it is a gateway offense, and it is so often the impetus for interactions with the police. Many of these interactions result in the most egregious examples of police brutality and police murder, particularly in marginalized communities” said Sarah Gersten, Executive Director and General Counsel for The Last Prisoner Project. “I think it's critically important at this moment, as we are reimagining our justice system and reimagining public safety, that we figure out how cannabis laws fit into that puzzle”
Gersten took a moment to sit with Weedmaps and help break down why The Last Prisoner project is integral to the Black Lives Matter movement, why we can't really smoke freely until all cannabis prisoners are free, and how the smallest of actions can contribute to lasting, positive change.
Sarah Gersten: Executive Director and General Counsel for The Last Prisoner Project.
WM: You recently published a blog about Michael Thompson, a prisoner currently serving a de facto life sentence for selling 3 pounds of marijuana to a police informant in the now legalized state of Michigan. It was the first time I'd seen the term “cannabis POW” and I had to take a moment to ruminate on how accurate it was. By your estimate, how many cannabis POWs are in similar situations to Thompson, currently serving time for nonviolent offenses in recreationally legal states?
Sarah Gersten: That is really difficult data to ascertain. Available data has led us to the number 40,000, but I actually think that number is quite low.
When we talk about the war on drugs and its ramifications, and we focus on those numbers, we are very often leaving out how these laws have impacted communities. I think people are interested in who just had one dime bag and went to prison, and we have really egregious examples where that happened, but that's not really how the system works. It's more that you get one possession or fine, maybe you're incarcerated for a short period, but then you get out and you're saddled with all of the barriers that having an offense on your record comes with.
Since 2017, we've seen cannabis arrests increase in this country, despite more and more states legalizing or decriminalizing. The long term ramifications that can have on someone, whether or not they're incarcerated, are huge.
WM: From a legal standpoint, how does a state justify keeping prisoners incarcerated on nonviolent cannabis offenses after cannabis becomes recreationally legal?
Gersten: I cannot, for the life of me, tell you how these officials justify keeping someone like Michael Thompson incarcerated. And I think Michigan is a really great example. Michigan has fully legalized cannabis, they are building up a robust industry around those plants. And yet Michael Thompson sits in a Michigan prison. Now, because of the coronavirus, he risks dying there — and for what?
It is the height of injustice that people that look like me are able to profit off of this plant while others are incarcerated and still face the collateral consequences of even just an arrest or an offense on your record for cannabis.
WM: How do the suggestions of defunding police departments and/or abolishing police altogether work into LPP's greater mission of nationwide clemency, expungement, and reintegration?
Gersten: When we're having conversations about defunding the police and reinvesting those dollars into our communities, we think about where tax revenue from legalization can go. Those conversations overlap. We should be taking tax revenue from the legal industry and reinvesting it back into those communities that have been disproportionately impacted by cannabis laws but also disproportionately impacted by state-sanctioned violence at the hands of the police.
Of course, we come to it with a particular focus, and that is our justice system; public defenders and attorneys doing pro bono work across the country are focused on getting retroactive relief for folks that are still caught up in the justice system or experiencing the collateral consequences of having a cannabis charge on their record.
WM: For the newly social-justice-oriented cannabis enthusiast, can you explain how the cannabis industry as a whole benefits from a ground-up dismantling and rebuilding?
Gersten: You know, it was only a few years ago that cannabis was illegal across the board. And even today, large multi-state operators are doing something that is federally illegal. To not reckon with that restorative element but still want to do the work to legalize across the board is totally missing the point. It's a scary proposition for someone to be faced with, the fact that they're doing something that is still federally illegal, that if the feds wanted to, at any moment, they could come and disrupt their life, they could put me in prison because of this.
When you really start to interrogate what states have done to provide retroactive relief for those still sitting in prison, I think people would really be shocked. I think people hear “mass expungement” and “pardon” and think that those terms refer to relief. And that is totally understandable! Even as a lawyer, I get tripped up on these legal definitions. But no state has provided broad retroactive relief for those incarcerated for cannabis offenses, even those states that have fully legalized. And it doesn't, to me, make any sense at all that you would go through the process of legalization and provide some form of retroactive relief like expungement or record clearing, but not even consider releasing those that are still in prison.
WM: How can everyday cannabis users support equitable local cannabis communities?
Gersten: Grassroots advocacy campaigns can really make an impact. Michael Thompson's case is a good example of that. Though he is not (yet) free, when we submitted his application for clemency earlier this year, over 100,000 people engaged in a call to action for Michael. And that led to the prosecutor coming on board to support the petition. We hope that that will be the point that sways the governor to do the same.
That's an example of how these kinds of calls to action can get you engaged in these issues. We have various campaigns that we're running constantly. Some are dedicated to cannabis prisoners. Some are dedicated to legislative initiatives. Some are dedicated to broader federal initiatives.
And I would say vote with your dollar, support black-owned companies and companies owned by and/or employing those that have been in the justice system. I think that's a really critical way consumers can support the mission.
WM: For cannabis enthusiasts with significant resources to commit to this cause, where do you suggest they begin?
Gersten: Get involved. If you sign up to volunteer, we will immediately send you a million ways that we can engage deeper on this issue. And we'll keep following up with ways you can get involved. It's super easy. And obviously, cash is the lifeblood of any nonprofit.
I've been really heartened by the focus on criminal justice reform beyond those that were steeped in it before George Floyd's murder. I think the day all cannabis POWs are free is coming sooner than we anticipated. But It's going to take a ton of work and it's going to take an army. That's what we need: every person involved in this community to be educated, to be aware and to get involved.
To learn more about the Last Prisoner Project's current initiatives, campaigns, donations, and volunteer opportunities, visit TheLastPrisonerProject.org.
Brianna Wheeler
Brianna Wheeler is a writer and illustrator in Portland, Oregon.
Featured image by Reiana Lorin/Cannaclusive
Hannah Meadows ∙ September 2, 2020
It's little wonder why we don't see much diversity in the cannabis industry. Minority communities have been disenfranchised in the United States for centuries, and having little access to the business is yet another setback.
And through time, the government has been a major force in oppressing minority populations by using cannabis as a weapon. When commenting on the 1970s War on Drugs, President Nixon's domestic policy chief, John Ehrlichman, infamously told Harper's, “We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or Black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and Blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.”
How can we expect healthy diversity when entire generations have been desecrated by their own country's mandates and policy?
And it isn't just insidious laws that are keeping people well behind the curve, it's also everyday racism and microaggressions. It's ignoring the insights made by Black employees and other minorities in company meetings, yet paying attention when a white coworker says the same thing just a few moments later, or deeming natural Black hair “unprofessional” in the workplace. These biases happen all the time. So how can the industry get past this? How can we uplift and promote minority voices throughout the cannabis world? How can we make change?
To better understand the issues many people face when starting out in the industry, we spoke to My Green Network's CEO James Shih. From their website, My Green Network “is a California cannabis compliant manufacturing facility designed to provide an all-inclusive solution to enter the legal cannabis manufacturing market without hassle.”
Currently, My Green Network is running Green Quest 2020, a contest where they will grant a “deserving minority-owned business a California Type-S cannabis manufacturing license.” Green Quest is a great opportunity for budding entrepreneurs. Shih noted of the winner, “We're going to pay for their license, we're going to subsidize their rent. We're going to move them along the process, mentor them, and put them in the cannabis network.” Applications for Green Quest are open until September 15.
Getting past the high costs of the industry
If you're serious about starting a cannabis business, there's one thing you need first and foremost: money. A lot of money.
You need money for a license, a manufacturing facility, a dedicated team to oversee social media and advertising, technical employees, day-to-day work and management — you need money for just about every step of the process. On average, opening a new cannabis business can range anywhere between $50,000 to $2,000,000 on up — just to start.
Shih began his career as a lawyer, shifting into the cannabis licensing business in California. Once on the inside, he saw what kind of funding was needed to break into the industry. “We were realizing that we had to charge $100,000 for someone — in just the legal aspect — for getting a license,” Shih said.
So if you don't have a couple of money trees growing in the backyard, what options are available to you? Shih and his team formed Green Quest because “the process to get into the industry is painful. It's basically inaccessible for 95—99% of people purely based on the money.” The winner of the contest will have their costs covered, along with open and free access to the company's manufacturing facility.
But aside from My Green Network's generous offerings, entrepreneurs who have been disproportionately impacted by cannabis reform and the War on Drugs may have access to social equity programs in their legal states. For example, the City of Los Angeles' Department of Cannabis Regulation runs a social equity program, granting funding and access to communities most devastated by governmental oversight in cannabis. Massachusetts also provides programs offering education and training in the cannabis industry for those with past cannabis convictions.
Though these programs tout helpfulness, there is a warning to be wary; some of these programs have been met with mixed results, with funding moving at a glacial pace or having been circumvented into other city outlets like transportation or police departments.
The cannabis business has never been as expensive as it is now. Gone are the days of growing your own plants or baking a few infused goodies to share with the greater community. You now need business plans and analytics to break in. Shih added, “We saw that it is inaccessible, and what we do now is revolutionizing access for cannabis manufacturers.”
Expanding minority access and growth
According to a Marijuana Business Daily report from 2017, “the percentage of minorities holding executive positions at cannabis businesses stands at 17%.” A low number for an industry built on minority oppression up until very recently — and arguably still.
With so much devastation felt by these communities due to decades of political warfare on cannabis and countless convictions, granting fair and open access for marginalized communities should be a right. Shih has also seen how certain companies have been dancing around these issues, “there are a lot of people passively talking about the need for equality. Green Quest was our way of saying, 'We don't want to be passive — we are going to take action.' It's an active process for us. We decided that if, in order to create real access for minority-controlled cannabis businesses, and really change a social, racial, and economic field, we have got to take steps — that's it.”
But My Green Network is only one pathway, “it doesn't just start with us, we're just trying to lead one. We need everybody on board to really highlight it, and everyone to start taking action — not just us.”
Last year, Steve Hawkins, the executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project told MarketWatch, “the most pressing issue facing minority entrepreneurs is obtaining the capital necessary to run a cannabis business.” Not only that, but minority-owned companies face larger hurdles when attempting to access loans or grants in general — or they're completely ignored regardless, due to years of predatory redlining and discriminatory practices.
Shih's team has seen the kind of greatness that comes with expanding the market and opening their facilities to diverse voices, “when you give opportunities to minorities — and other people that have been disproportionately impacted — those people have fantastic ideas, and cultures that support them — they are able to see current topics around the world.” This kind of knowledge may collectively impact cannabis on a global scale in years to come, with innovation and unique insights leading the way.
How can industry leaders help?
Change in the industry must come from every level because every level is affected by racial politics. And though there is a risk when attempting change, it's what's needed in order to create acceptance and inclusion. When asked about what the industry can do to help, Shih said, “all these huge funded companies with millions or hundreds of millions of dollars behind them, if each one of them just allowed one person to come in that is a minority, and they focus on that, that would create change immediately across the entire industry.”
It is imperative for cannabis companies, especially, to offer means to diversify and lift up minority communities and employees, and to offer avenues to success. “People don't realize that the cost to produce innovative products is really high because it's a risk and [these products] may not be easy to make,” Shih said. “Not many people are able to take that risk. You could be an entrepreneur who makes a fantastic product that no one's ever really seen — that can be a huge entry point. But what's happening is that most people can't do it because they can't access it.”
Outside the occasional office diversity training programs — which tend to backfire when most people go back to their inherent biases just days or even hours later — hiring Black and POC candidates and offering them deserved merit and promotions is one step in the right direction. Larger cannabis companies have the funds to develop spaces for diverse voices along with inclusive (and better) training for non-Black and POC folks, but the companies themselves must be aware enough to take these steps.
Cannabis is progressing in other countries at a phenomenal pace, and opening access to different perspectives, markets, walks of life, can all add to the expansion and explosion of the global market. And there's never a better time than now to start lifting up and helping. “We think that the time right now — for everyone — is really good because it's an opportunity where people can talk about it,” Shih said. “But we need to have people take that extra step and be active about it. That's really what people can do.”
Hannah Meadows
Hannah is a Seattle-based writer and editor. She’s worked in the cannabis industry for three years and continues to learn and explore.
Featured image by Reiana Lorin/Cannaclusive
Hannah Meadows ∙ July 6, 2020 7:00 am PDT
When legal cannabis entered the US economy, tech startups, pot shops, and numerous brands flooded the space. Yet despite this explosive growth, Black and Brown entrepreneurs within the cannabis sector have been edged out since day one.
The overcriminalization of weed and over-policing of communities of color — even as more states regularly legalize every voting cycle — continues to be an insidious stain on the American justice system. Today, no one bats an eye at weed weddings, stoney sound baths, and entire festivals dedicated to the plant, but Black people and POC are still targeted by law enforcement. A 2018 Drug Policy Alliance report found that after Washington D.C. decriminalized cannabis, Black men and women were 11 times more likely than white people to be arrested for public cannabis use after two years of legalization.
We have seen throughout history that the Black community experiences harsh discrimination at every level of the judicial system. According to the Drug Policy Alliance, communities of color are “more likely to be stopped, searched, arrested, convicted, harshly sentenced, and saddled with a lifelong criminal record. This is particularly the case for drug law violations.”
Sure, cannabis legalization has brought about new opportunities for many — and many legal states have set up expungement protocols for individuals with previous cannabis charges. But that doesn't mean our entire capitalist system is now free of racism within the cannabis space. That doesn't mean that Black and Brown entrepreneurs no longer face discrimination and impassable walls when trying to build up cannabis businesses.
Amid the ongoing protests against police brutality against Black people after the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless others by police officers, the importance of purchasing from Black and POC-owned businesses have swept over media and technology companies across many industries, including cannabis.
But supporting and donating to Black and POC-owned businesses shouldn't be limited to a burst of protests and calls for justice. It should be a regular occurrence. In the entirety of its history, America has disenfranchised Black people and POC. Thankfully, databases of Black and POC-owned businesses exist in order to help consumers in lifting up the Black community by speaking with their dollars. When you help one, you help all.
It's crucial to note that these Black and POC-oriented databases haven't come out of thin air — they've long been needed and crucial in cannabis' ongoing discussion of social equity in the industry, and they're often created by people of color themselves. Cannaclusive is an organization that saw the need for a database that highlights Black, Asian, Latinx, Woman, LGBTQIA, Indian, Pacific Islander, Indigenous, Veteran, and Disability-owned cannabis businesses and has worked with Almost Consulting for more than two years to create one called the InclusiveBase.
Below, we speak to Cannaclusive's co-founder Mary Pryor and cannabis consultant Kieryn Wang of Almost Consulting about the importance of supporting Black and POC-owned businesses today and every day, and how utilizing inclusive databases can help you determine where to express your support.
Interviewees
Mary Pryor: the co-founder of Cannaclusive, Pryor is also Executive Director of Blacks In Tech, Director of Outreach and Partnerships of Black Techies, Founder & Principal of Urban Socialista, and an SXSW Social Innovator Award Winner (2014).
Kieryn Wang: founder and owner of Almost Consulting. Wang leads women-owned cannabis brands through the diverse marketing practices of modern cannabis. She also created InclusiveBase in partnership with Cannaclusive.
On the importance of support and alignment
WM: In your words, why is it important for consumers to actively support Black and POC-owned businesses — especially now?
Pryor: I think three things are important. Due to systems that we are now being made ever so aware of, in terms of economic disparity, the wealth gap, and a lot of the barriers that are perpetuated due to white supremacy and racism, there has been a big, empty and far-fetched goal line in terms of economic wealth and access and equity in the world — especially between those who are Black and Brown and white people. And that's due to a few factors: there's slavery, there's institutionalized racism, there's segregation, discrimination.
There are a lot of things that are part of the lifetimes of people who are older — and that are not part of our lifetime as younger individuals — that have pre-set a lot of the current access people have if you are termed “minority” in this country.
On top of the fact that propaganda and the racial motivation behind the prohibition of cannabis — due to racialized stereotypes and the reefer madness movement — plus the War on Drugs caused the breaking up of a lot of different homes and destruction of communities. There are a lot of things that have been institutionalized in the system of how we operate in this country economically that is made to target and push aside Black and Brown people from access to capital on top of everything else.
So firstly, when you're talking about supporting a Black-owned business, it doesn't make it weaker, it doesn't make it better, it doesn't make it any “less than” or “more than.” It's a business. But in cannabis, you have less than 5% ownership of Black and Brown people in the space. It's 81% controlled by white men, and the numbers for women — which were in the 30s percentage range in 2015 — are now in the mid-20s percentage range in terms of ownership. Minorities, in general are faced with a huge gap of access to capital, which makes it hard to open a business in the space.
The startup costs are very high for plant-touching businesses, so supporting Black and Brown-owned businesses is just a way of saying that you understand, that you know there is a lot of work that goes into being able to access action items to start these businesses.
Supporting a business just because it's Black or Brown-owned can be for anybody. It doesn't need to be just a Black thing, it's not just a white thing, it's being able to acknowledge and be intentional with knowing that your support is going further than a store. It's being intentional and mindful and being an educated consumer on why you're supporting businesses that definitely deserve to be supported.
Secondly, businesses in this space — in terms of working with integrity — are hard to find. More so than we talk about. I find that a lot of the indigenous roots of the plant have been best served and best kept by those who understand the cultural significance. When you are a person of color, whether you're Asian, Indian, Pakistani, Middle Eastern, being mindful of having a cultural relationship to something that you're utilizing usually has a bit more importance.
"The startup costs are very high for plant-touching businesses, supporting Black and Brown-owned businesses is just a way of saying that you understand, that you know there is a lot of work that goes into being able to access action items to start these businesses."
-Mary Pryor
When it comes to the cool factor of what it is to be a person of color, a lot of things have been appropriated and misdirected and re-aligned to serve people that are non-Black or POC In general. I think businesses that understand culture and retaining that just have a better way of making it more seamless and more understood by the consumer.
Third, I think that in this time, being intentional behind why you're supporting something matters. Whether you say it privately or publicly, there's no need to be reactive and there's no need to be performative — it's easier to just adopt ways of understanding that this world has been made to go after. It's showing us that it definitely attacks and treats people differently based on the color of your skin. And while you or I may never see that change in our lifetime — or our children may never see that in their lifetimes — it's important to understand that taking the power of that and flipping it, that there is more equity and understanding in the space, is something that everybody can do. Whether it's through advocating for equality for people to have access to capital that are Black and Brown, whether it's supporting a business, whether it's being very vocal about understanding that within a company you can hire Black and Brown people because we're human beings and we should have these jobs.
Leaning far to one side and pretending that there's not a whole other culture around you really just impacts your understanding of being able to operate and access all facets of the population when it comes to the business and consumer.
Wang: When you're shopping from a small business — specifically POC and Black-owned — you're helping support the next rent check, you're helping put kids through school, you're helping put the next meal on the table. I'm not saying that you're not doing that with corporations, but you're doing it more directly this way.
I saw a tweet one time, it said: “Thank you so much to whoever just put an order in on my store — I have groceries for tomorrow now!” That's the kind of impact that you're making.
Traditionally and historically in the cannabis industry (and every other industry), POC and Black-owned businesses get less opportunity for funding. They have less access. They also usually have fewer connections and resources in powerful places the way white folks do.
The industry is built on Black bodies, yet there are a lot of Black men and women still locked up for doing exactly the things that are “legal” for many people to be doing right now. I mean for goodness sake, cannabis is an essential business right now!
I completely recognize that and my role in being an Asian woman in cannabis. I have privilege as well, so I need to do my part, and I encourage all Asians to do our part in our communities and in the cannabis community to fight the injustices today.
On the work it takes to rise above
WM: What kind of work goes into creating these specific directories and databases, and who creates them?
Pryor: The methodology of being able to do a lot of research comes from having to do a couple of things. I mean, you go beyond just trying to find stock listings on MarketWatch or through any of those platforms. You have to go deeper, beyond just what someone says online or what someone says on Instagram. But in this case, looking at social responses to social matters is a bit more accessible to us. People use — especially with cannabis — Instagram and social media in a way that's very unique and different than other brands.
Being responsive and noting how to respond during this time is something that everyone's been looking at. A way for me to give honor to someone who inspired me was Sherrell Dorsey with what she created with The Plug, which is a part of the Plug Insights platform that she started a while ago. Support startups that are Black and Brown-founded and try to give them access to information in terms of how to play in this game, because in the tech and startup world, access to dollars for Black and Brown founders is extremely small. Now people are asking, “Why aren't you opening up your purse? Why are you treating Black or Brown bodies differently? Why are you pushing us aside?” And now people are — given what's happening in the world — realizing that they have to answer to that.
Access to capital, Black or Brown access, and social equity has not moved far across this country in various states. And even within states where people think they have it going well, it kind of isn't or it's shifting. It's not coming up in ways that can truly help those who are most impacted due to the War on Drugs and those who actually want to be in the business.
I think that when we are looking at the methodology behind it, it takes a lot of research beyond all those items. Even if you have to go to someone's website, email, or reach out. We've done everything from the surface level, but there's so much more. You can do a deep dive and deep research via JSTOR [a digital library of academic journals, books, and sources] on whether someone has noted or said anything journalistically about supporting or being available to support those who want social equity.
You can look up previous programs that have existed maybe a year or two years ago or even within this year that have been created to bring on conversations to support Black-owned businesses. You can recall if an organization worked with a capital firm — MCBA [Minority Cannabis Business Association] worked with Merida Capital Partners last year to help five startup businesses that we're Black and Brown and get going with donating over $50,000 to their business.
"I'm glad everybody wants to find a business that's Black-owned to support, but it shouldn't have taken a COVID pandemic or horrible acts of police brutality. That's something we as a country have to face; why did it take this much for people to start caring about Black-owned business?"
-Mary Pryor
These are things that are out there in the world. So it does take that level of combing through previous press releases or current press releases — a lot of different items to go through that. But our methodology goes both surface level, and we're making all those updates even as people share with us more updates. We see this as being a long-standing item that's not gonna really go away.
And it's needed — as soon as people realize they need to support a business, they were like, “oh, where are the Black-owned businesses?” And we've been sitting over here for almost two years and now everybody wants to find one. I'm glad everybody wants to find a business that's Black-owned to support, but it shouldn't have taken a COVID pandemic or horrible acts of police brutality. That's something we as a country have to face; why did it take this much for people to start caring about Black-owned business?
Wang: InclusiveBase was created out of the need for a resource that highlights POC and Black-owned businesses. I published the POC Cannabis Business Directory in April 2019 and I started garnering community support. Mary reached out to me and said, “Hey, I've been doing this internally with my team for years,” for longer than I have, so she asked to join forces in order to amplify [InclusiveBase] to get more businesses represented.
Though there's been an uptick as of late due to our current events, just two years ago this conversation wasn't really happening. That's why we decided to just do it ourselves.
Again, white people have had more money for marketing and more connections for funding — it all contributes to this lack of representation for Black-owned businesses.
And it does take work to vet these companies [on the database]. We get many submissions from, you know, clearly white-owned companies. We get that you want to be represented and want to be included, but this is a space for POC-owned businesses. Right now, we are really trying to build up and get more Black-owned businesses on there. It takes work to manage the submissions so that the company can grow the directory.
On using cannabis directories the right way
WM: What do people need to know about Black and POC-owned databases that they most likely don't? How should they be used? How can they be misused?
Pryor: They could be misused in a way where you can have people infiltrate and try to break them. We've had people submit to the database that are white who have propped up one Black employee or one Black person that they have long written out of a contract to get on the list. We have to go back through and comb it and double-check it and say that's not going to work. No one has the ability to change anything within the framework of it, but we want to figure out ways to make this way more accessible and way more accounted for daily.
Misusing a database like this only feels like you're misusing it if you're just saying “support this business” and you're not making it a continued thing. This isn't a one-trick-pony, this isn't a one-time item. People should be talking about supporting businesses owned by minorities all the time. It shouldn't just be when people are on the streets asking for justice and peace and Black and Brown people are getting shot at and killed.
So I only think you must use a list if you're not serious about being intentional about making this a thing versus just a one-time item so that you look like you're doing some type of performative support.
Wang: I mean, I think making sure to recognize and credit any work that has been done by Black and Asian women or the people of color who have done other databases. The goal is that we want more people to know about this, we want to be amplified and for tech companies to work with us in order to amplify the platform. The work has already been done for years now.
Because of current events and what's going on in the world, we also want to make sure that people aren't erasing the work that has already been done. Do your research first — especially for the companies that have the resources to do this type of research.
And, we're not trying to be like, “Oh this is such hard work — we need everyone to know how hard it is,” but recognize this work that has already been done. We don't want people capitalizing on this for just a moment in time.
So unless you're prepared to continue to show up and show people what work you're doing and hold yourself accountable as tech companies and media, then don't pull off our work. The big thing is really just to make sure you're shopping responsibly or connecting with the right people. Not only are cannabis shops on the database, there are lawyers, specialists — the variety of businesses blow me away.
On what's in store for the future
WM: As time goes on, people tend to forget and move back to old habits. Will continued support be different this time?
Pryor: I think that I'm hopeful that this time is different. I've been in Ferguson and I've marched for something and about something since I was seven years old. I'm tired and I think that now, more and more people are tired. The exhaustion that I feel isn't just me being tired because I've had a long day and I worked out at 5 a.m. It's because I can feel the weight of everything when it comes to what my mother and what my grandmother, what my dad and what my grandfathers have tried to fight for so that I had a better life.
I did not envision race to still be this much of an item at this age. I wouldn't have known that it would still be what I would be seeing versus what I remember from myself when I was 17 or 18 and being called a n***** in high school. I truly believe that you're seeing more people speaking out across various industries because there is a collective tiredness.
In this unique time in history, we're all in something together. That is undisputed. We've all had to sit at home and look at the wall and look at ourselves and train ourselves to not want to touch people. We've had to train ourselves to be freaked out over engaging with others and so, people got a lot of time, and we'll still have a lot of time during re-opening.
I think people have more time to make honest, realistic needs addressed and put out solutions so that people can now consider actually moving on. I think that that's one of the weirdest, awkwardest benefits of this whole entire thing — we all have a similar share of time to realize that things have to change. And when coming into this new world after lockdown, what has been normal is now unacceptable which it has been for a while.
People are now very much pressed to make sure that it sticks, and I think that we all can use this as an opportunity to grow better, be better and address these items that are definitely uncomfortable. But I can tell you as a black woman I've had to live with my discomfort, so I'm not shocked at anything that's happening right now.
I just want us to grow and finally do something collectively, because it's not just going to be Black people making change. It has to involve white people understanding the power of their privilege to make a difference as well.
On working with women in cannabis
WM: Kieryn, from your website, you advertise digital and marketing plans geared toward women in the industry. What's been your experience following this path and being a consultant in the modern day of cannabis?
Wang: When I entered the industry back in late 2015 to early 2016, what I was seeing was a lot of people not addressing women in their marketing. Not addressing women when it comes to the ways that this plant can benefit you and how to incorporate it into your life.
Every single company that I've worked within the industry has some sort of directive to speak to women — to address them and their concerns. So with my consulting, my goal is to work with companies that are looking to create space specifically for women.
There are so many things that this plant can do — especially for women's health — and I really want more women to find the products and the kind of information that can help them create a plan. But there is a learning curve. There's a lot of shady snake oils out there which makes it really hard for the people doing honest work to get across to the people that are nervous about learning.
The big thing for me is creating physical spaces. I think a lot of people like sitting down and being taught how to roll a joint or being taught how to smoke out of a bong or feeling the plant in your hands. But now, obviously, you have to take it into the virtual space which is not something I love. That in-person education is so valuable, but fingers crossed we can get back to that soon in terms of helping people remove the uncertainty.
Hannah Meadows
Hannah is a Seattle-based writer and editor. She’s worked in the cannabis industry for three years and continues to learn and explore.
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