4 Tips To Run A Cannabis Business That Honors The Legacy Market

By Marlena Fishman

Too often, we hear of the “black,” “underground,” “illicit” or “legacy” market positioned as directly at odds with the legal cannabis market. Without the legacy market and its countless activists, the legal market could not and would not exist at all. 

Operators within the emerging legal cannabis market often seek to combat issues of inequity and acknowledge the historic struggle to bring plants to licit markets. Without directly honoring the legacy market that crafted our present, the cannabis industry forgets where credit is due. Here are four actionable ways to honor the legacy builders of the cannabis industry in the present while operating your legal marijuana business.

1. Empower Marginalized People by Providing Training & Industry Expertise

Due to systemic inequalities, BIPOC entrepreneurs have a much more difficult time launching an endeavor of their own. It may be a matter of access to investment capital or bank loans that prevents an otherwise successful entrepreneur from entering the legal cannabis industry.

This isn’t an isolated moment in history, either. Generationally, BIPOC entrepreneurs have been gatekept from becoming business owners, especially on a corporate scale. That’s why economic empowerment for future BIPOC entrepreneurs is important in developing generational wealth. The reasons above are why I started an equity initiative of my very own called The Cannabis Equity Initiative.

Call to action: Contribute financially to help organizations train and teach marginalized leaders looking to break into the legal cannabis industry. Offer your knowledge and expertise pro-bono to marginalized people wanting to get involved in the industry.

2. Honor Your Land’s Legacy and Promote Trauma Healing 

Growing up in New Jersey, my family always had a garden in our yard. From a young age, my parents taught me the importance of growing plants and taking ownership of the land we lived on. When I moved to the District of Columbia, I got a taste of the Black-led urban farming movement and felt so inspired by it. Now that I live in Vermont on occupied Wabanaki territory, I cherish the opportunity to develop an authentic relationship with the land my family inhabits.

Cannabis cultivation presents a unique opportunity especially to Black and/or Indigenous people, as both cultural heritages have spiritual practices rooted in the land. Speaking from a Black perspective, I now have the opportunity to choose my relationship with the land, unlike the forced traumas my ancestors went through. It’s a way of healing from the collective racial trauma Black people have endured.

Call to action: Get in touch and partner with social-justice-oriented mental health organizations led by BIPOC like Black Emotional and Mental Health, Therapy for Black Girls, and Therapy for Black Men. Acknowledge you likely inhabit Indigenous land, learn the history of the land your business occupies and educate yourself about local Indigenous history.

3. Reduce the Stigma of Use at your Cannabis or CBD Company

Although more states are passing recreational measures all over the country, prohibition is still alive and well in certain regions of the United States. Depending on where someone lives, there may be more at stake when disclosing use and even affiliation with the legal industry. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, only 18 states and territories (including the District of Columbia) have enacted non-medical, recreational cannabis legalization measures. Additionally, while most states without recreational cannabis measures still have medical marijuana programs, Idaho, Kansas, and Nebraska don’t have any form of legal cannabis.

Although the industry expects people to regularly disclose their cannabis use, in reality, cannabis is still prohibited, criminalized, stigmatized, and even racialized in many parts of the country. While the industry encourages anyone to speak openly about cannabis, we should also support marginalized people in ways they want to feel supported.

Call to action: Encourage everyone to speak openly about use, but don’t pressure anyone to disclose their use. Evaluate any existing drug-prohibitive internal workplace policies such as THC testing and eliminate them. Include and specify details about when cannabis use is or is not acceptable at work in company handbooks.

4. Hire BIPOC to Increase Representation Within the Legal Industry

According to market research and consulting firm Grand View Research, legalization efforts across the country have put the cannabis industry on track to reach worth $70.6 billion globally by 2028. However, those reaping the benefits are more likely than not to be white and already wealthy. Recent analysis from Business Insider reports that 90 percent of cannabis executives are white and only 7 percent Black.

This is particularly devastating, considering how the War on Drugs has disproportionately targeted, over-policed, and forcefully incarcerated Black and Brown communities for decades in the name of prohibition. At the very least, people from historically targeted and racially marginalized communities should have not just an opportunity to participate, but also feel genuinely supported in entering the legal cannabis industry as a matter of principle.

Call to action: Hire a professional to spearhead diversity and inclusion within your organization. If you can’t afford to hire someone, pair with relevant nonprofits like the Last Prisoner Project or the Wheldon Project or even create boards that guide your business’s path to diversity.

Together, we can celebrate the healing power of cannabis

Cannabis has tremendous potential for medical healing. Thanks to a robust body of medical and scientific research on the body’s endocannabinoid system, we know cannabis can help alleviate symptoms of chronic and serious illnesses, ranging from chronic pain to immune disorders and mental health conditions.

Cannabis has also been used as a social healing tool. Cannabis helps combat social anxiety and isolation by helping people come together and engage in social settings. We listen to music together, create art together, eat and drink together. Sometimes, we even have a philosophical debate and an exchange of ideas. 

Cannabis itself can bring people together. Now a legal U.S. market is emerging, a real opportunity exists to bring together past and present by honoring the people and events that brought us to this historic moment.