How the Cannabis Industry Is Quietly Blazing the Way Forward
I do a variety of gigs — artist’s assistant, temporary admin, freelance illustrator — but my stint as a contract copywriter has provided a window into a world I knew little about: the legal cannabis industry.
And you know what? I’ve found that these dope peddlers are ardently committed to being community-focused, socially responsible corporate citizens, making them the opposite of more “respectable” businesses like Amazon and GE in every way that matters.
It’s no secret that many cities have been embarrassing themselves to win the “honor” of hosting Amazon’s second North American headquarters, despite the company’s notoriously poor working conditions for factory employees. Here in Boston, our elected officials gave GE a huge tax break in exchange for relocating their headquarters here the same year our mayor announced massive budget cuts to our public schools (which he only budged on after significant public outcry). The message is clear — cities are expected to lift up their skirts for any corporate attention, throwing constituents under the bus in the process.
Meanwhile, the cannabis industry has been working to prove that they’re worthy of the cities that host their businesses, not the other way around.
I spoke with George Schidlovsky, President of the medical marijuana dispensary Curaleaf NJ, Inc. and Board Member of the New Jersey CannaBusiness Association, about some of the steps his company has taken to support their local community. I learned that Curaleaf regularly helps the Larc School, a non-profit that provides special education to children with a wide range of disabilities, purchase much-needed educational equipment for their students. Schidlovsky told me that Curaleaf also partners with local VFWs and assisted with the erection of a memorial for Veterans of the Korean War in Bellmawr, NJ. In addition, Curaleaf regularly sponsors educational events for current and potential patients to dispel the myths that persist about marijuana and expound upon the ways that cannabis can be used to help manage anxiety, chronic pain, and other ailments.
Schidlovsky explained that, as marijuana is legal only for medical use in New Jersey, Curaleaf has provided educational seminars to the Gloucester County Police Academy to teach their cadets the legal rights of cannabis users, as well as how to de-escalate confrontations with stoned individuals. Considering the startlingly high rates of marijuana arrests in New Jersey, this initiative seems like a smart way to reduce over-policing and out-dated punitive measures.
Schidlovsky added that Curaleaf has an unwritten rule about only hiring local lawyers, consultants, and contractors as another way of investing in their community. I have learned that these examples are not the rare practices of an idealist, but part of a broader ideology commonplace within the cannabis industry.
Melahat Rafiei, one of the founders of the medical marijuana dispensary Hand n Hand and the Santa Ana Cannabis Association (SACA), also took time out of her day to speak with me (on 4/20 no less, hurr hurr). She explained that by representing the cannabis industry to the community leaders and school board of Santa Ana, CA, the SACA was able to identify local needs and provide funding for after-school programs, field trips for students to see movies like Black Panther, and are currently planning backpack drives at all their dispensaries this August (if you’re local, more information will be posted about this drive on the SACA website in mid-July).
Rafiei also told me about how the Long Beach Collective Association (which is the Long Beach equivalent of the SACA) successfully lobbied the city of Long Beach, CA to commit a percentage of all revenue they receive from legal cannabis sales into restorative justice programs for local offenders, as well as guaranteeing employee stock-ownership of dispensaries. Meanwhile, the soon-to-be-opened canna-business Lynwood Cannaplex has already set to work proposing several local improvement projects, including repaving the roads of Lynwood, CA.
And this is all on top of paying their fair share of taxes, unlike the giant corporate ghouls with money to burn.
At this point, I thought it would be prudent to ask why these businesses are so drawn to altruism— is it because the cannabis industry is run by social justice loving hippies who believe in doing the Right Thing, or was it a calculated move to rebrand a substance that’s still considered just as dangerous as heroin by the Feds?
In my opinion, the truth lies somewhere in the middle — everyone I talked to strongly believes in the morality of being socially responsible corporate citizens while also acknowledging the political benefits that come with it, but I reached out to Assistant Professor Stephen C. Hansen of the Business School at the University of Southern Maine to get a more objective, academic perspective.
“Canna-business, like all ‘sin’ businesses, has a reputation problem,” Hansen told me. “They tend to try and get as much favorable publicity as possible to overcome the public’s perception that they are a ‘bad’ company.” He gave an example of a dispensary he was familiar with, but did not name, offering reduced-cost medical marijuana to low income patients in California. “The local city council was leery of having a canna-business in the area and this let the city council know that they are taking care of local needs.”
“This is not unusual,” Hansen continued. “Beer companies do an awful lot of advertising to try and maintain a more wholesome image.”
Not unusual, sure, but wildly unfair considering the health benefits of marijuana vs. the disastrous effects of alcohol, and I say this as a boozehound who’s mostly had abysmal personal experiences with pot (last Thanksgiving morning I tried to enjoy a legal cannabis lozenge and had to miss my family’s holiday gathering because I was still stoned out of my god damned mind 12 hours later). As ridiculous as the stigma surrounding marijuana is, it’s still commonplace, and there are about a million reasons to fight against it in order to eventually pave the way for national legalization. If the cannabis industry’s compassionate approach to business helps achieve this political goal by actually doing the hard work necessary to improve and invest in communities, I fail to see a downside.
And in an era dominated by corporate predators that help to ensure most people can’t catch a break, this budding new industry’s people-centered attitude and active embrace of social responsibility is a welcome breath of fresh air.
Full disclosure: Melahat Rafiei is the sister of Meilad Rafiei, whose company WeCann regularly contracts me as a copywriter
