When They Go Low, We GET HIGH

I'll tell you later. Well, welcome everybody. Um, we have an incredible guest here today. Her name is Kika Keith. I love your name for Kika. Yeah, it got attitude, It's got fuck yeah, Kika Keith, please like it if you be so kindness to share these accolades and this lovely, lovely young woman. I just first have to share a story because I understand that I live in Los Angeles right,

it is not a majority black place. And when I lived in Hollywood, the one reason that I was scared to leave is because I had a black dispensary, a black owned dispensary. This is not something you hear a lot. Period. Better yet in Los Angeles. So when I moved to the Mert Park and I cold walked down the street because I passed by a dispensary that had a big gorilla on the top of it. What it looks like colors. I was like, well, all right, let me just stop and see what they got. I walked in. It was

the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. And I'm talking about the colors. Never I've been in a lot of dispensaries, Yes, I'm telling my truth. I've been in a lot of dispensaries, but the color, the friendship, the feeling of culture, I'm talking about a dispens three all. When I walked in, it changed my life so much that every time I have somebody that comes out of town, I'm like, let's walk up the street and let's go. Well,

it just so happens. On one particular day, I bring my godmother, Diana William who has been a guest on this show. I said, let's go to the dispensary. I'm about to blow your mind. We walk in and we see a familiar face named Marco Barrio, who happened to be the manager of the other black dispensary. That I had moved from in Hollywood, and he goes on to tell me the story of the owner of this place and the story of the struggle of how this place

came into fruition in this neighborhood. People thought to make this happen, to make the dispensary here. There's a video when you walk in, it gives you the short of the story and the celebration with your priests and precesses about how they made this happen. And so Marco walks us to the office to introduce us to the woman who has founded this lovely space with her mural on the wall outside of the seven eleventh. I'm sorry, and her name is Big Kika, Big chikas presence. She's not

just an entrepree nor she's an activist. She has been in this community for a long time doing amazing things, and now she has bought all kinds of peace to the community. Ladies and gentlemen, not just kicker Keith, big kickup. I'm gonna I'm gonna keep my thoughts to my listen. It's the big for me. It's the big for me that that tells me all the things I need to know. You should have. You should have lived with that. So

I should have said that. When Jill and Asia displayed that they want and Amber said that they wanted to do a show about cannabis, weed, whatever you want to call it, I said, I have the person. I don't know her, but I'm gonna get her here and here she is and here she is. Round of applause. Here, thank you being here. Wow, you you own the first black owned dispensary. I mean I would assume it's the first woman, female owned, black woman owned dispensary. Damn. Yeah,

and it is. You were hard to paint huh yeah, very intentionally, and it is the first black woman on. Um. There are some pioneers black men that came before before me. Um. But yes, um, you know that was a part of the mission, not to be the first, but to knock the doors down. Come on. Yeah, yes, So can you talk about this? Can you talk about this story when you walk into when you walk into your shop, and you do see this video, A lot of people weren't there.

They don't know the story of your struggle and how you got into even this world. Can you just break that down for us a little bit. Yeah, you know, I always like to go back to my roots. UM, because it was my parents and their profound love for black people in black history and black culture that they

just ingrained in me since birth. UM. And so when I learned about the opportunity for recreation of cannabis in Los Angeles, I was like, wait a minute, there's actually laws in the book that will benefit black and brown people who suffered the devastation from the War on drugs. And I was born in Pennsylvania but raised in Los Angeles, and UM, you know, I witnessed that, UM in South central l A. Witnessed the fact that I had to take my daughter to ten different schools because the schools

in my community, UM, we're not adequate. And we know where all that stems from. And so when I learned about the opportunity to get a license, UM, it really was to be more about more than just myself, to help as many of us get through and cross the finish line. I had a beverage company prior to entering into UM the cannabis based guerrilla life, and UM, I know how hard it was. I had my own manufacturing facility,

my own distribution. I had three refrigerator vehicles we take the Whole Foods and Gelson's and Bristol Farms, and I knew how many years it took me that we will work at one o'clock in the morning to make sure health inspector didn't come in because I didn't know ship about running no equipment and not doing it compliantly, coming from making it in the kitchen to then being at

a facility. And I knew when I heard about this and the opportunity for our people to be a part of the industry, that the way they set it up was designed to fail, and that I had to prepare to fight. And I figured, I'm fighting for my ancestors that couldn't be a part of the cotton industry, tobacco, alcohol, you name it, up to the tech industry, um. Everything they've kept us out of it. And this was the first time that there were actually laws on the book

to give us priority with licensing. If you came from inner city communities that were disproportionately affected by cannabis arrest, if you had a cannabis arrest or conviction, if you were low income, those were the qualifiers to be a part of priority licensing UM. And so I knew it was gonna be a fight. I didn't know it was

gonna be this kind of fight. I went an active on whole food Shells in two thousand seventeen thinking that it would eight nine months because they were opening up in in uh two thousand and eighteen, And it literally took us three years and the lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles to be able to open our doors. Wow, even with the legislation that was on the books that

was supposed to make it easier for you. Because I don't want to be clear on that, because I think a lot of times we think, oh, some laws have been passed, a program exists or such and such as

already on the books. How come people aren't taking advantage because there's still going to be some you know, some things in our way, some things we have to move around, and some tenacity necessary, and I'm sure also a massive financial, you know, burden, because we're talking about our lawyers are not free, court costs are not free, and obviously the licensing itself is not free, because I you know, and please educate me, because I think the last that I

heard is that even the license itself is very expensive, that it's a it's a huge financial undertaking, and so you know that in a lot of ways, that can leave a lot of our entrepreneurs out of the running from the gate. So was there any kind of anything on the books around like financial help or been selling weed for years and Kent and camp so we like for years? How does that work? A My dad calls

it the trojan horse. They had to get voters to vote it in, and so the platform was always around, we're gonna write the governor of California here the same thing in New York Chicago. We're gonna right the wrong of the war on drugs, and we're gonna prioritize this community. Yet they don't set up education and training. They're not

teaching compliance and regulation. There is no access to capital, They have no oversight over these predatory agreements we call them share proper agreements, where these white folks were coming into the hood and looking for people that had cannabis convictions and arrest and making them a strong man and enticing them. I had a mom one time come to me and say, listen, can you talk to my son.

She was like, he works at foot locker and he's not understanding him signing a way for seven thousand dollars a month. It's pennies on the dollar. I'm saying some dispensaries make that in the first half of their day. Um. And so it was very obvious, which is why I had to end up really standing in the position that I did. How much of a political game this was.

And it was really about once they pass that law, every single month, changing little words in the law to make sure that we couldn't get in, just to say that they gave us an opportunity. Um. And you know that has been the fight, and and that is you know where the real work to this day, right New York is just opening be just open their first dispensary.

But if you look at it, um, it's a way to eradicate they're they're mad all these years not being able to get the money our brothers and sisters are making on the streets. Right. So once you legalize it, then you're able to enforce it. And so that has become the game. In l A, they had ten million

dollars allocator for education and funding um. But as soon as they started it, before they opened up the social equity program, they moved those funds to enforcement because those existing marijuana dispensaries which were in l A. A hundred and eighty seven only three were black. Um. And then as soon as it was time for the social equity program, all those white folks that got all this money and they lobbying, they go onto the politicians and they're like, wait, wait, wait,

don't open more licenses for social equity. First you need to enforce and shut down the other illegal ones. Where are those that you know, people still in our neighborhoods? And um, that has become the vicious game that every day we're trying to dismantle. Um what what they've set up? More real talk after the break, to have to be aware of not only your own business practices, but also keeping abreast of all the changes that are happening at a legal and a in a in a political level.

That sounds like an extreme amount of diligence. It seems like a lot to kind of constantly be aware of. You have to be so hyper aware. What are some of the kinds of like the coalition, right, Like I have a coalition? Yeah, what are the things you have in place that are like helping you? What are your supports? What are the things you have that are helping you to stay on top of all of that. She's um

the community. Um. When I, like I said, when I realized that early on, we started having classes in coffee shops in the part you know where we were literally members Street Franklin and we were good out a Dandy's on Crunshaw at midnight after the kids were asleep, and we literally printed out hundreds of pages of the regulations and we would read them and reread them, and then we would create cliff notes. Once we made the cliff notes,

then we started holding classes. And the next thing, you know, ten turned into twenty, turning the thirty, and these folks, even the neighborhood councils, because we are also knew these tax dollars were supposed to go into our inner city communities. That was the other sales part, right. It wasn't just about giving the licenses. It was that when we generate these billions of dollars, now we're going to help fund

these underprivileged programs. So they weren't doing that, and that became the next biggest effort as going into the neighborhood councils. I would go to the block clubs and educate the elders and tell them like, it's not just as life getting licenses, y'all need to fight for these tax dollars.

And they became the coalition. I started Life Development and we would organize buses to go down to these city council meetings because you got to give public comment in order to halk this, and we would create little scripts and no cards, and we would consistently have twenty thirty people that were rotating and out. Um it took me two and a half years to even get to licensing. So we turned our dispensary because you had to have

a property in order to apply. Another trip back. Twelve thousand dollars a month was my rent on an empty building, no business going in, but you had to have a property in order to apply. So you know, fortunately I had an investor early on that was vested that helped fund me not working and fighting and whether it was getting the buses or whatever was needed, because he knew that that was the only way we were gonna win.

And so that allowed um us to educate the community and actually created like grassroots obvious mum and so I call our dispensary grill, our ex the house of people built um because we would not be here if it weren't for the fact that those people heard what I was saying, took it on and became a part of the force of nature that not just myself, but hundreds of others were able to open their doors. Lead so

level headed and the completion go into the completion. We we get a lot of big ideas and go, oh, yeah, we're gonna do that. But then you realize how hard it is. And then the first you know, seven people turned into three, and then those three turned into one, and then it's all over. You're starting all over again. And then the legal ease of it all, like, oh, if there's anything I hate to do, sit in front of any kind of contract. Now you're talking legislation. Oh

my god. Wow. And and then the nuances, the changing of of of words will change to the entire law. Come on, I'd say, it's like the King James version of the Bible, right, like they deliberately mix up words to complicated for us. And look of these license holders across the nation are white men. Yeah, and so I I don't say that in any particular way other than the truth of the matter. They say it as it is,

because it is what it is. Sorry, come on, No, they have lobbyists, they hire attorneys and advisors that do this part. You you said it early. I was like, I did not come in I'm I am a serial entrepreneur. I love business. I didn't come here to be a politician or do policies or lobbying. And how much a time it took out of where I should have been

using to build my business. Yeah, but it's it's the weird kind of necessary tax that you have to pay as a black entrepreneur where you just gotta you gotta play all these roles. Yeah, we're in the music business or in any other business, it's the same thing. It's like you you sign up to sing songs, you end up doing nine thousand other jobs just in order just to kind of stay competitive and or to stay alive,

not even just competitive, but just to stay present. I think it's just like it speaks to what it is. But can I just say this, it needed and everybody knows I'm not I'm not unique in this thought, but it took a black woman to jump in there. I'm sorry,

it's just a fact. This, this is what really in the end, of the day with people from miss is the true kind of core of what feminism really is all about and how Black women invented it, because the idea around the empowerment of community based on need and vulnerability is an understanding that at the core that black women understand to the bone marrow. This is how we're just wired. We're wired to understand the needs of many.

We are wired to understand that our success really doesn't mean anything if everyone else around us is not able to maintain and sustain in the same ways we're understanding this. So it's like the idea of being a black woman entrepreneur has to exist in this space. So I wanted everybody to be really, really careful to listen to what Kika is saying, because right now we have a lot of misunderstanding around black excellence and generational wealth and a

lot of LLC talk. Let's make sure that we listen to what she's saying. You cannot have You cannot be entrepreneurial or business minded if you're not community minded. If you are not mixing those two things together, if one thing does not inform the other, then you're not making any kind of systemic change. You are just simply making dollars for yourself, and you simply making dollars for yourself has nothing to do with the encouragement the empowerment of

the community that's going to come behind you. She said specifically that this was about not being the first, but opening up the doors for other people. That is a key thing. Simply being the first doesn't mean that you have done opened up a door being the first, just being the first, you can be the first. You know, capitalist billionaire who exploits people. Do you want to be that? No,

you don't. And understand that the attitude, this energy, and this glow that you guys feel from Kika is funneled through everybody around her, and that whole uh dispisensory all those employees. When you walk in there, it is a sense that they are empowered, they are happy, they are sister, welcome to the store. You look beautiful. What is that? It's just it's and and and that's to be said, Kika.

I'm wondering when you started at the Denny's, how this has spread now, right, because I know that shout out to Virgil who California Cannabis has about three locations, the black owner, but can you talk about some of the things that have come with this and that have been built out of this collegature. Yeah, you know, from like development beats from Social Equity Owners and Workers Association UM. And I understood and saw UM from person after person

that just came in with ridiculous predatory contracts UM. And the fact that we had to do with the city and with the state, UM, that we needed to unionize and really be a collective force UM. And so that's where the lawsuits fawned from. Because the City of l A, after three thousand dollars in debt foldiness property, they opened up the licensing process finally for Social Equity about two

years later. It was supposed to be a first come, first served, so the fastest person to upload your application online the first one hundred, and they kind of like a you know, some tickets, um, the ticketmaster, some sneakers or something that's crazy. That's crazy now. But just going back to them little things they know in the hood for the people who qualify, we are the slowest internet services, right,

so all of those things they knew. We were going down and telling them like these white folks are using box in order to make sure that their people get in early. And you know how God will work, happened to be in the room with the person that got in ten minutes early before the start time. And as God will work it, I had organized about thirty people were in the room that we were all looking at

the clock. I'm going to do our application at the same time, and we have for screen record their applications. So we actually had the video recording and personal government ten minutes early. We so so when it came out that we looked at the list and out of the hundred, maybe nineteen were black, there was about thirty Armenians on there. We didn't have no representation. I was like, oh no. And so that's where the Social Equity Owners and Workers

Association really formed UM. As we organized if I have a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles, and you know, we did, like Obama beginning campaigns where he's on one in five dollar donations to hire a black attorney. UM that represented us, and we filed that lawsuit against the city of l A. They settled UM and we got a hundred additional retail licenses for Equity and then that's how I was able to open my doors and ninety

nine others. UM. And it has been that type of work from taking that on the city council and stomping on them. And I use some tactics that I've my parents taught me when I was young, just reading about our history, Like people said we couldn't do it, and we were getting out with picket signs and organize and folks around the clock. UM, and we wouldn't stop. Was the key. UM that even if it were five or ten of us, we wouldn't stop. We will be at

every meeting and press and press UM. And we've seen UM, that's that's the only way, UM, that it will work. And yeah, we've been pushed that way. We're here so often that that is fantastic. And it just it just shows everyone that that's listening, within listening ears what it really takes. And when I say it, I'm talking about any level of justice that you're looking for in this particular place we're talking about. You know, people say, oh,

the marches doesn't they don't work, and the picketing doesn't work. Well, it we're talking about longevity. It is it is that UM refusing to to give up spirit. You know, it's that I think what's been working in America is that we get exhausted after a while. Yes, they count on that. And then and then you found another business owners or people that wanted to start businesses. Just just tell them truth here. Sometimes even with an opportunity, you have people

that won't show up for it. How did you find the people that were like, yes, I want to open a business, Yes, here's my business plan. M How did you find those people? Really that real grass suits energy, like for real, we were at coffee shops and workforce development centers and the hood, um. And it would start with five people and then they would tell their other friends, UM. And it was was just for real word of mouth about people who really wanted it, right, Um. Everybody wanted

this opportunity. I remember early on, UM, they would have ads on Facebook that would have yachts and you know, uh Ferrari's and be like, don't you want to be in the cannabis industry? Come sign up for the social equity program um. And so you you have those folks which were the biggest portion. Right So now when I say that one hundred, maybe a good oney of them

where our folks, right, um? Because we just couldn't control that, but you had so many more that we're going for that, you know, and still go for it to this day as these licenses continue, that are down to get that ten thousand dollars a month and give away that generational wealth because that is in the licenses, It is not in selling, it is not in your monthly you know. Going back to the long haul, you really, everything we do as a people better be for our children's children.

It better be you know, I mean, we're not going to ever see or feel it in our lifetime and if we don't make those moves collectively. And so those were the folks, Jill, that were harder to gather, the ones that weren't willing to compromise um, the ones that we're willing to stand and do the hard work and be relentless about it. And those numbers were much smaller.

But those small numbers, once again, we never had hundreds of people protesting, you know, I mean, it was the consistency of having twenty or thirty people always show and a lot of the times it was the same fifteen and we rotated that other fifteen or twenty for the folks that would only show up once or twice I was jealous that I moved here after that. I was seriously jealous. I was like, I wanted to be a

part of the progress I ever. I mean, I would say this all the time when we're talking about like school stuff, I'd be like, everyway, oh, parents don't involve. I'm like, y'all, come on now, y'all know the PJ is five parents. You know it's five. It's the same five.

It's the same fire to the rotate to the new five, right, And it's like and and and I think a lot of that also has to do with so you know, um not to make excuses or anything like that, I do think that black folks are tired and they are you know, and they don't always have the time, the money, the energy, the education. And that's one thing I just really just sticks out for me, that's like sticking on my heart is the education piece, because I think that's

what motivates be. People feel motivated when they have understood the full grasp of what they're looking at and they can actually see themselves as a part of it. It's like if if they don't understand it, then it's just

just always ends up being a pipe dream. You know, like it's just the thing that exists out there that people say you can have, But then when you get there, you're like, no, I don't actually see myself there because people are counting on you feeling that way too, so they can be isolated, yeah, isolated from the reality of things, right, And this is one of the the one thing I think

that is really valuable about what you're saying. At least what I'm getting from what you're saying, which is inspirational for me, is that your parents are still the sense of fighting you by you understanding knowing your history, your history of your family, and the history of your culture. And that's why that's super important because you can never know what your child's life or what the children in your community's life is going to be like in the future.

You don't know what business they're gonna get into. But what you do know is that the value of what your teaching them, the values that you share with them,

they're gonna take into those different industries. I'm sure your parents are your parent there you're gonna be selling cannabis then, But but the way that you're able to take what they instilled in you and apply that out into the world can only be making them proud, can only be making them look at you in amazement and and and and inspiration, because this is what our children do when they know who they are. And we've had this conversation down slow, they say that again, this is what you

can accomplish when you know who you are. When your children know who they are, they can go out into the world to take that into any room because they will not believe the lie that somebody tells them. When they get there, They're like, you lie, because that ain't who I am. We just said this conversation before we started recording. We're looking at the background, Um, we can see this, so we'll we'll kind of explain it to you. There's a fantaire stick hot pink wall behind Big Kika,

and there are her her family members. Everybody looks like beautiful and strong. This is her shop, y'all. This is how you feel that feeling you get overwhelmed when you walk in. I'm literally I wish I could. I want y'all to just come with me, because that's a dispensary. I'm not supposed to get them overwhelmed by you know what I'm saying, But you are In the beginning of our conversation today, I was telling ya I was reading a collection of essays by Zora new Hurston, and in

the introduction it talks about the black of study. And that's what it's so important, is to get into understanding our state of being. Our state of being is what we take with us everywhere that we go. And so yes, it is important for you to walk into us dispensary and feel that. But I didn't know how does she knowtic that's important that that becomes the standard to which you enjoy and an enter into the way. Yes, man, look at all of our spaces, look at all of

our spaces. We have our ancestors on the wall. You know, we're like minded people in that way. And I know for certain when there is a legacy involved, legacy, yes, but when you also likely just say, when you know who you are, it matters that much more. It matters that you're what you're doing and how you're presenting, and it matters that much more to you, So you fight for it a little harder. If not, I'm next to the table my mom, not next to my wall. I'm

next to my bedside table. So we're gonna take a quick break and then we'll be right back. Can you please talk about the inside of your store, and not just the aesthetic, but also I told the girls, I was like, I'm collecting pins thanks to your store of me and the loan Grace Jones, and and you also have a chest in there just just just high like

brown and black cannabis owning it. I just can you talk about what once you got in, how you was gonna make it look like, Yeah, that's so funny that y'all are talking about my grandparents because Nanda and my grandmother behind me Um in her house, she used to keep the Christmas tree up to least June, as long as it wasn't getting better. We would have to keep on filling up the water and literally even in the daytime,

have these colorful lights on her tree. And then after June she would have us take a little fake plant and put the Christmas tree lights around it. And people will come into her house, our friends, and be like, oh, no, what it is your grandmother's house. I just feel good love if I don't know what the feeling is. So I was very deliberate when you go in with these color choices, Um and the color blocking are bright colors

like her Christmas tree lights. Um. We even have the crafted on Crunshall with the with the neon lights behind it, UM to really accentuate this brightness the yellow wall. So I also speaking about the black aesthetic and black women, had a black woman designer designed the space, UM, Joscelyn

Joy Um. And so all of those things were very intentional. UM. The dispensaries on Crenshaw Boulevard and it is right at the bottom of Baldwin Hills Windsor Hills, which is the largest UM Black a community as far as income and wealth in the United States, but very rarely do those folks come down the hill to Crenshaw. Even that in the design, in the intent. UM. So I'm so glad

you feel that. When I was sitting with Joscelyn day after day, I was like, but it has to feel so that the grandma's aunties up the hill will come down here. Um. And so that was always the intent for our people and the inner generational mix that we were really purpose from having my product and whole foods and health food stores and not just being the name is Gorilla Aurex wellness code right um And It is really based my parents. We were vegetarians in the seventies.

Of course, um when I when it wasn't popular. Um, and so that's just my whole being and what I wanted to give to the community. So even in the design a party that was I wanted to feel like you're going into Whole Foods or G n C vitamin section, right, and so unlike stores that are typical like Apple stores, they kind of set of dispensaries nowadays are really ster white and glass boxes. We put most of our inventory

is on the floor and it's stopped like a grocery store. Um, so when you're walking in, you don't feel that inhibition about asking your met at the door by a product specialist. You have your own personal shopper that walks you through the whole store. We have the Black Tender. Yeah yeah, sorry, but a tender. We have the largest selection of black owned brands and women owned brands in the state of California. Um,

we're very deliberate. I remember one time and Whole Foods, we became really friends with the receiver, brought him a Guerrilla Life hoodie and he moved naked juices out of the section and put our Gorilla Life drinks on that prime shell space. And it was at that point that I understood a that you could do that but be the even thought process of where products are stored in house. So you have these stores will be like, oh yeah, well we carry black brands, but they're over in the corner.

We deliberately put the whole you bar in the front to be black owned brands where it's the first thing you see. They don't have to pay for, no shelving space on do nothing extra. We move brand to put them in the place. Um. And that has been our commitment. Um, like you were saying, we highlight reparations, book club, it's

a Black Woman On book club in the community. Um. Instead of just having all cannabis things, we got the books on the shelves as a part of the displays so people ask where you can buy it and go down the street. Um. We did the Black Book to highlight the black businesses. Swift Cafe on the black another

Black Woman on Cafe. So when people come, we become like a destination point where close X. When you come in, don't just come to my business and then go over to the wood, go down the street and get you some money. Check out Lamar Park while you're there inside. Cool cool, come on that. It was our intent, um and the model very intentionally, not just a design to attract people and have something very high end in our community. UM, but to put that stake in the ground. Because they

just opened to train stations. We know what happens and across the country the game is happening around. We want to re gentrify and show black folks how we do it and have them come, come on, come and open up stores on the block and get the properties in our community and and create that energy and be a model for how we should be existing in this day and age and not talking about I remember back in

the damn day and people would talk about we. They would just be like, Oh, that's for them, stole us. You know, that's he's a that's the pothead. You know, they're not gonna they're gonna achieve anything in life. You know, ever achieve anything in life? And I recall the first time that I had marijuana, and all I remember doing was laughing. I laughed so much that I laughed till

I had to take a nap. It was wonderful, laugh till tears, just just laughed and I don't you know, I can't really remember like what was making me laugh like that or allowing me to be so free that I just couldn't help a giggle all over. What was that moment when you knew that marijuana was beneficial not only for you but for the people. Uh, I was blessed once again. My dad UM study Rastafarian principles. So it was in my house whole growing up, and it

was always such a very spiritual and intellectual connection. When I would see them smoking, right, they would be at the round tables like some war rooms in the house, and my dad would have groups of people in there having all kinds of conversations and teachings. And that was you know, like in the native community. Um, that peace play. But it was something that just generated for me. What I witnessed, um, just such greatness uh and joy. Then

they were sitting around laughing and talking after that. And so my relationship, my mom calls it holy um my my relationship with it, and I have three children. Their relationship with it, UM is you know, very spiritual and um, like you're saying, jealous sense of joy. And so I I never had those stigmas, and that has been a part of my quest is to fight those because I know how we use it, um, you know, not just

uh smoking in it, but for the topical purposes. I know when I give it to folks that you know, I've been on chemotherapy and talking about my mom doesn't have an appetite, she can't eat, you know. I know, for folks that are suffering from PTSD and depression and anxiety that come into store just like mad but as soon as they get that bag in their hand, you could feel that weight um lift off of them. Um. And so I've always seen it as very transformative. And

I'm always pretty I guess raised pretty culture. I've never fell into those stigmas um ever in life about weed maybe trying to say candidates, that's a word. It's about so many things that when you don't have the stigma, the biases and the opinions don't affect you because you don't have it. Don't have it. But that's political too, and and that says a lot about out of the box parenting also because I think a lot of times we talk about parenting, and we've talked about it on

this show. All of us have experienced this from a lot of places. Is that people you've got to parent this certain kind of way. And it's like, look at what happens to your young people when you don't instill shame around certain things, when you're not afraid to allow them to understand and see what it takes to do what it is you're asking them to do. You cannot raise revolution areas if you're not revolutionary and you're sinking

and then you're doing. You have to say you have to do so that then they will say and do and it's second nature. I just my god today, the first time I smoke with my grandmother and my father, it's life changing. That that moment, that breakdown of a law. I'm just saying, it's it's life. It's life changing. Okay,

Well I was also gonna say too, don't forget. There was a documentary And it's funny because me and Virgil have debated over this documentary, The Grass is Greener that Fat Fire Freddy did, And it's funny that we put stigmas on things because at the end of the day, Agea that stigma just comes from one of your favorite phrases, white supremacy, because based on based on the history of marijuana and it being you know, kind of associated with black and brown people. That's all of a sudden, it's

associated with us, So it's bad. And so we take on that because whatever the white man say, say, it's the law. And so now we tell a lot of our kids and stuff that's bad. That's this, that's that. But that's crazy right when you think about it, it's it always brought joy. But because it brought joy initially the brown and black people first, that's a problem. Look. I came home that night after after having the trees with my girlfriend. I came home that night. My mother

said she caught me in the living room. She said, UM, don't mind job. I'm in college at this time. And she's like, uh, you've been smoking that reefer And I was like, yeah, just giddy. You were smoking at reefer? I said yeah. She said, I'm just so disappointed. Do you understand what this is. It's a gateway drug. It opens the door for other drugs, you know, commercials, all the things. And she said that propaganda and I was like, mom, un, let's just say I'm I was twenty at the time.

I said, Mom, they have I been to jail. She's like no. I was like, uh, you know, do I do I have? Um, they don't don't have a lot of kids running around. She was like, no, that wouldn't be so bad. I said, but it would right now because I had the money. But from simple um, you know, well, am I in trouble in any way? And am I in school? She was like yeah. I was like, am I doing well in school? She was like yeah. I was like, you might going to leave me alone about

this one. Well, I'm not. I'm not harming anyone at all, m M. And I felt like it was such a benefit because I had been really stressed out working two jobs, going to school. And this one night my girlfriend had, as my mother would say, a dubie and you just melted in that. And I do bead and the first time ever been uh experience in cannabis. Wasn't smoking it. My mother made some brownies and yeah, we was cooking things giving dinner. So good. My mom made these brownties

and we was was cooking Thanksgiving. There's one of the first times we had like a really quiet Thanksgiving. It was just me and her at the time. My sister, no, no, no, my sister was uh boyfriend fiance energy, she was gonne, So it was just me and Big Suit, Big Geek, Big Suit. Ya got you gotta get to do Big Suit. You had to watch something. You gotta listen to some of these old episodes. But I was like, you know,

so we she made these brownies. We've turned on she turned on the music, and all I remember was how good the music sounded, and um, you know, and we cooked that whole meal and it was just like it was just such a cool experience for me because my mom. I grew up in the household too of both parents who smoked, but we just never saw it. It's so funny that they talked about things corrupting kids and both my parents moved. I had never seen them smoke before I knew they did, but it just wasn't like a

thing I ever saw, really. But it's just funny that it wasn't even something that I had went to doing my own. But you know, I'm glad to see the statement kind of getting away and us getting more education about it. I know we're still in many of the states and in the United States, still on the fence around legalities and what what state is legal here, not

legal or what's the vibes here? And I do know that young people are smoking a lot earlier, and so we're trying to get our young people to navigate what that means for them legally so that they don't get caught in between the gap. You know, one of the conversations that I'm having with my young folks is helping them to understand the state they live in, having them understand a lot of these That's that's why the diligence

is important. That deminized what's not decriminalized. So I think it's important that we stay diligent no matter what we're doing, knowing that, yes, this work is being done, but there's so much more work to do. So we have to keep our our young people informed that they have all the proper education, specifically around legally, because we don't want them to get so relaxed that they get out there and get caught out there and we have to deal

with a different type of legal situation. I would go with that for the whole gamut, for all the things. When we're talking about sex, give them all the information, you know, we're talking about drugs or I don't even like to call weed the drug. I just think that's unfair. I don't know, friends, help me out with that one. Is we to drug? Yeah, I got a new way

of thinking for you. Prevention and education on cannabis. We need to be teaching them about the business because if you start looking at it more about the business opportunities, you start to lose the even time or the necessity for recreationally sitting around and using your time getting high. Um. And when I say the business, it's just not the licenses. Ancillary side is so transfer horrible. Whether you're an electrician, whether you're a carpenter, whether you're in marketing, whether you're

an accountant, lawyer. If you go into the niche of cannabis for any of those things, you know how many facilities have to be built right now that you need to know the right lighting for cultivation. If you just learn that one thing, you can take that. You know how many people are looking for skilled people in that area. Even in the workforce, Cannabis is the fastest growing workforce across the country, more than nurses, more than a m t,

more than electricians. Um. The fastest growing industry. Right. And so I would say to those young people early on, start and start investing your time reading and getting a part of and figuring out how you're about to gain this damn system and be a part of the industry. Because I promise you the reason why I fight fight so hard is because I know that I'm a part of being what's going to be in the history books and all realness of this. This is a brand new

industry in the mirror of London. Come down and visit our dispensary and he didn't trip. Yeah, about three or four months ago, UM and he visited about five licensed facilities across the country. They selected Artist in Los Angeles. That's the only dispensary that he visited to be able to have an understanding of what this would look like

to legalize UM in London. Because people don't think about global legalization and how where we are in a sense of global legalization and the brand newness of this industry y'all. So when we learn these regulations or we understand and we started just participating, Listen, you don't even gotta do a lot of stuff, but just start being engaged, because you'll hear the opportunities of where you can be business planning. You'll hear the opportunities where you can go. It's crazy.

That's the reason why fights are That's the reason why I stay in this because I do know what will happen twenty or fifty years from now, in this moment in time. And so for all the black people, specifically black people, you know, great for everybody, but black people the most we got the we We've been the most incarcerated. We've been the most disproportionately arrested. We've been the most to lose our lives. We have the highest number of children in foster care because of the War on drugs.

It is our obligation to be involved. It is our obligation to spread the word that these tax dollars, these licenses and our skill set be used and co opted and work together. And you've gotta have a team. I'm a year and four months and I got forty seven employees right, come from my community. Um, and so the opportunities that are there, um, we're working. Actually, we just acquired the building next door to us to open up a mock training for detail the Guerrilla University, liking it

to McDonald's University. And this is also a performerly incarcerated, right is that what I read? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, like creating that halfway. Look, we know the same These walls are new and that's how they're based in the whole industry, right, So cultivation you need a skill set, right, so not all everything else our learning and it's the rules and regulations, UM. And so I just continue to encourage all of us that wouldn't think twice about it

just to understand how we can work cooperatively. And it will take a collective unit of us to do it because it is expensive to get in um. But that's you know, that's an easy battle, UM if we work together. And so that that's really critical, y'all. More conversation after the break. Can you at least give us like three either organizations or uh pages that we should be following to be a part of the solutions, to be a part of the like all all the things. Yes, Cannabis

dot l a city dot org um. That's the City of Los Angeles, Cannabis Department, UM, Cannabis dot l A city dot org um. And when you click around and you go into the regulations, there's a social equity report

that was written. UM. Find that social equity report and read it, and it tells it does a great job of concisely saying why we're here, the methodology of why social equity should be created based on these disproportion and arrest And when I say that, break it down, l A is eight percent black folks, but we represented of the arrest right, so I want to say disproportionate um. But then it also tells you all of the components,

tells you the cost of starting up these businesses. It tells you the pieces that are necessary in every community if we want to start or actually press our city folks to have these sort of laws and regulations and play. To me, it's like the Bible of House should have been executed and l A did the complete opposite of everything that was in that three hundred thousand dollar report. But to me, that's a great way, a simple way

for us just start grasping what it is. If l A did it wrong, I'm it sounds unhopeful for the other states too, are so far behind. But I think what she's saying is that if you look at what that framework is, it's a good place to start as advocate in your particular city or states that even though they didn't actually do it. The place is good is good and obviously every state has different laws and those

things have been considered. Definitely, shout out to all the people that are in school currently or working in agriculture. That's that's a big one. Yeah, that's yeah, shout out to I just want to shoutut to Tara mart and one of the sisters that was and then the fight to help lobby for Jersey and other states to become recreational because we are in there, y'all, but we know we can see the sisters. We gotta say their name like because nobody else now we do it and recognize

too that it will open up federally sooner than later. UM. And it doesn't take a lot of us, but there's a few of us in each one of these places. When it when we're allowed to have interstate commerce, our

ability to connect and work together. UM, it's how we create this ecosystem of the supply chain within amongst ourselves and that's why we continue to educate UM on SULB Life Development Group dot org is our website and we just I'd just like to be a resource y'all come through to the expensary tap in anything that I can share once again and be in the first it was to be able to have the blueprint to then say okay, y'all,

this is how I did. We just want to continue to support you beyond just coming to the store too. So and that's a lot of all of our black businesses, like, yeah, we support by coming to the store, but there's other ways to support. We need to know. Yeah, I love the fact that we that that you circle back to business, you circle back to the community, You circle back to these things and move away from the individual and remind us of what's necessary for us to do moving forward.

I just really admire you in every way. I didn't know you prior to this interview, and I feel blessed and grateful and honored to have gotten to hear what you had to say today. Truthfully, it's such a good reminder. It's a good reminder because I think in this kind of capitalist society, we can really get really down about the possibility. Is what it looks like to be successful? What does it look like to be in business? What does it look like to grow community? Is it possible

to do both? To get yourself a little bag? But at the same time, and I needed to hear this from you today because this has given me a different kind of you know, you know, battery in my bag around what it can look like. And I just encourage everybody to continue to use your imagination because I think what happens is that that imagination gets stifled. You can't see that a thing is possible. You just you convince yourself it's just not gonna happen. So I just am

grateful for you today. I really am grateful. I'm grateful for your ancestors. I speak their names without knowing them, and I just for them. They didn't think child, they did a thing, come on good things, and you just touched on something that I believe is the core of how I move. And what I've seen is this is the fourth business that I've started UM, but this is

the one where it was always about. After Sweet Strings UM and losing my my music academy, it was always about let me go make this money and then I can go give back. And I had to take a different approach UM because it wouldn't work with just me being here standing. The loan is that let me give back while I'm building, And every time I stay centered

on that, the universe opens just oraculous stores. Um. That is not anything about my work, UM, And I would say and challenge us all to be able to figure that out and to challenge ourselves to not wait, um for to give back, but figure out for the work that we do how it can align. Like I said, I had to write the cliff notes for myself, So then why am I not sharing the cliff notes at the same at the same time that I'm learning it.

What we often do is wait until we have covered everything, well, give you a tidbit and worried about them someone else that I'm giving that to compete and knock me out, um. But it really is important. And I think the other side of that is my mission has always been the finest for profit that funds my nonprofit. And I came to Cannabis because I intend on open and up sweet strings again in our music academy, UM for the kids. And so that is really what motivates me when I

want to sit down and and get tired. UM, it's that this has to work, um, because we have to be able to ren us and funding things that really make a difference for our children. Our hearts are full, proud of my neighborhood. Man, if you might do me the honors of allowing me to read the mission. All right, this is the mission for Guerrilla our X Wellness. Correct. Yes, we are the physical manifestation of black feminine resilience, power,

and creativity. We are the advocates for those fundamentally oppressed by America's unjust criminal justice system. We are the future legacy of healers, hustlers, and history makers, diligently honoring the strong women who came before us. We are the promise of a brighter, more equitable future in South central l A. And might I add myself the world y'all, y'all take care, blessings, y'all, blessing. I mean, that's all I got. That's really it. Our are.

They've been educated in so many ways. Please remember um to rewind this and play back and slow down and take the cliff notes. Take the cliff notes. None of us here at j dot ill know everything, but we're learning as we grow, and it is a pleasure to share anything that we're learning with you. Thank you so much all for listening. Face. How do you eat an elephant? One by it? Kind? Hello, listeners, it's amber Your fearless producer here. We have been so excited to get this

episode to you. Black women really do get us hire to learn more about Gorilla are X and all the amazing things that they are doing in the community and all the incredible products they provide. Check out their website Gorilla r X Wellness dot com. The site is literally as beautiful as the store that, like you described, he got also left us with some incredible resources in this episode.

I'll drop links to those sites and the show notes, and if you want to learn more about cannabis and spirituality, I'll leave a link that explains how Rastafarians use the herb for spiritual connection. Hi. If you have comments on something he said in this episode called eight six six Hey Jill, if you want to add to this conversation, that's eight six six four nine five four five by don't forget to tell us your name and the episode you're referring to. You might just hear your message on

a future episode. Thank you for listening to Jill Scott Presents Jay dot Ill the podcast. Yes, Karema, I'm sorry distracted my whole show. Mommy. When you walk by, you just dracted the whole show. MoMA just walked up and her apps were giving what needed to be gave. Yes, Dama, Yes, I'm sorry, y'all for those who are listening, Laya's mom is that work. She's amazing. We want to give it up to Big Koree, but she came through there and showed us her app work and it was fantastic, fantastic.

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