Snoop Dogg Calls for Minority Clause in Weed Industry
Written by SOURCE on October 31, 2019
During a recent panel discussion on the cannabis industry, Snoop Dogg said the implementation of a minority clause should be considered as a way to fend off those who are merely flocking to the weed business for financial gain without keeping affected communities in mind.
“I think there should be some sort of minority clause, the way that they do in sports with the NBA and the NFL, where they make certain rules where the minority has to get the first dibs,” Snoop said during a recent Revolt Summit panel. “Like, you gotta be somebody of color or somebody from that community to get first in action and then the rest of you motherfuckers with money get action. Because it shouldn’t be based on no money.”
While others on the panel then chimed in to argue the difficulties of securing such measures, Snoop’s comments point to a larger issue within the weed industry that’s been a source of discussion since recreational legalization started taking hold across the country.
Dr. Lakisha Jenkins, founding board member of the California Cannabis Industry Association, was among those who spoke with Complex back in 2017 for a piece on the white-dominated industry. As Jenkins and others made clear, this is an industry that’s forever indebted to the very people who so often took the brunt of its pre-mainstream legality and penalization problems.
“In a lot of ways, the cannabis industry—just like this country—has been built on the backs of minorities,” Jenkins said at the time. “I think the lack of participation by people of color [in the weed business] comes from the fear of it. We’ve been arrested for this in disproportionate amounts and it’s been tearing our families and communities apart for years, so it’s hard to then expect us to now embrace it and say that we won’t get treated differently, that we can enter into the industry just like everyone else.”
A weed media company co-founded by Snoop, meanwhile, was reported over the summer to have launched a new offshoot ad agency called Gram by Gram.
