Four Black women have an open discussion on their journey to success within the cannabis industry.
SACRAMENTO, Calif — ABC10’s celebration of Black History Month continues with a look at the obstacles Black women-owned cannabis businesses face. Four Black women share their stories of how they work to support and create opportunity for people of color within their industry.
- Maisha Bahati is the CEO of Crystal Nugs, the first dispensary owned by a Black woman in Sacramento.
- Rhonda Ernest is the CEO of Natrl Hi, an online cannabis delivery business that started in April 2022.
- Adeola Adedipe is the CEO of Aiden’s Re-Leaf, a business inspired after her son was diagnosed with leukemia.
- Zion Taddese is the CEO of Shashemene Institute and the current owner of Ethiopian restaurant Queen Sheba.
These four Black women have fought hard to be where they are today as successful cannabis business owners. They’ve formed a strong bond, all crediting the Sacramento’s Cannabis Opportunity Reinvestment and Equity, or CORE Program, that started in 2019.
“The intent of the program is to help reduce barriers to entry into the cannabis industry, for those who are most impacted by the war on drugs and the communities that were most impacted by disparate policing of cannabis related offenses,” said Davina Smith, the city’s Cannabis Program Manager.
Smith says cannabis is primarily run by white men and the CORE program awards funds to retailers to help open their cannabis business. However, these four women say the journey wasn’t easy, even with the extra help.
“We’re a very small minority here in Sacramento, it’s Black women in cannabis. And you know, sometimes you need help, sometimes you need advice, sometimes you need … how do you do this? How do you do that, and just to have a little bit of that is so essential,” said Bahati.
“I’m advocating for parents with catastrophically ill children and so that’s a whole other demographic. In the Sacramento area, we have well over 30,000 families that are using cannabis openly for their children for autism and cancer and MS or anxiety. And so just getting into that space alone was trying to figure out how can I represent Black women? I’m educated, I’m a great speaker, how can I help the community,” said Adedipe.
