Black people have been disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs especially with respect to getting locked up for weed. Currently, the cannabis industry is not at all diverse. It looks a lot like other industries in terms of owner-operator demographics. But maybe, or hopefully, that will start to change. Anyway – if you’re not into football, you might not recognize former Lions players Calvin Johnson and Rob Simms.
From ESPN: “Five to six days a week, Sims and Johnson drive from their suburban Detroit homes to Primitiv’s cultivation facility in Webberville, Michigan, to manage their 15-person team, inspect their product and make sure their business is flowing toward the level of production they have anticipated.”
The idea of advocating for racial equity in the emerging cannabis industry is to give opportunities for ownership and employment to individuals who would have been previously arrested for sales or even simple possession.
But while progress on stuff like that takes time, it’s just nice to see some black faces in ownership- even if they’re in the cannabis industry as opposed to front offices in the NFL or the Fortune 500 (four black CEOs total or 0.8 percent.)