Regulated marijuana sales could amount to over $112.4 billion this year, about 12% more than last year, according to analysis from the newly released MJBiz Factbook, making an impressive financial impact on the American economy since the last election.
HERE ARE THE FACTS
And while there are more black-owned cannabis brands in the US today than ever before; we’re still less than 20% of all cannabis business owners. According to recent industry research, fewer than 20 out of the 10,000 medical and adult-use cannabis retail shops across the country are majority Black-owned. Meaning less than 0.2 percent of all national dispensaries are Black-owned, while in New York over 20 percent of adult-use dispensaries are majority Black-owned. A recent survey by Michigan’s Cannabis Regulatory Agency found that of the 460 medical marijuana licensees who responded, 15 self-identified as Black or African-American.
EVERYBODY HAS A CANNABIS STORY
When co-founders, LaToyia Rucker and Rebecca Colett, of Detroit-based cannabis brand Calyxeum, decided to enter the weed business, it wasn’t motivated by leveling the playing ground and leveraging the power of the green rush but rather to heal the many women like Latoyia’s grandmother who needed relief for her constant pain. “When we started Calyxeum back in 2019, we were very fresh and didn’t really understand the impact of being a Black and female-owned cannabis brand. We were adamant about sharing our story on social media because we knew that so many others wanted to get in but just didn’t know how or which way to go about it, says LaToyia Rucker, Chief Operating Officer at Calyxeum.”Our social media and DMs were flooded with people wanting to just invest. But at the time we couldn’t even take on any investors because they were non-accredited. An accredited investor has a net worth of about 200k or 300k per year and, of course, you know in our community, there aren’t many of us that are there yet. The first few years of starting and maintaining the business were first about educating our community; that’s one of our biggest initiatives in creating Calyxeum. It’s important for us to share our journey.“
Calyxeum has grown since being a startup in 2019; now signature dessert gummies and flower are sold in over twenty retail dispensaries and providers in the state of Michigan and California, sourced and formulated in their two Michigan-based facilities in Detroit and Lansing Michigan. This year on 420, the brand, in partnership with another Michigan-based brand, Moses Roses, opened its first dispensary ‘Moses Roses Powered By Calyxeum’ in SW Detroit that celebrates other Black-owned brands in its inventory. “Being a Black woman-owned and operated, vertically-integrated cannabis company in our hometown of Detroit truly means a lot to us and it’s an achievement that we’re very proud of as we help redefine the cannabis experience.”
YOU MUST LEARN
Both seasoned entrepreneurs and highly educated women, the partnership between Latoyia and Rebecca grew right before our eyes over the past 5 years in their Instagram feed. “Our work in the community and cannabis space is far from finished as we’re fully aware of the challenges that still exist for minorities who want to enter the industry.,” believes Rucker. “When you look at the landscape of the cannabis industry, it’s mostly male-dominated that really lacks any diversity. We feel that there are so many jobs that can be created right in our neighborhoods, if we were to hold this information from our own community, we’d be inauthentic. My main goal in starting this journey was to be authentic.”
And while Calyxeum is a medical marijuana provider that supports its Michigan-based boutique cannabis cultivation operations only; the ultimate goal is to be a social impact premiere cannabis brand with brands state and worldwide.
The founders of Calyxeum believes they will be positioning themselves to compete in the national market by leveraging its philanthropy and community development, especially in Detroit’s disenfranchised areas in areas where the cities’ social equity program fell short.
“What we’re doing is just not being done; creating this niche that’s targeting people who I believe and see our vision,” says Rucker. “We believe that there’s opportunity in licensing in other states; really priming ourselves for national expansion.”
For more information, visit: https://calyxeum.com/
Darralynn Hutson
