Cannabis, Politics, and Race
The politics of President Trump and his administration are having a ripple effect that extends to the rising cannabis industry. The Cannabis World Congress and Business Expo is coming up in September and the inclusion of President Trump’s adviser, Roger Stone has many in the industry willing to boycott one of the industry’s biggest events. According to multiple cannabis news outlets the Minority Cannabis Business Association and other groups are threatening to boycott the event if Roger Stone remains as the key note speaker.
Roger Stone while a Trump adviser and member of a White House administration accused of supporting white supremacy and other forms of racism, is also a major advocate of marijuana legalization and access.
The fear of allowing a person like Stone to hijack the marijuana revolution is that he may very well help to legalize the drug, but the fear would be the systematic exclusion of blacks and other non-white entrepreneurs out of the growing business side of legalization. Essential the thought is, “great it’s legal, but the only people that would profit off it, would be white people”.
We don’t want to focus on race all the time, but often it can’t be avoided. In the case of legalization of marijuana, there are a number of people of all races with an interest in building a business off of cannabis leaves and oils, and no group should be excluded and able to corner the market.
Hopefully the industry can achieve not only legalization, but also equity among diverse groups in business development, share of the market, and profits.
The Minority Cannabis Business Association is not happy with the selection of longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone as the event’s primary speaker.
A group of cannabis business leaders, advocates and activists are boycotting the upcoming Cannabis World Congress and Business Expo event being held in Los Angeles next month. The push against the convention comes after the event named Donald Trump advisor Roger Stone as the Expo’s keynote speaker.
Roger Stone, a self-described “political dirty trickster,” helped push Donald Trump from irrelevant celebrity to the highest office in the nation, is a longtime marijuana advocate and recently helped found the United States Cannabis Coalition, a group aiming to convince Trump to lean towards legalization. But for everything Roger Stone has done to try and turn cannabis into a mainstream money-maker, countless incidents of racist and sexist bigotry and a seeming lack of moral guidance have made him a controversial figure to say the least.
According to Weed News, in the wake of last weekends white-supremacist terrorist attack in Charlottesville, Virginia and president Trump’s subsequent “both sides” speeches, the Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA) wanted to be very clear about their opposition to Stone’s prime spot at the upcoming conference.
“As a result of CWC choosing this guy as their keynote speaker, MCBA has decided to withdraw from attendance and speaking roles at this conference. CWC, you know better so there’s no excuse not to do better.” The group posted on Facebook.
Joining the MCBA in their stand against Stone, the Cannabis Industry Journal has also announced that it would be joining the boycott and removing themselves as an event media partner if the keynote speaker was not replaced.
“In choosing Roger Stone to keynote, the CWCBExpo is making a Faustian bargain and we don’t believe this is right.” Cannabis Industry Journal editors declared. “We need to stand by our morals; the ends don’t justify the means. The cannabis industry is no place for racism and we would like to see Roger Stone removed from the keynote position at CWCBExpo.”
The boycott has also been picked up by industry heavy hitters Mara Gordon, co-founder of Aunt Zelda’s Oils and former Drug Policy Alliance California policy manager and current vice president for community relations at Flow Kana, Amanda Reiman.
Instead of taking the criticism and checking America’s current social climate, CWCBExpo managing partner Scott Giannotti instead chose to lash out at the MCBA, and the group’s lead Jesce Horton in particular.
“How convenient MCBA is promoting CWCBExpo’s biggest competitor NCIA, who hosts ALL WHITE CONFERENCES.” Giannotti posted on the MCBA Facebook page. “Meanwhile CWCBExpo works hard at producing the most politically and culturally diverse conference program in the cannabis industry. But we’re racists ok lol I’ll put our show guide up against NCIA’s any day you want and show you how dumb you people are.”
Maybe someone should have told Giannotti that using terms like “you people” directed towards a group of black business owners wasn’t the best way to defend yourself against accusations of racial insensitivity.
Steve
Steve is an affordable multifamily housing professional that is also the co-founder of Whiskey Congress. Steve has written for national publications such as The National Marijuana News and other outlets as a guest blogger on topics covering sports, politics, and cannabis. Steve loves whiskey, cigars, and uses powerlifting as an outlet to deal with the fact that no one listens to his brilliant ideas.
