Cannabis Is Black Business Opportunity

Wanda James and her husband Scott Durrah, first-movers in the birth of Colorado’s recreational cannabis business, just a short time ago were talking and writing about the dearth of Black folks participating in what has now emerged as the Cannabis Industry. Well, judging by the number of Black participants at the recently concluded “Cannabis World Congress & Business Expo” trade show held at the Javits Center in New York City, Black folks have heard the message.

(Reprinted from CulturalGrassroots.com 7/2016)

There are more of us than was expected preparing to participate in this new, still highly volatile and unpredictable industry being plagued by a patchwork market built out of a patchwork of legal minefields spread throughout these not quite united states, where in some localities, those with a particular penchant for the “good ole days” that have never quite faded away as we’ve learned from the Prison Industrial Complex where the 13th Amendment simply ain’t relevant, Black people are still more likely to be arrested or harassed for possession of what everyone now reliably knows, is actually quite good for you personally, and judging by Wanda James’ and her fellow Coloradoans, society as a whole. Who knew? Well, We Did!

When an activity gets to the point of having trade shows, you know the boat has sailed on an industry and every enterprising entrepreneur on the planet is going to have a look to see what opportunities are there and how their existing strengths and infrastructure can be adapted to reduce the cost of entry and increase their chance of first-in success. In attendance, there were people in on-line education now giving classes on every aspect of the cannabis industry; there were food processing companies with their latest and greatest tech for extracting, mixing and consuming cannabis extracts, the key form for the medical industry; there were brokers and dealers on the run from the algorithm monster conquering the trading floor on Wall Street, repurposing all of their financial wizardry into new-fangled schemes to get around hostile tax and banking laws. And naturally, the people that know the most about growing stuff where there with their neat, clean and efficient indoor growing operations known as greenhouses that promise a steady, reliable and, depending on your access to knowledge biological, whole new custom strains of cannabis that will blow your mind. Or, my personal favorite, the guy with the vacuum sealer used with plastic food storage packaging now repurposed to keep your weed oxidation free!*

I made it my business to talk with every Black person I saw at the expo. I met students from southern agricultural colleges, successful small business people from more traditionally available “black bidnesses” like office and residential cleaning operations, a baller or two from the record industry, a Corporate Black Guy with all the right connections, an avantgarde couple of sistas with a vertically integrated, horizontally connected, strategically timed tactical plan that transported them from east coast urbania to the mid-west where the laws and attitudes were open for business. There were diverse angles of attack that included some who were planning growing operations, others planning for distribution and sales , and still others contemplating the direct pipeline from seed to dispensary. And while money is always an issue, legal status, banking regulations and federal fickleness were bigger problems for most. The corporate brother had raised over a million dollars through a group of Black investors; the brother from the record business was walking with his own dough from his Brooklyn based pancake franchises, and a couple from the DC area were looking to transition some of their loot from the cleaning business.

What’s at stake here? Well, the legal cannabis industry is made up of three parts: industrial hemp (a wide variety of uses including as paper, fabric, biodegradable plastics, paint, insulation biofuel and more), extracts used in the medicinal industries (50% of medicinal market uses eatables, not smokables), and recreational use. According to a Wikipedia entry, globally, in 2013, 60,400 kilograms of cannabis were produced legally. In 2013 between 128 and 232 million people are thought to have used cannabis as a recreational drug (2.7% to 4.9% of the global population between the ages of 15 and 65). There are now 26 states (including DC), half of the United States, where there is some type of legal framework for using and selling cannabis, with the promise of more to come and, not sooner than we all hope, a federal law decriminalizing the drug is inevitable. Once that happens the financial people are estimating that $45 billion in yearly recreational demand is ballpark, and the overall industry will explode when the big boys storm the beaches with their marketing prowess and inclination to dominate the supply chain.

Back in the early 1990’s scientist cloned what they call “endocannabinoid receptors” that are located in the human brain and throughout the body and are part of the “Endocannabinoid system” (ECS), which is involved in a variety of physiological processes like sleep, appetite control, immune system functions and pain management. The psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, tetrahydrocannabinol, “THC”, is attracted to these receptors and when they interact not only do you feel good, or, “high”, turns out these chemicals are responsible for keeping critical biological functions in balance. When stress throws those functions off, the endocannabinoids move in to restore balance. Voila! The medical cannabis industry now had the science to back up the reported experiences of so many pain sufferers, cancer treatment patients, and seizure victims. Advocacy groups shot up like wildfire and before anyone could blink, big dog social engineer George Soros was funding advocacy umbrellas like, Drug Policy Alliance, and other billionaire evangelist including former Facebook founders, Sean Parker and Dustin Moskowitz, insurance mogul now deceased, Peter B. Lewis, and Pay-Pal founder, Peter Thiel, were all involved in providing much of the money that has gone into the professional organizing effort responsible for the legalization/decriminalization wins on the state level.

Not to get to deep in the woods with the scientific (Wikipedia provides a good overview), but there are three species of Cannabis: Indica, Sativa and the less significant, Ruderalis. On average, cannabis indica has higher levels of THC compared to CBD (Cannabidiol); and Sativa has lower levels of THC to CBD. CBD is the other active ingredient that plays a balancing role in the psychoactive effects of the leaf. Generally speaking, the Indica high has been described as a “body buzz”, whereas, the Sativa high has been described as “spacey, stoned”. Manipulating these levels produces different types of highs. Remember the Acapulco Gold from Mexico that energized you and the Kush that was heavy and drug like, well, those are examples of the differences between Sativa and Indica.

This kind of differentiation could be the only way for the mom and pop to compete when the big dollars are unleashed. Microsoft is in with its inventory tracking and transactional systems being peddled through a software company named, “Kind Financial”; and Philip Morris is in with, believe it or not, a marijuana cigarette marketed under the brand, “Marlboro M”; Big Pharma led by Monsanto and Bayer AG, are in trying to lock down any and every patentable product they can conjure. In some ways, the longer the feds take to decriminalize, the stronger the foothold the smaller entrepreneurs will be able to establish. One guy is unlocking the genetic sequence of the cannabis plant in order to keep the big guys from flooding the patent office with bogus claims on natural sequences and admixtures. As the middle-class continues to try and claw back bits and pieces of the economy of its existence from the rapacious corporate dogs -- the buy local movement, coops and urban gardens, anti big-box zoning, craft beer movement, crowdfunding and cryptocurrencies -- the opportunity may be in the localization of the ecosystem, like the neighborhood bartender, local green garden and the milkman. I can see the possibilities of developing localized boutique brands that compete with the bigger corporate brands that will become household names (“Marlboro M’s”, a reality, not a dystopian projection).

But, it will take money. Once upon a time (pre-2009), the average homespun entrepreneur would have to rely on friends, family and personal business associates in order to raise startup funding for a new venture. Today, crowdfunding has unified this “friends, family and business associates” network into a large, interconnected, efficient and effective funding juggernaut accessible to all of the thinkers, tinkerers and entrepreneurs looking to create and innovate.

Silicon Valley has been the biggest winner in the crowd funding space because they have enough self-confidence to create a whole new solar system! It’s a small group of self-confident and capable people that are getting together to encourage the best and brightest to innovate and create the world they envision. These Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and their supporters are not trying to proselytize the whole world, they aren’t waiting until every last man, woman and child has joined hands, or waiting on that one big-dog angel investor to anoint them into the club of the rich and infamous. Through crowdfunding, the Silicon Valley crowd has essentially moved on from Wall Street and their last in most out predatory predilections, and have empowered themselves to achieve great and useful things. Kickstarter and Indiegogo did not exist in 2008 when Obama won the presidency. A mere eight years later, they are now responsible for billions of dollars in transactions that Wall Street has nothing to do with. Crowdfunding has liberated the brainiacs from the sociopathic money men whose motto is: “Too Much Is Not Enough!”

And crowd funding can liberate “Black folks with a self-centered, historical view of the world” from their terminal dependence on this same political and economic elite that will exploit its own shadow for being slightly behind. In a surreptitious and brilliant way, Barack Obama has handed the collective Black community a mechanism that can be utilized to accomplish tactical and strategic goals aimed at making our community more competitive across the globe. Title III of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, Section 4(a)(6) creates a securities-based crowdfunding market. What that means is that instead of getting a t-shirt proclaiming your status as a "donor", you can now get an ownership share in the company -- equity -- and share financially in its potential success.

Here we have two pieces of a business infrastructure emerging contemporaneously -- Cannabis and Crowdfunding -- that are heretofore unencumbered with the traditional barriers to entry, which gives us an opportunity to be competitive. This is big for us!

“When the script is written about this particular time in history, the fact that the first Black president of the United States was the one to usher in this revolutionary piece of legislation won't seem at all coincidental. It will, in fact, be looked at as a master stroke of strategic and tactical planning and execution in the never-ending competition for civic efficacy amongst social groups. Obama will look like a genius in 50 years ... but only if we seize this moment, this opportunity, to turn our collective pennies into investment dollars to Fund The World We Want To See!”

Black folks have long been associated negatively with weed, from the abusive arrests that fed the cheap labor needs of corporations and municipalities throughout the United States, to the local weed dealer that always seemed to be a Rastafarian with a record store. Can that negative association be transformed into a strategic asset? Does the rush to legalize being funded by these billionaire social engineers mean that the business opportunity train has already left the station? There are a couple of indicators that I will be monitoring to determine whether we can flip the script on the negative association and turn it into a competitive brand that can fuel opportunities to build an infrastructure of self-sufficiency. First and foremost, money. We will have to take serious the ole’ adage, “you’ve got to pay the cost to be the boss.” Crowdfunding via the Internet is a game changer; equity crowdfunding is a nuclear strike against the house of Wall Street. I am personally promoting the crowdfunding proposition, CulturalGrassroots.com, as the best approach to building a portal focused on increasing Black competitiveness worldwide. If we can get past asking ourselves questions like, “Why Do We Need a Black Crowdfunding Portal?”, that will be a significant sign that important segments of our community are thinking strategically about our collective progress.

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*List of industries represented at the Cannabis trade show: Accounting & Insurance Services, Advertising & Marketing Agencies, Banking & Payment Processing Services, Botanicals, Containers, Bottles, & Packaging, Dispensing & Vending Machines, Displays & Fixtures, Grow Lights, Hemp Products, Hydroponics & Cultivation Products, Infused Edibles & Beverages, Inventory Tracking, Lawyers & Legal Resources, Licensing Services, Medical Resources, Paraphernalia (Head Shop & Smoke Shop Goods), POS & Management Software, Private Equity & Investment Resources, Professional Training & Education, Security Services & Equipment, Seed Banks, Testing & Lab Services, Tinctures Tonics & Topicals, Vaporizers.

The Black Godot*

Ending Black Dependency. Well, I think my job is done. The candidacy of Barack Obama has done that for me/us. Which is a good thing. A reason to support this honorary White Man.

Now comes the job of organizing those that get it, and believe that we can be competitive .

There are a lot of Black folks that simply don't believe we can compete. They are angry and going to get angrier as the true impact of "Obama" sets in on Black America. "He's making history and Nigga's gonna be history," as one of my colleagues so pithily puts it.

Our benefactor is in trouble and he has a plan to let our unit go just like so many other under performing business units. And it's not personal. It's just business. After all, even good White folks are getting caught up in the forced downsizing of American hegemony, which is quite evident as my travel and work in the former industrial heartland puts me in direct proximity to all the scattered bodies and rust-belt melancholy, like that of the firefighter with six blond boys and no clue as to what the two graduating seniors are going to do; college isn't on the horizon, not because he hasn't suggested it but because they aren't hopeful about the trade-off between debt and their future prospects in an economy un-buoyed by the generous dispensation generated first by the surplus value from slavery, then global dominance.

And as the sound and vibrations from all those falling bodies reverberates throughout America, a lot of 'good' Negroes are going to tremble right out of their token circumstances like so many grains of salt slowly, steadily, rumbling off the table from the loud, ominous sounds of globalization.

It's hard to say what it'll take to flip the script. You don't just overnight become a genetic mastermind. It takes generations working purposely toward a defined something to achieve anything. Black folks are not independently purposeful, and we haven't defined the "what". Our whole tribe is just floating along hoping that our rudderless ship ends up somewhere, anywhere, and as the saying goes, "if you don't stand for something you'll go for anything."

That anything, right now, is Obama.

*From "Waiting for Godot" a play by Samuel Beckett, in which the characters wait for someone named Godot, who never arrives.

Thinking About Resistance

I couldn't help cringing when, in this last debate with Hillary, I listened to Obama genuflecting before the altar of White priorities in his denunciation of Louis Farrahkan. Now we all know that Farrahkan dug his own hole with his comments about Judaism that have widely been perceived by Jews and Gentiles as anti-Semitic. I've heard his explanations about what he was trying to say, but bottom line, he remains a symbol of anti-Jewish sentiment in the minds of America's White political elite.

Black leaders are simply too dependant to resurrect Brotha Farrahkan and his analysis of White supremacy and its impact on the needs of Black people, even though his analysis continues to attract interest from lots of Black folks. Despite the reservations that we too have regarding Farrahkan's admitted role in the assassination of Malcolm X, given the saliency of his analysis, and the actions of the Nation of Islam in recovering brothers that have been economically hounded out of their families and communities (one out of every nine 20-34 year old Brothas - our warrior class -- are locked down in their desparate efforts to make a decent wage committing largely economic crimes, see the new Pew research center report), the Black grassroots does not see Farrahkan as a pariah that must be denounced, rejected and banished from the political discourse. The Million Man March. Need I say more.

As I always tell people, the "system" (of White supremacy) requires from those that want to participate, a pound of flesh in order to demonstrate your complete and utter loyalty to its survival and prosperity. These people are not stupid. The idea that you will get in by acting committed to their system of supremacy and then do some good deeds on behalf of your own people, is simply laughable. White folks aren't stupid. If they didn't invent it, they have surely mastered the art and science of psychological warfare. They know us better than we know ourselves. They know how to use the pressure of the purse to alter behavior. And they know how to use violence in the event that economic isolation doesn't get the results they want.

So there is Obama sitting on stage giving his pound of flesh: 'I denounce and reject and repudiate and spit on Farrakhan, his family, his thoughts, his actions, his statements, and his support.' And then he went further by swearing allegiance to the 20th century's biggest ironies: the Jews going from victims of Western racism and Colonial supremacy, to perpetrators of violence and oppression against the Palestinians. Obama could in fact end up winning the presidency. He certainly is no threat to injustice in the Middle East. This doesn't bode well for those of us hoping that his campaign of Hope really would allow America an opportunity to not only remake it's worldwide image, but to make the case for a more progressive politics that is bold enough to put everything on the table, including old relationships and ways of doing business that have been handed down from wars past.

Obama blew an opportunity to say what is on a lot of American minds when it comes to our unequivocal support for the actions of the state of Israel: Why? You hear it from C-Span callers, you hear in hushed tones from Democratic party activists. People are questioning this so-called "special" relationship with Israel, particularly in light of what most objective observers understand to be a war of unequals: the pitiful Palestinians throwing rocks at armored Humvees, and firing rockets into the deserts of Israel, while the Israeli army, among the top 2 most deadly armed forces in the world, uses sophisticated precision weaponry to assassinate and destroy Palestinian people and infrastructure at will. The only thing that makes this relationship special, is the fact that America, which used to pride itself on standing against oppression, is unwilling to take Israel to task, and to use its relationship to force a more equitable end to the lopsided war that has turned Palestine into an open-air concentration camp.

So why continue to resist? Like the Native Americans before us (and the Palestinians currently), the White man and his woman have conquered, and with conquest comes the power to ascribe value, determine priorities, and set standards for discourse and acceptable action. Obama has been cleared for take off. He has proven himself a loyal servant, he has offered his pound of flesh in exchange for the opportunity to be the first Black face in a decidedly white place. Unfortunately for the masses of Black folks in America, and the world, this doesn't bode well for our prospects for freedom; freedom from the endless lists evidencing underdevelopment, poverty, destitution, downward mobility and dependency. Since we are not moving forward, then we are moving backward because evolution is certainly not standing still. In fact, in the book, Radical Evolution, Joel Garreau writes about the advances in genetic, robotic, information, and nanotechnologies (GRIN) that are pushing the envelope on evolution, accelerating human mental and physical capacity in ways that envision a new Neanderthal: 2oth Century humans.

Now consider this capacity to alter what we understand it means to be human, combined with a ruling class, Whites in the Western World (is that what "www" means?), use to having their way with the world's resources, and you can quickly envision the evolution of a real master race. The futurists talk about the "singularity", in essence, the point in time that man-made computers exceed the organic intelligence of humans. At that point, some 50 or so years away by some estimates, the world's population will begin to slide into regression. The population will not continue to grow but will be in a free fall down to a more manageable and useful 2 or 3 billion people.

Guess who is not going to make the cut. Niggas and flies! Although, if a choice has to be made, my money is on the flies.

The very serious point being made is that elite White folks have turned their attention to a more perfect future, or: The Next Iteration of Human Existence. They will be, and already are making choices about what lives have value ("cheap labor" is another way of saying the lives of the people in low-end jobs are of little value) , and who deserves the opportunity to join their club. This is where the terminal dependency of Black folks is going to take it's toll. We simply don't have the social capital to ensure our own survival. The "exceptional" amongst us will undoubtedly be the beneficiaries of some White largess, but that doesn't bode well for the survival of the Black Man as we know him today. The "exceptional" amongst us can smell the scent of death that hovers around all the rest of us. They can see clearly that there is no Black power, and it's now every man, woman and child for their Black selves. Their kids will be half-breeds, their grandchildren will pass, their great-grandchildren won't know their names. (Go to a college mixer at an NYU or Columbia, and watch how those Black folks are running from each other.)

No, there is not going to be some great cataclysm that wipes out the Black race. As we are starting to see now with the disappearance of middle-class mobility work, technology will continue to increase productivity and convenience, reduce jobs, and take the human touch out of the social economic equation. The most vulnerable amongst us, those dependent on "others" for their survival, are simply going to perish, disappear, like so many homeless people sliding into the underground, unseen, unheard from, gone. The "others" we were depending on will simply not be able in most cases, willing in some, to extend the gift of life -- a livelihood -- because they too will be struggling and hoping to find ways of cashing their White dispensation check. Many of those checks will be returned for "insufficient usefulness". Many of those checks, however, are being cashed right now: The Savings and Loan Giveaway, The rescue of the Longterm Capital folks from their own genius, The Chrysler Handup, The Dotcom Pyramid Scheme, and most recently, The Subprimate Mortgage Fleecing. Every one of these financial schemes are chock full of losers, and a handful of winners, some we know about, most we'll never know.

Given the reality of this Next Iteration of Human Existence, why should the Black Cultural Grassroots continue to resist White supremacy? Well, because we, by and large, don't know what else to do. Standing still while an accelerated evolution rapidly surpasses us simply doesn't feel right. It betrays the legacy of the many RunAwaySlaves that paved the way for our legal freedom. Maybe, as the Grim Reaper continues to descend on the 4 or 5 billion "cheap lives" out here in the world, the ambition of Black folks will exceed a place in the White house and start to focus on our own house.

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Organizing Agenda

What! What! Well, the "what" is all in the execution of a relevant vision. Below, is a proposal that was submitted to an organization that thought it wanted to be relevant. When it was time for the rubber to meet the road, they bitched up. And these were people that really thought they wanted to be "bout-it, bout-it". What it will really take is a pool of independent money, something like what George Soros has done in setting up MoveOn.org. And please don't say Oprah. This effort will require real money from people with money that get it; that understand that the Black male in America is on the endangered species list. Step on up!

"Good day,

As per our recent conversation, I am writing with a proposal for my role as organizing consultant. This proposal is intended to give you a broad overview of the campaign tactics (section III), and some of the “messaging” (sections I, II) that, in my reading, best seems to accomplish the goals of the ... campaign that you have currently initiated.

Goals
The ... campaign is at its core, a campaign to strengthen our people and our community. It is intended to make us strong, viable and interdependent partners in human progress.
The gentrification of ... has presented us with a survival challenge that begins with our homes, and our neighborhoods, and ultimately extends to our ability to economically provide for our own future.

Overarching theme: "Self-Sufficiency, Not Dependency"

The enemy is DEPENDENCY. The solution is building an Infrastructure of SELF-SUFFICIENCY.

Fifty years ago, we took on the challenge of Civil Rights because we understood that we could not prosper as a people within the matrix of Jim Crow. It was a system so embedded in our society, our psyche, that it affected every aspect of life in blatant and subtle ways. There was no peace to be made with Jim Crow.

The gentrification assault on our communities is one tool in a matrix of mechanisms that operate to target us as the most economically vulnerable people in America, and the World. We cannot protect our neighborhoods if we cannot buy our homes. We cannot buy our homes if we cannot find and keep jobs paying living wages. And in this global economy, living wage careers have been replaced by substandard wages and low-end, fly-by-night jobs. Black male out-of-the-workforce numbers in some of the top cities in America are higher than 50%; the impact that has on our ability to survive and prosper is measured in all the social indicators that point to a people under siege.

Action -- Grow Self-Sufficiency Movement (The New "Civil Rights")
1. Who we are, what we stand for.
- research and communication strategy.
2. Rallying the Troops
- Methods: Boots on the ground, Mail, Phones, Events
3. Collaborating with other organizations with similar interest
- devising collective strategies and actions
4. Establish a communication infrastructure: cutting out the middle-man, speaking directly to our constituency
- recruitment and training of persuasion organizers
- develop web portal
- content production
- distribution
5. Movement Action Plan: taking control of the economy of our own existence: the difference between a tee-shirt store and ascribing value to our goods, services and ideas.
a) 21st Century Skills Institute (for illustrative purposes)
- teaching skills that will enable our constituency to compete in the worldwide economy
- teaching model based on activities rooted in the economy of our specific existence: images and stories; culture and beauty

The elements of the Action phase are sequential and contemporaneous, meaning that while a certain order of action is necessary, some of the elements will be on-going and will overlap with others. My consultant role would be to provide strategic and tactical advise, counsel and training. Which would include training organizers, helping to develop campaign literature, talking points, and other such content, communicating with potential collaborators, helping with recruitment and management of volunteers, developing and implementing a fund raising strategy, and auditing results. I estimate that it would take approximately six months to accomplish actions 1-4. The fifth action is an on-going program that will constitute the essence of the "how" we propose achieving our goal of "Self-Sufficiency, Not Dependency".
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