The Black Hippie Guide to New York's Adult-Use Cannabis Industry
Get ready. The adult-use cannabis industry in New York is about to be lit AF. It is currently the biggest prospective industry in the world, a multi-billion dollar market. And the Governors office is sincerely trying to help repair the harms of the war on drugs. Here are some ways you can participate:
Buy farmland. Land justice is foundational to all justice. We are people who were stolen from land and brought to stolen land. We must increase black land and liberation. African American land ownership was at its peak in 1910, when we owned 14% of land in the United States. Today, we own less than 1%. Many of us have native ancestry and our alliance with First Nations people is important and should be honored to the utmost. Our ancestors blood, sweat and tears are in this soil.
Support craft cannabis farmers by purchasing farm fresh weed. Craft cannabis is grown on farms in greenhouses or outdoors with sun and soil. It is potent, nutrient dense and better for the environment. There will be an increasing number of quality cannabis farm projects in the Hudson Valley.
Don't let the big industrial warehouses dominate the marketplace. There are so many more cannabinoids than THC and CBD to discover. Explore a wider range of terpenes and learn about the impact of ‘terroir’ on your buds. Terroir is the complete natural environment in which a particular bud is produced, including factors such as the soil, topography, and climate. Before you know it you’ll be a cannabis sommelier, pairing specific strains with your diet and lifestyle as a part of comprehensive self-care plan. Craft cannabis faming will promote strain diversity and niche markets.
If you are an entrepreneur, consider establishing a responsible cannabis related business. The newly forming Cannabis Office will soon be accepting applications for many different types of licenses: cultivators, processors, distributors, retail dispensaries, on-site consumption, testing labs, and cooperatives. Know that there are currently banking limitations due to federal prohibition. It’s currently a cash only business. Get yours. And let’s work to make this industry transformative, not just transactional.
Join a cannabis cooperative. Learn about the worker owner cooperative model. It allows a team to share ownership, decision making power, responsibility and profits. The proposed bill requires that cooperatives adhere to the seven principles of the International Cooperative Alliance, established in 1995.
Don’t drive under the influence. That is the loophole my friend. With the NYPD feeling backed up now that they can no longer feed on us for cannabis related offenses, watch out for frustrated police officers eager to catch you driving under the influence. Legalization will eliminate one of the top misdemeanor arrests from the state’s penal law. If experience has taught us anything, its that they will go out of their way to give us a bad day. The penalty for driving under the influence will be 1 year imprisonment and up to $5000 in fines, or both.
On-site consumption spaces will open. Imagine a bar or lounge, except it serves cannabis instead of alcohol. Don’t be surprised though when you see safe consumption spaces for people using other substances too. Folk who are experimenting with substances or even struggling with drug addiction, experience risk compounded by isolation and marginalization. When we bring our people form the outskirts, into the center of the village they remember who they are and their unique gifts. Healing isn’t always pretty. The current opioid resurgence is triggering and hard to witness for many of us who hold the collective memory of the crack epidemic and what it did to Black America. We saw our families and communities ripped apart by a painfully ruthless epidemic. The multi-generational trauma has been mental, emotional, physical and economic. May we heal in all directions, now, forward and backward.
The Governors bill allows whole cities and counties to opt-out of cannabis cultivation and commerce. Write to your senators, assembly members, and legislators today to make sure they know that you want then to support this progressive social justice cannabis bill. This could really make or break the passing of the bill. Write to them before the end of February 2019.
Finally, You should know, there are magical women of color who are working diligently behind the scenes to ensure that justice isn’t used as a buzzword or cheap headline, but that it is put into law and practice. They deserve all of your praise, love, and reverence. Fierce women of color go thru so much BS. We catch all of the intersections of misogyny and anti-black racism. Do something nice for one of us today. In return, we will birth a liberated black future.