Marvin Washington enjoys attending cannabis business expos, but the former Jets defensive end says theres one thing about marijuana industry events he finds discouraging few of his fellow ganja entrepreneurs look like him.
Washington says African-Americans, Latinos and other minorities are woefully underrepresented in the legal marijuana industry, which is expected to generate more than $7 billion in sales this year. So are women, according to Washington, who is 51 but still looks like he can instill fear in quarterbacks. The ex-Jet says he hopes minorities and women will get their fair share of the jobs and business opportunities created by marijuanas march to the mainstream.
I dont want this industry to look like Silicon Valley, says Washington, the co-founder of Isodiol Performance, a company that makes THC-free hemp sports drinks. When the plant was illegal, we were overrepresented in terms of incarceration and the prison-industrial complex. I want us to have a seat at the table when this becomes a $50 billion a year industry in 10 years.
Washington and other African-American athletes have been at the forefront of the budding movement to legalize marijuana for recreational and medical purposes. Weed, they argue, is a safe alternative to painkillers and a treatment for brain injuries. Marijuana, they add, can also spark significant economic development in their communities.
Washington isnt hyping legal pots potential growth. Voters in five states – California, Massachusetts, Maine, Arizona and Nevada will cast ballots Tuesday on measures that would legalize recreational use for adults. Florida, Arkansas, Montana and North Dakota, meanwhile, will vote on medical marijuana proposals. The new programs could provide legislative relief to some of the marijuana barriers minorities face. Washington says he also hopes those new markets will create jobs and businesses and that black and brown people get their fair share.
I dont want affirmative action or set-asides, Washington says. I want a level playing field.
Washington is hardly the only black athlete hoping to push marijuana, legal for medical or recreational purposes in the District of Columbia and 25 states, including New York, from outlaw weed to mainstream product. Giants great Leonard Marshall speaks about the benefits of cannabidiol, a non-intoxicating compound found in marijuana, in treating headaches and other painful reminders of his NFL career. Tennessee Titans linebacker Derrick Morgan and the Baltimore Ravens Eugene Monroe, meanwhile, have called on the NFL to remove marijuana from its banned substance list and fund research into pots potential as a sports medicine.
Former NBA star Cliff Robinson announced earlier this year that he is opening a marijuana dispensary in Oregon, where voters approved a ballot measure that legalized the recreational use of weed in 2014. Al Harrington and John Salley recently told ESPNs The Undefeated they use marijuana to ease pain and inflammation. Hoops great Oscar Robertson backed a pro-pot measure defeated by Ohio voters last year. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has said he uses medical marijuana to stave off migraine headaches.
African-American athletes may make headlines, but that hasnt translated into much of a stake in the legal marijuana industry. Only a handful of the nations 4,000 licensed marijuana dispensaries, however, are owned by African-Americans, says Wanda James, the president of the Cannabis Global Initiative, a consulting firm.
Less than one percent are black-owned, says James, also the president of Simply Pure, a Denver dispensary. We think there are 10.
Colorado cannabis industry consultant Ryan Kingsbury says the industrys lack of diversity is ironic, since weed was long the province of artists, musicians and other outsiders who easily cross racial lines. He hopes things change when California, with its massive economic might and rich ethnic mix, passes its recreational use proposal as expected on Tuesday. The cannabis industry is still in its infancy, he says. I think youll see more people of color as the industry matures.
The marijuana industrys unbearable whiteness is due in part to demographics; the states that have already passed recreational marijuana measures and are at the center of the industry – Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska are not as racially diverse as California or New York.
Governments have thrown up obstacles, too. A black-owned company, Alternative Medicine Maryland, filed a lawsuit Monday against the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission that claimed the state did not consider racial diversity as required by law when it awards licenses to grow pot. None of the companies given preliminary approval are owned by African-Americans.
Some states bar people with criminal records from working in the industry, a policy Washington and other marijuana advocates say is unfair because the black community has taken a disproportionate hit in the war on drugs.
It is like the government saying in the 1940s that your grandfather couldnt own a bar because he ran moonshine in the 1920s, says Asha Bandele of the Drug Policy Alliance. Marijuana should not have been made illegal in the first place.
Some government hurdles are inadvertent. A 2014 Florida law that approved the medical use of cannabis with low levels of THC, pots euphoria-causing compound, required growers to have at least 30 years in the nursery business, and to have grown at least 400,000 plants.
The unintended consequence was the exclusion of African-American entrepreneurs and the rewarding of affluent individuals who work with consultants, investors, etc. to develop their applications says Florida businessman Garyn Angel, whose company sells a botanical extractor called Magical Butter that helps chefs create THC-infused cooking oils.
Some of the roadblocks come from within the black community itself. James says the older generation of clergy, lawmakers and other black community leaders discouraged participation in the industry. Former Denver mayor Wellington Webb, the first African-American to lead the city, has appeared in commercials denouncing efforts to legalize marijuana in Arizona, she says.
Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, and that makes black entrepreneurs fear they will be the first targets if a new administration wants to crack down on the y legal weed trade. People of color are terrified of police harassment, James says. There is no trust in law enforcement.
Californias Prop 64 addresses some of those cannabis business barriers. Prop 64 would not only legalize marijuana, it would also make prisoners serving sentences for convictions that would be legal under the proposal eligible for resentencing. They could also apply to have their criminal records expunged, clearing the way for them to work in the industry.
It is an opportunity to allow people to come back, Bandele says. It is an opportunity for people to remake the law.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker
Full Article: Marvin Washington Wants Minorities To Have Seat At The Table In Marijuana Industry
Author: Michael O’Keeffe
Contact: (212) 210-2100
Photo Credit: Robert Sabo
Website: New York Daily News
