“If you’re not helping your community, who is going to help you?” – Karla Rodriguez, Wana Brands

“At the most human level, the most important thing we can work on is equity,” said Karla Rodriguez, Corporate Social Responsibility Director of Wana Brands when BIPOCANN caught up with her to talk about all things CSR in cannabis, “For everyone to have the opportunity to succeed at life, build generational wealth, and always have something to eat.” We couldn’t agree more.

Personal Motivations to Build an Equitable Industry

Rodriguez is someone who not only talks the talk, but authentically walks the walk of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in cannabis. This Denver-based advocate has very personal reasons for wanting to enter the cannabis industry as a means to bring about positive change in the world.

Her father’s side of the family is Mexican American, and Rodriguez witnessed the devastating and lasting impacts of the War on Drugs at an early age. She saw many of her family members incarcerated for cannabis, and tragically lost one cousin to unsafe synthetic cannabinoids, a by-product of prohibition. The scars left on her family will never truly heal.

“There is some real room to make incredible change and impact right now, and we can still see the impact of what has happened, and we have a responsibility to do something about it,” said Rodriguez of her personal motivations, “That is why I eat, breathe and sleep equity and social responsibility every day while walking through this industry.”

An Authentic Path to Community-Based Work

Rodriguez comes from a very impressive background that in many ways, made her the perfect person for the role of Corporate Social Responsibility Director for Wana Brands.

For over 15 years, Rodriguez was a participant in the film industry, working as the Community Partnerships Manager for the Denver Film Society and then as the Private and Community Events Manager, and later as the National Culture and Community Manager at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, where she found herself working “in tandem with the C-Suite on community engagement”. Rodriguez describes this time in her career as “when I recognized the power of coming together and working collaboratively.”

When the pandemic hit, the landscape of employment in the arts drastically changed, and Rodriguez experienced a layoff. However, to her delight, before she’d lost her job in the film industry, she had applied to Wana Brands in the cannabis industry which offered her an interview. “I saw the true heart and intention through which Nancy Whiteman ran the company and I knew it was the place for me,” she said. She also was attracted to the opportunity to work for a Denver-based company with a national and international focus.

A Journey in Corporate Social Responsibility in Cannabis Begins

Just five days after giving birth to her daughter, Rodriguez had her first interview with Wana Brands. “Never have I been my more authentic self,” she says as she recalls her initial time with the company during her recruitment. It was that undeniable authenticity that ended up with her landing the role of Corporate Social Responsibility Director, which she has enjoyed since March 2021.

Rodriguez explained that Wana Brands has four pillars of giving: racial and social injustice (which also includes the LGBTQIA+ community), sustainability, domestic violence, and fighting food security and homelessness. Wana Brands very visibly mobilized their authentic spirit of giving this past 420. “We are trying to shape what would be days of marketing into days of giving,” she explained. 

To mark the monumental cannabis holiday for 2022, The Wana Foundation distributed $140,000 among 14 community organizations across the country. The impact of this donation resulted in helping to open a grocery store in a historically Black community that is also a food desert in Tulsa. Food deserts describe geographical areas that are under-serviced in terms of access to consistent, fairly-priced, nutritious, and culturally appropriate foods. The donation also contributed to building community gardens within food desert neighborhoods in Miami, and bringing an LA-based food desert neighborhood closer to opening a grocery store.

The company has also participated in campaigns with Legal Women Voters to increase voter registration and education, and during the pandemic, provided free vaccination clinics for those who wanted the option, but didn’t have adequate access.

Wana Brands’ CSR initiatives aren’t just about looking outward. “It’s really important that when you’re doing this work in the external community to not neglect your internal community,” Rodriguez advises, “Support equity, inclusion, and growth within your own company. Factoring that from within is going to fuel the intention to do the work outwardly.” As a measure of giving back to their own workforce, the company created an Emergency Assistance Fund that employees could apply to if they’re experiencing financial hardship.

Executing Authentic Corporate Social Responsibility in Cannabis

We asked Rodriguez about the required mindset needed to change marketing into giving and awareness of community needs. “Corporate Social Responsibility programs have to work with the balance of taking what we know in our hearts as the right thing to do and also have a business lens,” she explained, “Sometimes you need to pull off that business lens just because it’s the right thing to do. It’s a balancing act, and it’s about taking that passion and injecting it into the soul of corporate industries.”

Rodriguez went on to share how cannabis companies can execute their CSR strategies in true, impactful, and authentic ways. “When it’s baked into everything, then it’s authentic,” she says, adding “pun intended”. “It’s not just someone sitting in a room and writing checks and that’s the end of it. It trickles down and it’s a part of all the thoughts when a new product launches or a new initiative is undertaken. It’s not just a one-time performative act.”

She enjoys working for Wana Brands because that spirit has been at the forefront of the company since its inception. “We are here to serve. Nancy created this company to serve the world, to serve the cannabis industry, and enhance the world for others through our products and programs.” She refers to giving, volunteerism, community events, and awareness campaigns as some of what make Wana Brands unique in its CSR approach. “It’s a holistic approach, all year round,” she says.

“Pride is great, but what are you doing year-round? Black History Month? What else are you doing the other 364 days of the year to recognize the contributions of Black and Brown people?”, she posits, “It has to be built into the day-to-day of everything you’re doing.” She also noted that when considering their CSR strategies or reporting on diversity hiring within the industry, Indigenous people are often left out. “I don’t want Indigenous people to be lost in the shuffle,” she said.

We asked Rodriguez how cannabis companies direct their community engagement in a way that truly has impact. “You can’t make assumptions about the needs of the community,” she said, “You need to honestly step back and listen. It’s hard because we often want to react and fix things quickly. But if you don’t know what the true needs of the community are, you won’t make an impact. Half of my job is listening and following the lead of people I meet with.”

Her Hopes for the Future in Cannabis

We asked Rodriguez where she would like to see the cannabis industry five years down the road. 

“We don’t ask ourselves that question enough because we’re so busy fighting on a day-to-day basis that we forget to project towards the future,” she says. “We know that so many social equity programs aren’t working. My hope is that we can get to a place where Black, Brown, and Indigenous businesses can thrive and have as much chance to succeed as any other large MSO or large manufacturer out there. My other hope is that obviously that we keep getting closer and closer to federal legalization, and access to banking.”

Rodriguez also places access to formalized education for BIPOC and women in the industry of high importance, seeing a lack of access to formalized education both outside and inside the cannabis industry that teaches people how to succeed in business. “I have faith that five years from now we’ll be light years ahead around education which will lessen the stigma about the plant.”

Before we closed off our conversation with Karla Rodriguez, we asked her how to combat some of the resistance that can be rampant in cannabis toward Corporate Social Responsibility. She left us with a great tidbit of advice for cannabis executives who may be a bit resistant to sharing a bit of their piece of the pie with others: “What got you where you are is by the help of others. No one gets success without the help of another,” she stated, “Your continued success will definitively rely on the support and loyalty of your community, so if you’re not helping your community, who is going to help you?”

“It’s your responsibility as a global citizen of this world.”

“We Laid the Foundation and Paid the Heftiest Prices” – Steven Duran, Colorado Kush Company & Cookies Pueblo

From a young age growing up in Pueblo, Colorado, Steven Duran was “knee-deep into weed”. By the age of 12, cannabis had become a regular part of Steven’s lifestyle, friend circle, and eventually would make him the go-to guy in his neighborhood. “It was around everything we did,” he says.

“I was always talking and rambunctious,” said Steven of his younger years, when he was identified as an at-risk juvenile by his teachers and school. “If you smelled like weed, you were basically the devil,” he says. “I was told I’d never amount to anything and that I’d be stupid,” he recalls, “It’s funny how something like that can deter your whole life and you take on that stance of what they’re telling you about yourself.”

Becoming a Fulfilling Prophecy

What was really going on in Steven’s life was that he was lacking guidance and support at home. A child of a single mother who was always working, Steven was always left up to his own devices. “I literally got kicked out of every school,” he says, “I never embraced the school setting.”

When he was able to take some classes, his school days were short. By 12pm every day, he’d secured his friend’s orders, and would wait diligently for the “weed guy”. His house became the place where he would run his teenage cannabis empire. “We’d smoke my mom’s house out,” he says while laughing at the memories. 

Before he became a teenager, he was placed in foster care and just a few years into his teenage years, he began collecting criminal charges, for which cannabis was always attached as a secondary charge. “By default, you fall into this stuff,” Steven recalls of his painful past, “when people tell you you’re dumb, there is no one there to advocate for you and protect you.”

Difficult Choices at Young Age

Before he turned 16, Steven was faced with a big choice once he’d been on the wrong side of the law too many times. As part of the Youth Offender System (YOS), he was given the option to go to prison for three years, or drug rehab; a state-sanctioned program for drug use, which Steven was lumped into because of his cannabis charges.

For two years, because of his use of cannabis and by court order, Steven lived in a residential rehab program with alcoholics and kids who were using meth and other street drugs. He was released early from the program, but on one condition: that he was released into the custody of his biological father who had been completely absent in his life.

The arrangement with his father didn’t last long, as it was an abusive environment that Steven quickly recognized he needed to get out of. He moved back to his hometown of Pueblo, and was able to move in with a friend’s family for a year. 

When he was 19, his life changed forever, for the very best.

Forced to Grow Up Quickly

“That was my growing up point,” says Steven of when he first heard he would be expecting a baby with his then-partner, “That really changed my heart. I am now responsible for someone else other than myself.”

Having a child on the way made Steven want to get on a secure path where he could provide for his family. He got a job within a local school district as a janitor that had a decent wage and benefits, where he stayed for many years. “I settled in and that became my life path,” he says, recalling everything he’d been told from those teachers that said he’d never amount to anything, “This is good enough for someone like me,” he recalls saying to himself.

He eventually moved to an even better paying job within a power plant, only to find that he was often surrounded by racist jokes and attitudes, “It was miserable, but I had a family to provide for,” he says. And so, Steven, like many, settled into the grind of working-class America. That is, until medical cannabis was legalized in Colorado, which would send Steven back into cannabis, but this time, in a manner where he couldn’t get jailed and thrown into rehab for it.

A New Path Towards Cannabis Begins

“I’m going to quit this place and go into weed,” Steven said one day to the woman who would later become his wife. He says she looked at him like he was delusional, but she was supportive nonetheless. After investing $500 into a course put on in Denver by California’s Greenway University, Steven was ready to chart his course into cannabis.

The best advice he got came after all the hustle and bustle of the Greenway University course had died down when one of the cannabis experts told him to enter the market as a caregiver, and serve patients under him. “That was the first guidance I had ever gotten in my life,” says Steven of that critical advice that set his path. From there, Steven invested what was left of the pension he withdrew after Uncle Sam’s cut and found a fully-gated house where he could grow medical cannabis and serve his caregivers. Getting a taste of providing cannabis legally left Steven wanting more, seeing himself being the owner and operator of his own dispensary one day.

“Drive was never an issue for me,” he explains. He went on to take a job at a dispensary to learn the ins and outs of the business. After becoming Head Cultivator, he knew he couldn’t move up any further in someone else’s business, so it was time to build his own. “That was the crossing point,” he says.

Setting out determined to find the perfect property, Steven experienced hang-up after hang-up from potential landlords. Just as he was about to give up, he made one last call. “Looks like you called the right guy,” the voice on the other end said, finding out that the landlord had already started the process with another cannabis dispensary that had pulled out. He leased the property, but he was far from opening day. “We were the test dummies,” Steven says of the City of Pueblo as they were figuring out the licensing in the early days of medical cannabis. The process took 2.5 years, holding a lease on his building the whole time, and he was finally able to open up 719 Dispensary (now named Colorado Kush Company), the first medical cannabis dispensary in the city of Pueblo, Colorado, where he could freely and legally provide medical cannabis, and not be criminalized for it anymore.

“You’re the Guy Doing All The Work”

While he took immense pride in being a medical cannabis provider, he saw the imminent changes for recreational cannabis in Colorado as an opportunity to build. “For legacy operators, medical is what got us started. When you look about pivoting away from medical it’s tough especially if you come from it,” he explains about moving from medical to recreational cannabis, “The real tough part in business is that the numbers in medical don’t make much sense. I’m trying to build generational wealth.” And so, recreational cannabis seemed to be the way to go for Steven to do just that.

In 2017, Pueblo opened up a competitive application process for eight recreational cannabis stores in the city. What he didn’t realize was that those companies he was going up against had funding that could support the hiring of expert application writers. 

“When you don’t have the resources or the funding, you’re the guy doing all the work,” Steven says. He credits his wife for working extremely hard to write an application that had them scoring in the top three, securing them a license. “Cannabis social equity wasn’t a ‘thing’ at that time,” he explains of the factors that got him his license, again crediting his wife’s support and hard work for the winning application.

Steven secured a location for his recreational cannabis store a bit easier this time around as Pueblo had opened up more buffer zones. He got connected with the team at Cookies, one of the most recognizable cannabis retailers in North America and signed a deal to open under the Cookies brand. Cookies Pueblo officially opened in 2021.

“Hell Yeah! This is What it Should Be!”

When Steven began his career in the industry, he did not have the benefits of cannabis social equity programs that sought to undo the damage to BIPOC communities due to the War on Drugs. So focused on building his own business, the whole concept almost passed him by, “My head had been at the grindstone, looking down,” he says, “Once I realized what cannabis social equity was, I said, ‘Hell yeah! That’s what it should be!’ Ultimately, we laid the foundation for the industry and paid the heftiest prices. There should be a lot more of us and people like us that are represented at the higher levels. So much of what they’re offering now would have helped us in our beginning stages.”

“Social equity does appear to be a lot of smoke and mirrors because it’s so new,” he says of his observations, “How do we bang down these doors? How do we hold these guys responsible like they say they want to be? I feel like social equity is a movement, a time in history where we have to take a stance or it’s going to be another overlooked ‘march’, if you will.”

Steven believes the next few years are crucial to see if cannabis social equity programs actually help BIPOC entrepreneurs, “If cannabis social equity is a thing, then I’m going to hold [them] accountable just like [they] held me accountable for all these years.”

Advice for Emerging BIPOC Cannabis Entrepreneurs

When asked what advice he has for emerging entrepreneurs, he says, “Prior to entering the industry, look for your resources,” he says, which includes any social equity programs. “You can’t come into this industry lazy. If you’re not willing to do 110% every single day, you’re not going to get anywhere,” he explains, “These giants with the funding have ten of you doing what you’re doing. You’ll want to know what you’re getting into. This is not for the faint of heart.”

Reflecting on his journey, Steven hopes he can reach even just one kid to ensure that they know that people can be wrong about them, just as all those teachers were wrong about him and discouraged him all those years ago. “Telling me that I was going to be a loser was what made me successful. Had I listened to them, I would be King Janitor by now, but all the teachers still would be looking down on me!”

BIPOCANN supports BIPOC cannabis entrepreneurs in various stages of entering and navigating the market, both in plant-touching and ancillary services. Stories like Steven’s inspire us to ensure that entrepreneurs have the support, visibility, mentorship, and resources to be successful within this often complicated and competitive landscape. Learn more about BIPOCANN and the benefits of becoming a member here.

“Fight for the People Who Have Been Harmed in the Past” – Sheba Williams of Nolef Turns, Inc.

“The intersections between the criminal legal system and cannabis legalization absolutely intersect every day. When people are fighting for legalization, we also need to fight for people to live and be free of criminal recourse,” said Sheba Williams, Founding Director of Nolef Turns Inc. “Fight for legalization and fight for the people who have been harmed in the past.”

Nolef Turns is a non-profit group that advocates for people with criminal and felony convictions throughout Virginia. Founded in 2016, the Richmond-based group’s mission is to support and advocate alongside those with court and justice involvement. Their vision is to be a leader in decreasing the prison population by supporting and empowering those who are most affected by crime, trauma, and incarceration. 

Nolef Turns provides various services to people with convictions, including a back to work program, pre-release services, re-entry services, post-convictions, care for people with convictions following incarceration, and support for families of those with convictions.

Living the Injustices of the Criminal Justice of the System

“Dignity and justice are very important to us,” describes Williams, “Our foundation is solid and solidly rooted in integrity.” To say that Williams comes to her work through lived experience is an understatement. From a young age, Sheba Williams saw the injustices brought upon Black families by the criminal justice system. At 10, she awoke one morning to an empty house to find that both her parents had been taken to jail. Her father was sentenced to 38 years in prison, while her mother served six months; a time in her life that she never recovered from, as the State of Virginia was not concerned with the rehabilitation of those with convictions.

Sheba and her siblings were raised by their grandparents, and credits one of her teachers, Mrs. Odessa Smith, as her biggest source of empowerment, as Mrs. Smith saw Sheba’s natural intelligence and talents, and encouraged her to continue her studies while helping her get her first job in 1995. After graduating fourth in her high school class of almost 200, Sheba enrolled in Norfolk State University to study business, soon giving birth to her first child and almost immediately becoming a single parent.

Soon after securing employment at a local hospital, Sheba’s sister was wrongfully convicted for homicide, leaving Sheba to take care of her sister’s children before being fully acquitted of charges. After having two more children of her own, Sheba knew that it was time to go back to college to get her degree. During this time, she worked extremely long days to fulfill her role as a mother, student, and valued employee at the local hospital, barely finding time to sleep.

Just as Sheba was getting back on her feet, she was hit with a wrongful criminal charge herself when a disgruntled former co-worker implicated her in an embezzlement case. Despite Sheba having the finger wrongfully and unjustifiably pointed at her, she was sentenced to a hefty fine and 5 years probation. She says that during this time, it was next to impossible to find someone to advocate for her case, and the system was focused on punitive measures for something she hadn’t even been involved in. 

While this was traumatic for Sheba, it didn’t stop her from achieving her degree in Business Administration from Norfolk University and moving forward to find stability with her new degree and a good job at the hospital. However, another blow came when she was relieved of her duties at the hospital where she’d worked for six years, stating that she had not disclosed her conviction.

A Strong Need for Advocates Arises

Losing hundreds of inalienable rights affected her life so gravely that Sheba became inclined to advocate for those who had done their time but weren’t allowed to move beyond their convictions. “Inspiration came from others who were surviving life after a conviction in Virginia,” writes Sheba, “Inspiration came from others who didn’t know where to turn, but never gave up. Inspiration came from knowing that almost 95% of individuals who were convicted of a felony in Virginia must reintegrate into society as our neighbors, leaders, brothers, and sisters.” Along with five others, Nolef Turns was founded.

In 2020, when it was announced that the state of Virginia would move towards adult-use cannabis legalization, there was hope that those who had been incarcerated in the state for cannabis “crimes” would have their records expunged. In 2021, a bill nicknamed “The Clean Slate Act” was introduced in the Virginia General Assembly, furthering the hope that those who had cannabis offenses could have their records sealed. This was the first time in Virginia’s history that this has even become possible. According to Sheba Williams, over ten people in Virginia are still incarcerated for an offense strictly related to cannabis, while hundreds of others are incarcerated for other offenses but also include a cannabis conviction.

As of 2022, there has been no movement in Virginia towards cannabis legalization, or the expungement of records related to cannabis. In February 2022, the plans to establish an adult-use market were killed by Republicans in the House of Delegates, leaving the provisions for legal cannabis essentially halted.

Virginia Cannabis Users are in a “Dangerous Gap”

“We’re in a dangerous gap because people don’t understand what’s going on and how it impacts everyday folks,” said Sheba, “People are in a ‘gray area’ with understanding because things change so rapidly, and we have to wait until a Bill actually comes through.”

“We want people to stop being arrested for possession of a plant that has more healing properties than alcohol has ever had,” continues Sheba, “We want people to be educated, generate wealth for their families, in order to make money from what has plagued them for years, and for people to not have to live with criminal records for the rest of their lives.”

Nolef Turns currently has two legislative priorities. First is the Right to Vote Campaign, an initiative to amend the Constitution to disallow voter disenfranchisement based on a past conviction, recognizing that voting is a fundamental right to all citizens. The group’s second legislative priority is an Expanded Expungement Bill. “If we are truly a nation of second chances, then we should do what is necessary to dismiss bias and allow for expungement law to expand to those who have previously been convicted of a crime,” reads the language on this priority.

Towards an Equitable Cannabis Industry 

“Poverty is criminalized more than anything in this country,” says Sheba, “When the War on Drugs happened, we were losing funds for affordable housing; parks and recreation, which are a deterrent to crime; neighborhood beautification, which leads to gentrification. Communities were disinvested from.” Sheba speaks of the difficulty of actually reinvesting in communities that were historically hurt by the War on Drugs. “People think we are doing something nefarious when they say to reinvest into the communities, and possibly give some advantages to some people,” she says, “[They] don’t recognize that disinvestment has happened. The reality is most criminal offenses are because of a lack of resources or mental health issues.”

When asked for the future of social equity programs in cannabis and in Virginia, Sheba says, “The burden should not always fall on us, because at the end of the day the state will be making the money so they need to find a way towards social equity.”

“Social equity applicants need to have the resources and tools necessary for success in the industry on Day One,” Sheba says, recognizing that social equity programs should not be a legalization afterthought. “Once the gate is open, you can’t go back. You have to get it right from the beginning.”

According to Sheba, the state of Virginia still has a long way to go before they can implement the processes required to make legislative and criminal justice changes. For instance, Police Services are working on antiquated software that doesn’t allow the sealing of records to happen efficiently, a process of upgrading that could take up to five years.

Despite these challenges, and the long road ahead, Sheba Williams and Nolef Turns are not stopping their advocacy. “It’s still early in 2022,” she says, “We still have time to help the state recognize we can do social equity well.”

Nolef Turns can be supported in a number of ways by the cannabis community. Visit their website to see a list of ways to donate, become a board member, or get involved with one of their Community Partners.

“It Comes Down to Being Intentional.”

“I was always one of those curious kids getting in trouble for taking things apart,” recalls Anthony Winston III, P.E., P.Eng., of his early years in the South Side of Chicago where he developed an interest in technology and understanding how things work. 

His interests in tech would set the foundation for what would later become Winston Engineering, a full-service engineering firm providing HVAC, piping, plumbing, electrical services, and more to cannabis companies across 10 states and in Nova Scotia in Canada.

Early Paths to Engineering & Entrepreneurship

After recognizing that it was the engineering field that would allow him to pursue his natural interests, Winston achieved his degree in Electrical Engineering with Emphasis in Power Transmission and Distribution at Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering at Arizona State University.

Equipped with the skills and knowledge on power generation and how it gets to homes and businesses, Anthony took on roles across a variety of industries, including government radar and missile defense systems, and in the building of health care facilities. During this time, Winston gained vast experience within the construction industry and was licensed as a Professional Engineer based in construction in California.

A developing interest in the idea of being an entrepreneur led to a Google search of “how to start a business”, and Anthony began taking contracts on his own. A large contract in 2015 afforded him the opportunity to walk away from working for other people, to now work for himself as Winston Engineering. He continued to develop his skills and knowledge, integrating HVAC into his engineering services.

How a “Tomato Grow” Led to Servicing a New Industry

Winston Engineering was nothing short of successful, gaining contracts with companies like Costco and Starbucks, but in 2017, a call from Long Beach changed his trajectory. 

While initial conversations were under the guise of a “tomato grow”, Anthony soon realized that his services were being contracted for a cannabis cultivation facility. As cannabis had been starting to legalize in some states and was soon to become legal in California, Anthony said his work in the developing industry “snowballed from there”.

Soon his name was being passed around the California cannabis industry, allowing him to provide his engineering services to more cultivation facilities, distribution centers, manufacturing and processing facilities, and retailers. “The cannabis industry is about who you know,” he says, “and also about who you can trust,” he adds. 

Soon, Winston Engineering was dedicating up to 40% of its time and expertise to cannabis industry clients, and was able to hire a team of four and obtain licenses in 10 states and one in Canada.

Engineering for a Cause

For Anthony, who had experiences with cannabis in various parts of his life, his work in the industry wasn’t just about contracts and paychecks. 

“While I do facilities engineering, I took it a step further to understand the amazing benefits of this plant,” he says. He began going to meetups to learn more about first-hand experiences with cannabis. He met mothers who were advocates for their children to have access to THC because it had helped end or reduce their kids’ seizures. 

“I was able to see my own grandma cut her medications in half,” he notes as he saw that more people were able to replace pharmaceuticals with THC or CBD. He says that when he has an ache or pain, he now reaches for cannabis products over what he’ll find in the medicine cabinet, valuing that cannabis is an all-natural alternative to a manufactured pill.

Anthony became a sought-after speaker because of his expertise in facilities engineering for the cannabis industry. He has spoken twice at the Cannabis Business Times Conference on cannabis facilities, and at the Black CannaBusiness Conference, where he was able to celebrate his achievements alongside other Black-owned businesses in cannabis.

An Advocate and Mentor for Black Cannabis Entrepreneurs

As Anthony and Winston Engineering enjoys growing success as a Black-owned company in the cannabis industry, he recognizes his role in helping other Black entrepreneurs find the same success in a complicated and nuanced industry.

“The War on Drugs has decimated the black community and I saw it first-hand as a kid growing up,” he recalls. “I have relatives that have been locked up for it, and it’s terrible how the Black community was used as a pawn by the government. It fractured our communities,” he says. 

“When cannabis started becoming legal, I thought this was a great opportunity to level the playing field, especially in regards to wealth disparities. We’re now so many years into legalization [across some states] and the number of Black folks in cannabis is minuscule,” he states. “My mission is to educate as many Black folks on how they can overcome hurdles to entering this industry.”

When asked about advice he could offer emerging Black cannabis entrepreneurs, he said it’s all about making connections. “Black cannabis entrepreneurs don’t typically have the same resources to lean on as their white counterparts,” he says, “You have to break out of your shell and interact with as many different businesses within the cannabis space as possible.” He talks about the importance of ensuring an entrepreneur has all the right support services around them from attorneys to accountants, engineers, and ancillary services. “Do all the right things and don’t cut any corners. This industry can be very strict,” he adds.

Working Towards a More Equitable Cannabis Industry

Like other Black cannabis entrepreneurs and allies, Anthony believes that creating a more equitable industry is everyone’s job. “It comes down to being intentional,” he says about creating equitable spaces, “It’s not okay to just ‘not be racist’, and it needs to be taken the next step further. Be intentional in your hiring. Don’t feed into the narrative that this happened hundreds of years ago. Intentionality is the biggest part.”

Anthony notes that resources like the National Cannabis Equity Report & Toolkit, by the Minority Cannabis Business Association, are steps in the right direction, acknowledging that some cannabis social equity programs set applicants up for failure. “Yes, it’s great that you’re helping Black folks get licenses,” he says, “but the financial contribution for those licenses isn’t recognized; you’re also expecting them to raise capital.”

Anthony says that the states need to contribute financially to their cannabis social equity programs, including by giving people education. He suggests a state-by-state playbook written by experts in the field would be a great start to helping people navigate various systems that have been set up around cannabis licensing.

A Bright Future for Winston Engineering

As for Anthony Winston, he sees only a bright future as Winston Engineering continues to make its mark as a Black-owned ancillary cannabis business. He plans to expand into civil engineering and broadband infrastructure, helping improve connectivity to rural areas, all with a goal of helping other Black-owned cannabis businesses succeed.

“My goal is to be the go-to facilities engineering firm for the industry,” says Anthony. 

By the looks of it, Anthony Winston and Winston Engineering are well on their way to being just that. 

Learn more about Winston Engineering at http://www.winstoneng.com/cannabis.

“We Have to Bring the Attention Back to the Medicine”

“I saw the unity of the people who were embracing the plant and realized this was the industry I wanted to be in,” says Otha Smith III when he speaks about his early desires to enter the cannabis industry. Otha is the Founder and CEO of Tetragram, a digital platform that helps cannabis users get the most out of their products and experiences.

Tetragram is an app that invites cannabis users to log the details of their sessions. Consumers input their products, the dispensary it was sourced, methods of consumption, medical condition symptoms to target, and the overall efficacy of that session to help manage those symptoms. What results is an informed consumer who is empowered by their self-generated data on their medical cannabis journey, and an invaluable data set for medical cannabis practitioners that show how certain products are impacting people’s health.

A Life-Saving Re-Introduction to Cannabis

Otha Smith III is no stranger to cannabis. He grew up in a rural part of Maryland that was notorious for growing cannabis, so he was exposed to it at a young age, had long moved past its stigma, and understood that it had medicinal benefits.

Born to a family of entrepreneurs, Otha enjoyed his own foray into entrepreneurship while still in high school. He started a car detailing business that skyrocketed in success while he pursued his degree in Business Marketing at Bowie State University.

Otha’s rise in his career suddenly came to a pause after a 2006 car accident after falling asleep at the wheel. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Whether it was a miracle or a result of the work of the responders and his now-doctor friend who was in the crash with him, Otha’s time on this earth wasn’t up. He was revived but was left with a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), for which he was prescribed what he describes as a “deadly cocktail of prescription opioids.”

For three years, Otha took the opioids as prescribed, but he wasn’t finding the relief from the TBI symptoms such as increased anxiety that he needed. “My anxiety went through the roof,” he says, “Xanax was what I was using most.” One day, he decided “enough is enough” and reminded himself that he had always had a holistic approach to health, and recalled the benefits of cannabis he’d known about growing up. With the help of cannabis, and throwing himself into physical exercise, Otha began coming off opioids one-by-one, to the point that he was pharma-free.

“This is the Industry I Want to Be In”

Because of cannabis, Otha finally had his life back and was ready to get back into building his career. Following the 2008 recession, he closed his car detailing company and went on to solar energy sales, where he achieved several accolades, including a promotion to leadership roles.

Throughout this time, however, Otha felt that pull back to entrepreneurship that he’d thrived on at a young age, and he had a new-found appreciation for cannabis after his experience getting off opioids. When Colorado legalized cannabis in 2012, Otha was one of the state’s early visitors, where he had the opportunity to attend the state’s first legal 420 celebration. It was the feelings of togetherness, advocacy, and being united because of the plant that solidified the path that Otha would take to begin his career in cannabis.

Recognizing a Big Gap in Patient Care

When Maryland finally implemented legalized medical cannabis sales in 2017, Otha quickly recognized a big gap in patient care. “I was completely blown away,” Otha recalls as he saw the array of products available, “As a consumer there is no data for me to rely upon to make smarter decisions about what will work for my medical condition.”

While he valued the experience of the cultivators and budtenders, he quickly recognized there had to be a better way for the medical cannabis industry at large to drill down why certain cannabis cultivars worked for certain conditions, while others did not.

“A major component of education is documenting consumption,” explains Otha, “So, I took the idea of the paperback journal and made it an app on the phone.” And so, Tetragram was born.

The app is now in 132 dispensaries across the country. Otha believes that Tetragram will reshape the entire cannabis industry due to the aggregate, anonymous data the app is designed to collect. In addition to patient journaling, each product that is entered into the Tetragram app receives tens of thousands of patient reviews that demonstrate the products’ efficacy for certain medical conditions. The app also has a built-in ranking system for popular cultivars of cannabis. For instance, if a consumer really wants to source the best “Blue Dream”, they can find which brand, product, and phenotype of Blue Dream that customers are raving about.

Otha credits Tetragram’s success to the plant herself. “Cannabis is the most communal plant in the world,” he says, “People love sharing their experiences, and through Tetragram, people can learn from each other and find other people’s experiences.”

Tetragram also provides doctors, cannabis brands, researchers, and universities a white label version of the app wherein they can conduct their own research on cannabis. The app can be customized towards the research questions under investigation to help researchers secure quantitative data about cannabis. Tetragram has also been adapted for the study of psilocybin mushrooms, with plans for the app to soon cross other plant medicines.

Otha was honored for his work with Tetragram by being recognized among Marijuana Venture’s “Top 40 Under 40”. In 2021, Tetragram was named one of the best cannabis apps by Cannigma. Tetragram has received acclaim from beyond the industry, recently receiving a Silver w3 Award for “best user experience” by The Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts (AIVA).

Advice to Emerging BIPOC Cannabis Entrepreneurs

Otha would be lying if he said that his path to making Tetragram fully operational was completely smooth. “It was originally hard to get engagement with people. There’s another level that’s added when you’re getting something started when you’re BIPOC,” says Otha, “When we initially came out with the platform, it was tough at first for people to take it seriously,” he recalls of his journey of foraying into cannabis as a person of color.

Otha found it extremely difficult to raise capital as a person of color in the cannabis industry despite the promise of the app. “Once we could show people the power of the application, the technology spoke for itself,” he says. Finally, Tetragram began to take hold and the app went from prototype to something that people can download for either iOS or Android.

For emerging BIPOC cannabis entrepreneurs, Otha imparts tough, but true advice: “You’re going to hear more No’s than Yes’s” he says, but urges the emergent entrepreneur to use this as fuel. “The industry is wide open and there are multiple areas to be successful. See what you’re good at and apply that to the industry.” As for timing, “There is no such thing as the right time, you just have to do it.”

Otha underscores that people will be most successful when they do what they love and what they’re good at. “People try to get into parts of the industry where they have no skill sets, and that’s a critical way to die.”

Otha’s Hopes for the Future of Cannabis

Otha Smith III has high hopes for the future of cannabis, and it involves going back to the industry’s roots. “We need to get back to where we initially started with the industry. People lost touch on why we created legal cannabis in the first place,” he states, “It was based on medical cannabis and that has been lost and is now a commodity. With the data collected through Tetragram, we can bring the industry back full circle to bring it back to the medical.”

“Tetragram is for patients by patients,” says Otha in closing, “Anyone who uses cannabis is a patient at the end of the day. We have to bring the attention back to the medicine.”

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An Accountant and Ally Focused on Helping BIPOC Build Generational Wealth Through Cannabis

Her business may be all about money, but her true mission lies in helping BIPOC build generational wealth through cannabis.

Angela L’Esperance is the founder of Ms. Jane Accounting, an accounting collaborative that is connected across the USA with cannabis accountants, tax preparers, and other professionals. The accounting firm works solely for cannabis, holding an advance grasp on compliance requirements when it comes to the money of the growing, and often complicated industry.

Ms. Jane Accounting holds social justice and diversity, equity, and inclusion as central to their mission, dedicated to uplifting their fellow women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs in cannabis.

An Ally in Cannabis & All Things Tax Accounting

For Angela, being an ally within the cannabis industry means “providing support where the support isn’t already being provided,” which is what is unique about the services she offers.

The firm provides services like completing monthly financials, providing financial education, ensuring state-specific financial and 280E compliance, and you can even “outsource” Ms. Jane Accounting’s team to act as CFOs (Chief Financial Officers) within small businesses.

Part of Ms. Jane Accounting’s business model is ensuring that accounting services are financially accessible for social equity applicants, recognizing that finances overall are a large barrier for any startup cannabis company.

A Long Career Moves to a Specific Mission

With an inherent entrepreneurial mindset, Angela started her first business at the age of 21 while in college. Over 17 years, she specialized in tax and accounting, taking all opportunities to diversify her experience so that she could serve small businesses as a trusted tax and accounting advisor. After a while, she found herself managing up to 70 small businesses, and working 80 hours a week.

At this point, it was time for Angela to reconsider her focus and turned to the growing cannabis industry as a way to specialize the experience she had gained as a CFO (Chief Financial Officer) for small businesses.

Angela entered into the cannabis space with a specific determination to offer her tax and accounting services to social equity applicants, eager to do her part to help make reparations for the damages brought against black and brown people as a result of the War on Drugs.

“Not all communities have the same access to capital, education, or resources,” says Angela, “Being criminalized for cannabis has proved to be more than just a set back. For many, it has caused a lifetime of limitations and discrimination. Meanwhile, some are making millions off the same plant. We’re here to help bridge that gap. To help serve those who have been wronged by the system.”

“Accounting is an essential service for running a business, and it’s one of the first things that gets put on the backburner,” adds Angela, “It takes money to make money, despite the disproportionate access to funds and capital, we are here to provide the resources, the essential services and to give a leg up.”

According to Ms. Jane Accounting, over 80% of cannabis businesses don’t have accurate books and taxes due to lack of cannabis accounting and tax expertise. This could lead to substantial penalties and fines.

Angela’s Advice for Emerging BIPOC Cannabis Entrepreneurs

“Getting an accountant can be a touchy subject when you’re in cannabis. It’s not like any other industry,” says Angela. “Because cannabis is so highly regulated and audited, emerging cannabis businesses will want someone who works in cannabis 24/7 to look after your books and keep your records.”

Angela explains that too often cannabis businesses rely on do-it-yourself accounting software that neglects the intricacies of the financials of cannabis. Because of this, she has worked with clients to clean up financial messes, which has now become her strength. Some clean-up projects could be costly for clients, which is why she suggests having a cannabis specialized accountant.

Ms. Jane Accounting also provides advisory services to their social equity applicants that help them make sound decisions about their investors. Angela points out that predatory investors can prey on BIPOC cannabis entrepreneurs, offering them funding for their companies in exchange for majority ownership. She advises that anyone making a deal with investors should have their accountant and lawyer look over all the details before signing.

Accounting & Tax Services for Generational Wealth

Angela L’Esperance is keen on using her tax and accounting expertise and services to help BIPOC cannabis entrepreneurs build generational wealth. “This is the time we need to give back to these communities and give them full ownership, let them thrive, and be sustainable,” says Angela.

Ms. Jane Accounting can be accessed by visiting www.msjaneaccounting.com

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