As New York prepares to issue first cannabis licenses, Black entrepreneurs adapt to a market in transition

Upper West Side NY

21 January, 2022

3:46 PM

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Columbia Daily Spectator BY CLAIRE HUNT AND VICTOR SWEZEY • JANUARY 20, 2022, 11:06 PM As a group of police approached his mobile dispensary, the Green Truck, Mikey looked nervously over his jars of cannabis flower. He geared up to "handle the situation," but the officers were not there to harass him this time—they were just looking for a COVID-19 testing center. Since the passing of the Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act in March 2021, adult possession and uncompensated exchange of up to three ounces of cannabis have been legalized in the state of New York. The bill also seeks to reinvest in entrepreneurs and communities disproportionately affected by marijuana prohibition, aiming to give half of cannabis-related business licenses to minority business owners and set aside 40 percent of tax revenue raised for marginalized communities. While the criminal justice provisions of the bill went into effect immediately, specific regulations on the sale of marijuana are still forthcoming, forcing entrepreneurs like Mikey to seek out novel ways to connect with customers in the interim. The Green Truck offers cannabis education and marijuana to patrons willing to abide by specific donation guidelines. "We're going to continue to educate; we're never going to lose focus on that," Mikey said. "This is not just a gimmick to get by. That is a part of our company." In September 2021, West Harlem native Mikey, along with a group of co-founders, started the Green Truck on the corner of 116th Street and Frederick Douglass Avenue. Since then, they have opened four more locations, including one on 96th Street and Broadway Avenue, and have six more in the process of opening. As Mikey and his partners staff their growing fleet of Green Trucks, they are seeking out employees from the areas where they grew up, especially those who have faced prosecution for their involvement in the cannabis industry. "We thought about the community," Mikey said. "There were many people in the community that have been criminalized for marijuana. One of the main things now that it's decriminalized was to get a lot of people who have been criminalized into the business on a professional standard." New York State Rep. Inez Dickens, who represents West Harlem and is a strong supporter of the MRTA, highlighted the importance of putting social equity first in the still-developing legal cannabis market. "The idea of this is supposed to be to help rebuild the communities that were directly impacted [by the war on] drugs," Dickens said. "[This is] a reinvestment in those communities, and by reinvestment that means that minorities have to have ownership." The war on drugs was a campaign initiated by President Nixon in the 1970s that sought to curb illegal drug use through increased policing and mandatory sentencing for drug-related offenses. Enforcement disproportionately targeted people of color, leading to skyrocketing rates of incarceration that persist to this day. Umi, co-founder of Gifted BK, a gallery in Williamsburg that seeks to combine cannabis culture with art by people from marginalized communities, was himself affected by mass incarceration. "I can't tell you how many times me and [rapper and Dead Prez member] M-1 went to jail for just marijuana crimes," Umi said. "Over 10 times, you know." if you combined our times going to jail behind some … marijuana." According to a 2021 study, Black people are 3.64 times more likely than white people to be arrested for possession of marijuana, despite comparable rates of use. In 2020, 94 percent of people arrested for marijuana-related offenses in New York City were people of color. Umi stressed the need for Black entrepreneurs and business owners in New York's burgeoning cannabis market, given the disproportionate price the Black community has paid for marijuana-related offenses and their central role in bringing cannabis into the mainstream. "Black culture, from hip hop to reggae music … has popularized cannabis and made it acceptable," Umi said. "I think [it's unfair] for the Black community not to benefit off of something that they have truly popularized and not only that … paid a number of penalties based on being involved in the industry so early." Having sold cannabis before prohibition was lifted, Umi is a legacy vendor, a group that marijuana advocates consider as central to the implementation of the MRTA's social equity goals. Nancy Udell, director of Empire State NORML, the New York state chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, believes these legacy vendors must be prioritized as the legal market takes shape. "It's very important that the legacy market transition into legal, because these are the people that know the business and a lot of them are minority holders," Udell said. Much of the work to level the playing field for legacy vendors and other traditionally marginalized entrepreneurs has fallen to local community boards who have taken the initiative to prioritize these small business owners in the cannabis market. Miriam Aristy-Farer, health and environment co-chair for Community Board 9, which represents Morningside Heights and West Harlem, stressed the effort taken by her and neighboring districts to ensure equity for legacy vendors. "All the northern Manhattan community boards really input into these regulations and make sure that this entry level into this industry for the legacy market is affordable," Farer said. In other states that legalized recreational marijuana, corporate capture of the market has threatened goals of social equity. In 2017, 81 percent of business owners in the United States' $24 billion dollar cannabis market were white. As policymakers and community leaders brainstorm ways to support minorities and legacy vendors, Black entrepreneurs like Mikey are taking it upon themselves to provide fellow members of their communities with the education necessary to enter the legal cannabis market. "We are here to educate on proper pricing and what they should be making," Mikey said. "We actually are going to be putting on seminars together, where we teach people how to grow the cannabis. We're gonna be doing a lot with the community and getting them involved." Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.