As soon as COVID-19 is thoroughly suffocated by countries worldwide and normal life resumes, cannabis will once again headline national business conversations. Corporate coyotes will resume jockeying for position in legal states to establish turf for years to come; and state legislatures, meanwhile, will navigate the cannabis free-fall to in-part close budgetary holes, and in full, be on the right side of history and well suited for reelection. But for 26-year-old Elev8 Cannabis CEO, Seun Adedeji, he wants states that claim equity for minorities to put their money where their mouth is. “Even though African Americans are four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana than Whites, and make up 50% of all drug-related arrests, we only make up 4.3% of the cannabis industry. That scares me a lot; because we’re the pioneers of this industry,” Adedeji said. Adedeji, who already owns a dispensary in Eugene, Oregon, with three more pot shops set to open in Massachusetts in 2020, says that many states, including Massachusetts, have social equity policies in place to give opportunities to minorities. Though these policies are well intentioned, minorities often run into practical barriers. Massachusetts, for example, has an economic empowerment program; made to prioritize minority applicants’ review process—essentially skipping the line. But most minorities run into an entirely different problem once they get to the front. “Imagine being able to skip the line to buy some J’s [Jordan’s] but you don’t have any money,” Adedeji explained. “That’s what you’re seeing with minorities in cannabis; and I find that disappointing.” When asked who has the best cannabis law on the books so far, Adedeji hesitantly suggests that it could be his former home state of Illinois. But his reservations lay in Illinois’ pledge to set aside $30m in funds to help minorities get into the cannabis industry. “I don’t think that the money is going to arrive on time to give minorities the opportunity to leverage this fund to then apply. From how I’m looking at it, it would take the next round of applicants before you really see that fund in practice. Meanwhile, everybody else is getting in the game,” he said. But with recreational cannabis legalization on hold until January, these policies’ efficacies remain to be seen; yet, Adedeji says he’s optimistic. Illinois is also the first state to remove real estate ownership as a requirement for individuals to apply, which he says is “huge!” There is a glimmer of hope for the Midwest state, though. Evanston, IL, a small city outside north of Chicago, is carving out its own approach to equity and benefits for minorities through cannabis legalization— reparations to Blacks through a 3 percent tax on cannabis. According to the Washington Post, Robin Rue Simmons, a black alderman that represents the city’s Fifth Ward, said their community was damaged due to the war on drugs and marijuana convictions. Reparations through cannabis tax dollars provide the city a chance to correct it. Smitten by the nation’s latest gold rush of cannabis, thousands of industry hopefuls mobilize their inner circles in attempt to claim their stake. Adedeji is no different. A true entrepreneur at heart, he ventured into the cannabis industry with just three elements: a dream, a savings account and a lot of YouTube. But for Adedeji, whether it’s selling candy in middle school or cannabis in high school—the hustle is all the same. And when asked, he’ll tell you that he subscribed to the power of pot for one reason only: generational wealth. “My ultimate goal is to really help people,” Adedeji said. “To really create generational wealth, not only for myself, but for the people and communities around me.”
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