Dope Tutor Answers: Where Can I Buy Black-Owned Weed (and Why Is That Important)?

“It’s hard to pull yourself up by your bootstraps when you’ve never had any boots, only knees on the neck,” says social-equity program manager Angela White

- ANDREW DEANGELO

Those of us who take pleasure in consuming cannabis owe a big debt to those in the Black community who kept the grass flowing so we could get stoned. Due to the criminalization of weed, Black people and other people of color have routinely paid a heavier price for their participation in cannabis culture and commerce. Cannabis laws were—and are—used to disproportionately arrest and imprison Black people. This has been going on for 100 years in America.

Former NBA star and current cannabis entrepreneur Al Harrington put it to me plainly.

“Cannabis prohibition was used to destroy the Black community,” he says, repeating the sentence to make sure I really heard. The word destroy resonates in my mind like a silent scream. Harrington is right. It’s a painful truth. One thing consumers can do to right that historical wrong is to give their cannabis dollars to Black-owned businesses.

Ten years ago Harrington co-founded cannabis brand Viola, a premium pre-roll and flower company named after his grandmother, who found that cannabis brought her relief from glaucoma. As CEO, Harrington is bringing more than pain relief and pleasure to the masses; Viola has committed to help minorities work toward ownership in cannabis, to assist license applicants as they navigate the complex process and to reinvest in community via projects such as food drives.