DENVER — After 11 years of legal cannabis recreational use in Colorado, just a little more than 3% of cannabis business owners identify as Black, according to state data.
One of those business owners is Wanda James, a CU Regent and owner of Simply Pure who opened her first dispensary with her husband in 2009, becoming the first Black dispensary owners in the United States.
“Going back to 2009, cannabis was very different. It wasn't a billion-dollar enterprise, it wasn't something that everybody wanted to be in." James said. "We literally sat down with our attorneys, and our attorneys told us, 'When you open up this store, you are going to give the government a rock solid case to put you in jail for 25 years, because we are going to tell the government that we are not only selling cannabis, but how much we sell each day, where we're growing it, where we're selling it.''"
James recalled how terrifying it was when they first opened their cannabis business, "because we weren't sure every day whether or not we were going to be arrested or not.”
She also said the 2009 dispensary opening was pivotal after years of trying to help end the war on drugs, a war James said has disproportionately impacted Black and Latino Americans.
A short history of cannabis in the Americas
“It was for about $164 worth of street weed that landed my brother a 10-year prison sentence. Four of those years, my younger brother picked cotton in Texas to purchase his freedom,” James said. “A quick history lesson: Hemp was America's — supposed to be America's cash crop. George Washington grew hemp. Ben Franklin grew hemp. It was everywhere.”
According to the National Institutes of Health, cannabis is indigenous to many African countries where people used it as medicine.
PBS Frontline reports that after the 1910 Mexican Revolution, a large numbers of Mexican immigrants moved to the U.S., introducing recreational use of cannabis to the country. Soon after, a rise in crime was attributed to Mexicans and their use of cannabis.
By 1931, nearly three dozens states declared cannabis illegal.
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James said historically, negative stereotypes have been placed on Black Americans who use cannabis as well, and even the term “marijuana” became a way to associate the drug with negative depictions of people of color.
“So that's why we don't use the word marijuana, because it is a slang term. It is derogatory. So we prefer cannabis,” James said. “Let's be real, the war on drugs is a war on Black people and a war on Latinos.”
People of color negatively impacted by War on Drugs
A 2021 Colorado Division of Justice report found even after legalization of its recreational use, cannabis arrests for Black Coloradans are double that of whites.
“I mean, right now, there's still so many people of color, African Americans, specifically in the South, that are doing long sentences... 10, 20, 30 years — even life — for cannabis, while it's regulated,” Sarah Woodson, owner of The Cannabis Experience said.
Woodson began experimenting with cannabis when she was younger but said a negative experience temporarily changed her perception.
“When I looked at cannabis, it was more of like an entrepreneur venture, and this was even as a younger person. And then as I got a little older, I had a negative experience with cannabis. My husband had a cannabis felony, and it really put a toll on the household, the family,” Woodson said. “He went from being a person that was, you know, able to take care of everything financially, and now was really boxed in with opportunities because of a cannabis felony for possession. So that was my initial experience with it. So, it went from something that I was like, okay with and enjoyed using occasionally, to something that I was totally against at one point in time.”
But after cannabis legalization, Woodson had a change of heart and started the Color of Cannabis, an organization that advocates for an increase in representation of people of color in the cannabis industry.
“We spearheaded the social equity program on a state level, and then the City of Denver opted in. And the whole entire purpose of this program was to create new opportunities, which people would call low hanging fruit, and that was to have a cannabis hospitality license and a cannabis delivery program," Woodson said.
Woodson added that as she started to go through that process of getting delivery and hospitality licenses, she found there were still roadblocks to overcome.
"So on paper, it looks like we've done a lot, but we're now at a point where, if we can't get a few things changed, delivery businesses are going out of business," she said.
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Woodson explained proximity regulations and psilocybin entering the legal marketplace have been challenging.
She also said many big dispensaries refused to partner with social equity delivery businesses or those owned by Coloradans with previous cannabis convictions.
“The people that have profited the most off social equity have not been Black and brown people. They've been white owners with previous convictions… and money,” Woodson said.
Still illegal at the federal level, cannabis remains an all-cash business, a hurdle for many potential business owners.
But as the cannabis landscape changes and more states move toward regulation and legalization, Woodson said she remains hopeful that more Black Coloradans will get the resources they need to enter the industry.
“Black people are always going to overcome and that's the truth, and not only a song, but that is what our history is in this country: We overcome, we thrive, and that will happen,” Woodson said.
James is also hopeful.
“The last 16 years has been a battle, but it has been an absolute joy to work with the families, the people who have fought alongside of us, and to be able to change people's lives. It's really been incredible,” James said.
Editor's note: You must be 21 or older to buy, possess, or use cannabis in the state of Colorado. While this story focuses on those who partake in the cannabis industry, Denver7 has provided previous coverage on community members who are against cannabis and find it’s effects harmful.
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