Latinas in Cannabis: Overcoming the Stigma
Join Us as Tammy Sits Down with Cannabis Attorney Meital & Entrepreneur/Advocate Susie Greens for a Discussion on The Challenges of Being Latina in Cannabis
Tammy: What's up everyone? It's your girl Tammy, aka the Cannabis Cutie. I'm here today with the lovely, Meital of @420attorneys, one of the most knowledgeable women in the cannabis industry.
I also have Susie with me, known for Humo, a Latinx-owned and women-led cannabis brand! Welcome, all!
Susie: Happy to be here.
Meital: Today, I think we're really going to focus on some things that I know you're familiar with.
I want to talk about things like being a woman in cannabis, being a Latina, being a minority, what that means, and talking generally about social equity.
Can you tell us a little bit about your company? Such as, what you do and what your company is about?
Susie: I'm a cannabis entrepreneur and advocate. I feel like when you're an entrepreneur in cannabis, you can't help but be an advocate.
I’m a co-founder and brand partner of Humo. We're California's American, Mexican-American, and woman-led cannabis brand focused on representing Latino culture.
I’m also the leader of Latinas In Cannabis, which is an internationally recognized community focused on empowering Latinos in this industry.
Meital: That's so cool. What do you guys do? Are you plant touching?
Susie: Yeah, so Humo is the plant touching one. We are an in-house brand of a large farm called Posibl, located in Salinas Valley.
We felt that there really was an opportunity to create an authentic Latino brand. There was already a community asking about it.
Our success helps with awareness of the Latino contribution to cannabis. We came in strong, authentic, and the fans really responded with their enthusiasm for Latino cannabis.
Meital: I did want to ask you about that because California has a large Latino population.
So why do you think that Latino culture has been overlooked for so long, even though California is a mature canna market?
Susie: I think a lot had to align. I think that there were movements outside of the cannabis industry that had to come together.
The growth of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in politics and greater national representation in media have helped a lot.
I think you see a lot of conscious consumers who are now asking the questions that they never did 10 years ago.
Who grows this? Who owns this? And what's up with the testing?
Meital: I've had conversations with many folks in the industry about the concept of social equity. And a lot of times we end up talking about the black and brown community, or those impacted directly by the War on Drugs.
Does social equity mean something to you personally, or to the Latino community, in a comparable sort of manner?
Susie: Oh, absolutely. I think that when we fight for equity, we fight for it in the same way that the Black community does.
And it's important to remember that these communities are often interwoven.
We are fighting for the same things—we want to be recognized and to have the same opportunities in the cannabis industry.
When you speak on the demographics of California, we do skew largely Latino.
But the stigma of cannabis really impacts the Latino ability in a unique way that hampers the growth of the Latino cannabis industry.
Meital: And what's the stigma of cannabis for the Latino community?
Susie: You get labeled. And that stigma still permeates within the community. It's a challenge that entrepreneurs and advocates face.
You are not supposed to be successful and associated with pot.
Tammy: How do you overcome dealing with the stigma in the community? And what part of the community is most stigmatized? Is it the elders? Or is it pretty much across the board?
Susie: I think that the stigma is different. As a young person, you’re going to have these barriers to your success if you consume.
But as an adult, if you're consuming, you have the stigma that you're not being a good role model.
But at the end of the day, that kind of stigma affects mental health because it leads a lot of people to have a double life and to question their own achievements.
Meital: Yeah, I’m thinking of the typical Latino family gathering. You won’t see cannabis there.
But my dad's side is from Israel. And in Israel, cannabis is widely and openly used, even though it's not fully legalized yet. It's just a part of the culture.
How would you explain to a family member that you are using cannabis?
Susie: You would just hide it.
We’re hoping that having these brands and creating sustainable careers in cannabis can help shift the stigma, though.
Tammy: It's frustrating to constantly see this country not wanting to undo the harms that they've done to so many groups of people.
And even in states that come online and start legalizing cannabis, the new growers can't figure out how to grow their cannabis and pass the legal tests.
But they build the system around new growers instead of paying legacy growers, who have the necessary skills.
These legacy growers are the people who were originally selling cannabis, even when it was illegal.
These are the people who probably couldn’t get an advanced education, and you need acumen to run a business!
And not just any business, but a business located in one of the hardest, most complex industries. An industry that is bound up in regulation and red tape.
Susie: You know, when Humo presented our product at the California State Fair last year, I just loved how they elevated cannabis to the same level as other agricultural products.
Tammy: It's what cannabis deserves.
The people who are making the laws don't understand the plant or the industry. You have states that will mandate that THC percentages have different prices.
And they don’t really know what they’re doing. I’ve had cannabis with no smell. It could’ve been 31% THC.
And their ego wants them to believe that the cannabis industry needs to be like any other industry and taxed because it makes so much money.
But the money was made because it was an industry outside the law. You didn't have insurance, rent, employees, insurance, taxes, and a bunch of other hidden costs.
And when the market was prohibited, the prices were so high because you didn't know how much cannabis was available. Without that knowledge, prices weren’t linked to supply, but each dealer could simply ‘name their price.’
Meital: I’ve been a part of the legalization movement, as well as the movement for regulations. I’ve met with city council members or other politicians, and the way that legalization was sold and continues to be sold to lawmakers is that we're going to get tax revenue.
That’s the language. Money.
Now, they're considering a bill, SB 512, on removing the compound tax.
So, if you buy cannabis for $100 and the sales tax is 10%, it’s $110. You're then paying an excise tax of 15% on $110. So, it's compound taxes—taxing an already taxed good.
But they're reducing that. But in general, it's nearly impossible to survive in the cannabis market because of the regulations from taxation and the lack of interstate commerce.
So I think folks can turn a profit, but they're being squashed by the tax structure instead.
Susie: Yeah, and the misconceptions about co-founding a cannabis brand are frustrating because there are folks that see the rise of Humo and think “Oh, you guys are rolling in money.”
But there are a lot of hurdles. You have to partner with retailers that will actually push your product. You have to do events. You have to give away free products to get people interested and remembering you out of the 47 brands on the shelf.
Now is the time where we, as entrepreneurs, have to dig deep and really get to know our consumer. We have to become more authentic.
And you're going to continue seeing brands that struggle with this and fail.
Bless the blunt
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