Why – And How – The Cannabis Industry Must Support Black Queer People

In June 1969, queer and trans people of color led the Stonewall uprising that birthed the American gay rights movement. 20 years later, Marsha P. Johnson – a transgender Black woman widely credited with leading the uprising – became a prominent activist with ACT UP, an organization crucial to improving the lives of people with AIDS. Not long after that, when Dennis Peron noticed that cannabis use helped his partner find relief from AIDS symptoms, the seeds of the battle toward legalizing cannabis were planted.

The fight for cannabis legalization and normalization is thus inextricable not only from the gay rights movement but the lives of Black queer people. Black people, though, have faced the brunt of decades of destructive policing intended to suppress cannabis use. The war on drugs has disproportionately affected the nationwide Black and Latinx populations, and policing generally has an overall greater negative impact on communities of Black and indigenous people.

As protests erupt nationwide to undo centuries of racist policing and law enforcement, cannabis organizations and entrepreneurs should do their part to not only acknowledge this history, but help in the fight to achieve equality. To do so, businesses and entrepreneurs must support Black cannabis organizations and causes and actively make space in the industry for people from long-marginalized groups.

How cannabis businesses and entrepreneurs can support Black organizations

People and businesses within the cannabis industry can primarily support Black cannabis organizations and causes in three major ways:

1. Acknowledge the impact of the war on drugs on Black communities.

One need only look to Florida as an example of how disproportionately the war on drugs has devastated the Black community. In Florida, nonviolent drug possession is considered a felony, so people convicted of this crime are stripped of their right to vote. 

For the 2000 presidential election, felony drug possession convictions barred 31 percent of all Black men in Florida from voting. Following the 2000 Supreme Court case Bush v. Gore and the subsequent scandal, George W. Bush won Florida that year by just 537 votes (0.01 points). This outcome can be directly correlated to the state’s widespread Black incarceration, as statistically, Black people are far more likely to vote Democrat than Republican. 

Beyond this one instance, American history is rife with examples of the war on drugs destroying Black families. As the fight for legalized cannabis advances and Black people imprisoned for drug charges remain incarcerated, cannabis industry professionals and companies should acknowledge that the industry remains unjust until all people imprisoned for cannabis-related charges are freed, their records are expunged, and they are given reparations.

2. Work to expand Black ownership of cannabis businesses

White people own the vast majority of cannabis businesses. According to one 2017 survey, fewer than 20 percent of cannabis business owners and stakeholders are people of color, and only 4.3 percent are Black. Many people of color in the cannabis industry attribute this racial gap to systemic racism and a longtime disparity in capital and wealth access between Black and white people. 

Some states have put forth measures to address these concerns. In New Jersey, a bill has been introduced that would require one-fourth of all the state’s legal cannabis licenses to be awarded to people of color. In most states, however, regulation favors large corporations – many of which are white-owned – obtaining a disproportionate number of cannabis licenses.

3. Follow wealth redistribution principles

In the wake of the protests following George Floyd’s murder, there have been renewed calls for not just justice but direct mutual aid to the Black community. In clearer terms, many people have argued that since systemic racism has denied Black people access to the same wealth as white people, direct payments from white people to Black people is an acceptable, if not wholly necessary, form of reparations.

Applied within the cannabis industry, this wealth redistribution could take several forms. White-owned cannabis businesses and white entrepreneurs could give a certain percentage of their monthly profits to local Black-owned cannabis businesses and Black entrepreneurs. Alternatively, white people and companies in the cannabis industry could donate a share of their earnings to bail funds, pro-Black organizations such as Black Lives Matter, and other organizations leading the fight for Black lives. 

Black queer people are among cannabis’ most influential voices

As more states legalize cannabis, the industry is growing, and more people are joining it. Despite the obstacles for Black people in the cannabis industry, Black people and cannabis organizations – and especially Black queer people and cannabis organizations – continue to be among the most influential and forward-thinking voices in the national cannabis ecosystem.

Trigger Hippie Co., for example, is a blog that Anika runs to educate Black queer women on how cannabis can improve their lives. Jessamyn Stanley, a yogi and cannabis advocate with her own app, podcast, and book, has been called “the queen of cannabis yoga positivity” for seamlessly integrating cannabis into her yoga practice and working to decrease body-shaming and racism in yoga. Cat Packer, the executive director of the Los Angeles Department of Cannabis Regulation, has shaped California cannabis policy for years through her current work and her prior role as California policy coordinator for the Drug Policy Alliance.

Black queer voices are vital to the cannabis industry, and cannabis businesses and entrepreneurs have a social duty to support them rather than shutting them out. Without the innovations of Black queer voices in the cannabis industry, the battle to legalize and destigmatize cannabis use would be nowhere close to as far along as it is today. And as more Black queer voices are welcomed to the industry, this battle will progress farther than the many Black people who have suffered under the war on drugs could have ever imagined.