Los Angeles is home to more cannabis dispensaries than public schools. Even though there are more than 400 licensed dispensaries in Los Angeles, they are predominantly white owned. Black residents make up only about 4 percent of dispensary owners, according to data collected by Cannaclusive.

In California, cannabis use for medicinal purposes has been legal for 25 years, while recreational use has been permitted for five years. But according to Marijuana Business Daily, whites make up at least 80 percent of the U.S. cannabis industry as business owners or founders. According to The Pew Charitable Trusts organization, Los Angeles’ Cannabis Alliance reported that Black applicants comprised just 11 out of 100 approved dispensary licenses last year.

Beatty finds her own beat in the cannabis industry

Whitney Beatty, CEO of Josephine and Billie’s, represents that small percentage. She and her partner received a dispensary license in Los Angeles, and recently held the grand opening of their dispensary, which caters to women of color. On top of being owned by a Black woman, Josephine and Billie’s has a pen pal program that gives their customers an opportunity to write letters to minority women who are incarcerated for drug crimes related to marijuana.

Josephine and Billie’s is located on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and it’s cross street Denker Ave, located south of downtown Los Angeles, Calif. This Black-owned and woman-owned dispensary name was inspired by two iconic Black women, Josphine Baker and Billie Holiday, who were both persecuted for their cannabis consumption in the mid 1900s. “Yet they used their art to fight against injustice, reject the mainstream and write their own rules, all while holding the door open for others that would come after them, and for me,” said Beatty.

With the history of the War on Drugs targeting minorities, Beatty says she knew it would be incredibly difficult as a woman of color seeking funding for her dispensary, nonetheless, she did it anyway. In 2018, Beatty started working on Josephine and Billie’s and she got verified for social equity that same year. To become social equity verified you have to live in a certain zip code, have low-income, a prior cannabis arrest or conviction, or been a resident for 10 years. In 2019, Beatty applied for a dispensary license and her application was accepted. Beatty says this process was far from easy and she faced multiple adversities “...but I trusted the money would come and I really believed in the vision we were pitching.” Beatty partnered with other Black women who she knew had “skills in this space.” Today, almost everyone on her team, from her attorney to her employee staff, is a woman of color, including her marketing executive and her social media content creator. “That wasn't necessarily by design, it was because they were the best people for the job which was powerful as well,” said Beatty. It’s just an amazing group of women who came together who really understood the vision and what we were trying to do.”

Black women joining forces in the cannabis space

Ebony Andersen, co-owner of Josephine and Billie’s, says she and Beatty understand that amid making history they are “shattering ceilings and opening doors.” “It’s more than just the hype and excitement behind cannabis, what we do is provide plant medicine to our community and teach our community about cannabis and the wellness properties of the plant,” said Andersen.

Photo of Ebony Andersen (left), Toni Forge (middle) and Whitney Beatty (right) Courtesy of Josephine and Billie's Instagram

Beatty and Andersens’ cannabis attorney and general counsel, Tony Forge, is a Black woman as well. Beatty says Forge has a “tell it like it is” personality that she can appreciate as a business woman in the cannabis industry. “She has years of experience so she has seen a lot from her legal perspective and has the ability to really give insight on pitfalls that businesses have the ability to fall into,” said Beatty.

Forge, owner of 4Leaf Consulting, has been a cannabis consultant for more than five years. Cannabis is an emerging market and Forge says her consulting business is unique because she’s “boots on the ground” and she’s gotten her “hands dirty.”

“I take a 360 approach when it comes to my business,” said Forge. She helps people of color get licenses, financing, and operations in California. Forge says 70 percent of her clients are people of color. She says when it comes to the cannabis industry the number one problem is capital, people of color do not have channels of capital. “White males control corporate America, white males control this business, people of color don't have the white boy network. We don't have inheritances where we're left money or legacy money, or friends that have a lot of capital,” said Forge. Forge‘s end goal is to change this narrative.

States and cities regulate cannabis, in California aspiring dispensary owners need to have a state license and a local license. Forge says one common misconception is that people believe they can have a cannabis license everywhere in California which is incorrect. Applying for a local license in California ranges from 5,000 to 50,000 dollars, which is all non-refundable. “How many people coming from a community that is marginalized and has this impact of the war on drugs, who just have 9,000 dollars laying around to apply?” said Forge. She says people of color do not have this kind of money to waste on a license that isn’t guaranteed. Forge says the total budget to start a cannabis business can be between 500,000 to a million dollars.

Another Black woman aspires to own a dispensary in LA

Photo of Opie Brown, Courtesy of Opie Brown

An aspiring dispensary owner, Oprah ‘Opie’ Brown, says despite her cannabis dreams “it’s just too expensive.” “Cannabis is a multi trillion dollar industry and I would need a million dollars to startup,” she said. Brown, an app developer for Black-owned business, who is originally from Kansas City, Mo. moved to Los Angeles less than 10 years ago in hopes to join the cannabis industry. “I couldn’t qualify for social equity here because I haven't been a resident for 10 years and my home address didn’t meet the social equity criteria,” said Brown. “You have to live in a certain zip code to qualify for social equity. I chose to live in a better neighborhood because I have children, so I am thinking about what's best for them.”

Cannabis consultant, Forge, says although social equity programs are designed to assist destroyed communities and families of people of color as reparations from the war on drugs back in the 1980s and 1990s, every city has different social equity applicant criterias that can create challenges for people of color. “People assume that just because they're social equity verified that they're going to become operators,” said Forge. In 2019, some people did and some people didn't because they couldn't find proper funding and they couldn't find property.” That same year, Brown was so close to partnering on an application with a White medical doctor who was applying for a cannabis license. “Me being a minority woman, a Black woman, he thought that that would help his application gain diversity funding. I mean, he literally said that to me,” said Brown. However, Brown decided not to be on his application and she says his application actually did not end up getting approved.

Brown’s sister, Lila, started a Black-owned pre-roll cannabis company that Brown contributed to before she moved to L.A. The pre-rolls were rolled with organic, chemical free leaf papers and they were colored papers. “So, we became a vendor because no one else really had colored pre-roll products,” said Brown. She says these pre-rolls are what introduced her to different cannabis growers that allowed her to grow connections in the industry between her hometown and L.A. Brown says sometimes people in the industry will come to her for connections in the cannabis industry. “That’s why I call myself a cannabis broker, once I realized I needed to be a millionaire to open a dispensary I began brokering for dispensaries,” she said.

Brown says the state should lower the cannabis fees and financial support should be more accessible for social equity. She also thinks Black celebrities and people of color should support Black-owned cannabis businesses more. “Celebrities, like Migos, Soulja Boy and Snoop Dog really go to the white businesses,” said Brown. “If Black celebrities teamed up with Black-owned dispensaries more and supported them more, Black-owned dispensaries would be more successful in Los Angeles.”

Social equity programs in the cannabis industry were designed to help get minorities, Blacks specifically, into the industry. But it seems that aspiring Black dispensary owners are still experiencing social adversities and realizing the loopholes in becoming a social equity applicant. Is it safe to say, social equity programs need to do more?

Beatty and Forge speak more on the relationship between POC and cannabis

Whitney Beatty

Toni Forge