On March 31st, 2022, DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson called for a vote on emergency legislation that would give the city the ability to close down any marijuana gifting business in DC. The bill would implement these changes as soon as May, and many I-71 gifting shops would have been subject to closure.
For Generational Equity Movement, this breaking news caused shock for a few reasons. Not only were many of the members workers within the gifting community, they were hours away from releasing a documentary at the Angelika Pop-Up Theater at Union Market, that covered the very subject. GEM felt a conflicting feeling of fear of the unknown, but also power in knowing that they would soon have a movie theater sized audience that was ready to hear their input.
Culturally speaking, weed has always played a role within the city. DC has their own customary smoking rituals such as using sheets and funnel. Since 2014, DC has been living in a gray area when it comes to weed. It was now decriminalized to where MPD could now give out tickets for smoking in public instead of jail time, all the while still being federally illegal. You could now walk around with up to an ounce of weed on you, as long as you showed no intent to sell it. Residents are even allowed to grow a limited number of marijauna plants in their homes.
Businesses however, would face the most drastic and complex changes. Selling weed was still illegal, but simply gifting it to someone was now decriminalized.This law created the gifting industry. As a loophole, businesses often sell art, books, pencils, stickers or other items, and accompany that purchase with a selection of weed. Since the weed is in addition to the initial purchase, it is considered a gift, and by law, legal. Most of these dealings are done in cash. For eight years this trend has continued with many black residents starting lucrative businesses within the marijuana space. Many of them couple as creative businesses, often serving as incubator hubs for the arts.
Within the past few years, this gray area had been in constant threat, with various legislation proposals to strike this status down, despite the fact that in 2014, DC residents voted overwhelmingly to have weed legalized in their city. Because DC is not a state, Republican Congressman from Maryland Andy Harris was able to insert a rider that prohibits local lawmakers from moving forward on legalizing marijuana sales.
Generational Equity Movement saw how entrepreneurship in this space gave a new wave of young Black Washingtonians an opportunity to provide for themselves and insulate their communities. They also saw how the uncertainty of the marijuana laws in DC put many black entrepreneurs in danger of no longer being able to provide for themselves in a legal manner. So they decided to put together the documentary titled Young Gifting and Black, which explores DC’s relationship with weed, the positive things business owners have been able to provide for their communities, and how the issue of marijuana also goes into civil rights, and the politics of being denied agency without having DC statehood.
I chatted with members of Generational Equity Movement, including their documentarian, to pick their brains about the state of the marijuana industry in DC, and what went into making their documentary Young Gifting and Black. Here is an excerpt from our conversation:
What is Generational Equity Movement and how would you all describe the group and your goals for it?
Generational Equity Movement is a coalition that we founded in 2019 with the premise of gaining equity for black people in the cannabis market. That's kind of our first feat because what we really want is to gain equity for black people in DC. Especially young black people, making sure that the next generation has something to monetize and pass on for generations to come. So right now our focus is cannabis. It was founded by a few owners of I-71 stores. These owners met with council members when they were first opening, and the council members were receptive to the stores being open.They didn't realize that it was gonna be a real thing.
So now seeing that the laws are about to change, it's kind of a you never know type of thing. If you look at the documentary you'll see how it breaks down how Congress has a large role within us trying to become regulated in DC. Outside of that, we wanna make sure that when the law does get passed, when the rider gets lifted, there is some language in the bill about I-71 stores having a clear pathway to become recreational dispensaries. Right now they're disrespected as whatever business they're filed under. Within us founding it and then trying to get regulation, now it's become more so of us collaborating or attempting to collaborate with council members because the power is in their hands so they don't just ignore us or just try to shut us down, kind of how they tried to do twice already. It's more like we're just waiting to be regulated. Whatever things we can move on, we wanna move on those together. It's not like the I-71 stores are this entity that just wanna stay in this gray or black market, we wanna become dispensaries, whatever that might look like.
Equity is a part of your name and you talked about how one of your main goals is equity within the cannabis industry here. What does equity look like to you all? Is that being able to move freely, being regulated, being an officially a dispensary?
In DC it's projected to be a multimillion dollar industry within a few years once the law gets passed. Black people run the marijuana market, the cannabis market in DC, it's just unregulated right now. So we wanna make sure that when it does become regulated and people begin to profit off of it, we can consume most of those profits. We know that we have made up a large part of the city for a long time until we've been pushed out. And even now, we still have a large black population in comparison to other cities around the country. So we wanna make sure that the market reflects the city and who has been making up the cannabis market up until this point. Who's been the innovators and the creators of these businesses? The entrepreneurs and the people who have been negatively affected by the criminalization of the flower.So make sure that those people get a piece of the leaf.
You mentioned how this is projected to be a multimillion dollar business in the years coming. We obviously know that black people are a huge factor in the influence of marijuana and how it's marketed. We could go on and on about funny designer weed bags and all that stuff. Do you think it's intentional that the laws are what they are because there are a lot of black people that influence this industry?
Yeah. I think it's too soon to speak on that as far as DC goes because our regulated market just isn't popping yet. We have seven dispensaries in the city, medical dispensaries. We have no recreational yet. But in cities where it's already regulated? Yes. I think it's very strategic. I don't think it's necessarily like, oh, let's find a way to keep black people out. I don't think it's like that, but I think it's more so the way that most of the systems work in this country, which is, we wanna make sure that we get the profit as corporations and million dollar capitalist. Whatever's left over is left over, too bad for them. We just don't have the power economically or politically to be able to say and stand up for ourselves sometimes in these other cities.
I think it's all a trickle down effect, one thing leads to another. I think the root cause of all of this is years of oppression all the way back to slavery. But as of right now, I think it's very strategic. It's just sad to see. At the first public hearing on cannabis in DC last year on November 19th, a guy talked about the National Cannabis Festival, this huge cannabis related festival right next to the DC jail. Even with us pulling up on the day of this festival representing GEM, it was a moment of reflection for myself of like, this is crazy. It's something to see all the gentrification around there and all the new apartments that are popping up right next to the DC jail.
And before, it was just a very overlooked part of the city. It was kind of like, you gotta stay away from there, and now it's just, it's crazy. So that, paired with this big cannabis festival where all of these white people are profiting off of this product. That's a way that you don't even have to have your hands in it, you know what I mean? There's so many different ways to profit off of cannabis right now. So many different jobs and opportunities, and they're going to continue to be able to take advantage of these opportunities unless people like us come together and have a strategy, and build community to fight against it.
That's actually a great point. I didn't even think about how close that is.
Yeah, I didn't think about it either until he said it. It's crazy because the whole thing is just smoked out. They can smell it from their cells, like the whole joint is smoked out.
To get into kind of recent news, there was a bill proposed by Phil Mendelson, council chairman in DC, and the general premise of it was to alleviate so-called complaints by medical dispensaries. They were saying things like I-71 businesses don't face the same regulations. Basically initiative 71 businesses were hurting medical marijuana businesses. So initiative 71 businesses were kind of in this gray area where they might not be able to operate. Can you speak to that point, whether you agree with it or disagree with it?
I think it's just two totally different battles. The medicinal market, like I said before, is not popping ,why? It's only seven dispensaries. With the number of cannabis users in DC and the number of people who would like to use it recreationally and not for medical purposes, there's just no way that they can be serviced by just these seven stores. So that's one part of it. Two, I think that the premise that we're stopping the medical market from making money is just a lie. It's a myth because of what I just said, but also because there are a lot of logistics and bureaucratic difficulties that they face
Like a lot of red tape.
Because of all the loops that they make them go through. The hurdles that they make them jump over in order to obtain a license, maintain that license, stay in compliance. It's just a lot of BS because of the federal government. In a lot of new cities where cannabis is becoming legal, it's hard for medical dispensaries to sustain their customer base because of all the taxes, all the regulations, just a lot of politics within that. So I think that the fight that they're fighting is very important and I think that they should fight to be able to make profit, especially because DC does have, I believe, three black business dispensaries. Generational Equity Movement actually had the chance to talk to one of the black business owners and we're on the same page.
So what Phil Mendelson is talking about, I think is a little bit more deeply rooted in what we were talking about, with people being strategic about not wanting to fight to make sure that these processes are equitable. It's a lot easier to say hey, these stories are illegal, shut 'em down, we don't even wanna worry about them. It's a lot more difficult to ask who makes up this market? Who's running this market? Is it black people? Is it people that we care about? What neighborhoods are they servicing? Who are the violent actors within this game? Let's actually sit down and do some research, let's collaborate.
The reason why I say that is because I-71 gift shops were never supposed to exist. Commerce was not written into that law, however black people took advantage, and began to figure out how to make money while staying within the law. So I can understand how that's like damn man, this wasn't meant for that, what are we doing? Then on top of that you got the Harris Rider, so you can't even make a recreational law yet. So I get all of that. But once again, that's the easy way to just leave us out. When actually DC could be the first place that has the most equitable market off jump, because of the special place that we're in.
You mentioned how there needs to be people to really go in and study why things play out the way they do. You also talked about who the violent actors are in this business. I think that's one of the things that people complain about as well. They say these businesses create opportunities for crime or violence because people will try to rob these places. They kind of use these businesses as a scapegoat towards some crimes. Can you speak a little bit on that and whether you agree or disagree with that sentiment?
Sometimes it's black and white, sometimes it's old and young, and sometimes it's both. You got white old people talking about why there's violence in the city when it doesn't even affect them or their families. I think I'm much more aware of violence in the city than a Phil Mendelson is, and where it's coming from. How you grow up can affect whether or not you become a violent person. So that's one thing. Two, it is a scapegoat, it's a cop out. Everybody's trying to figure out a solution right now with how to keep their businesses safe because this is a hot commodity and because most of the time, people do use cash in this business given the regulations of the federal government.
So that's just an overall thing that people have to deal with right now in the city. Yes, I do believe that there are some violent things that happen when a transaction takes place when you're talking about weed. I think a lot of those things happen during deliveries. The stores that represent Generational Equity Movement do not have delivery services for that reason. But I'm not gonna sit here and knock the person who has a business that is based in the delivery service, maybe because they can't afford a storefront or because they're not willing to lose their liberation in that way. They kind of wanna stay a little more under their radar. It's things that people have to do in order to provide for their families.
Sometimes it does lead to violence. What we have done as a Generational Equity Movement is provide consultations to some of these businesses to help them become more safe and help them think through processes so it's not just oh, I got weed, I'm trying to sell it. Try to help them stay within the law as much as they can so they can also become safe. At the end of the day, we are all under the same umbrella when a Phil Mendelson is talking about us. This part of the business in this entity is being run by our people. So we are not just going to look down on them for the things that they have to deal with.
There were a lot of people at the hearing who were business owners, and they said we wanna be able to call the police when people are being violent, but y'all don't respect us as businesses. So I think it's just turning a blind eye to the facts, you heard that at the hearing, he was speaking directly to Phil Mendelson. We gotta figure out a way for my business to be regulated because I wanna be more safe, a guy said that out loud. So it's a lot of people that feel that way, even with GEM and that's with consulting on the inside, they're like yes, please help us figure this out, this is what we're dealing with. So people wanna be safe, people wanna be regulated, and the violence in the city has root causes that would take days to discuss. But it's definitely not the damn gifting shops that are the cause of DC being the wild wild west as he called it.
Once our minds and our bodies can come together as black people, as people who care about our city, we can do anything. We saw that when we shut down the emergency legislation twice. So the first time that fueled us, made us realize that we do have community and we have a base that people support and they love us. They love our stores, but they also just love us and what we represent. So seeing that made us want to open up more people's eyes to who we are and what we do.
So when you do have that emergency legislation come up, what is that like as a person within this business, to have a future that's unknown? Do you look to others and see how you all can get together and fight this? Is there worry? What's your reaction when things like that come up, because I'm sure it's no the first time and it won't be the last time.
I think both times, initially it's a lot of worry and frustration. It's a lot of fear. Staying in that space for less than five minutes and then moving right out of that and just having that motivation to figure out what it's gonna be for my team. I think if this happens, I'll figure it out but I think about all the people that we employ, and just seeing how much life these businesses have breathed into them. It's truly transformational. So knowing what that looks like and how that can be gone is what motivates me. I was a teacher for almost 10 years. So seeing young people being able to associate themselves with something good and hold onto that is a feeling that is irreplaceable.
Think about that and just get into fight mode, we gotta figure this out. Both times it's been three days of us having to work our ass off before that Tuesday meeting. It's all hands on deck. Our staff is fully supportive. Obviously they go hard and the energy is reciprocated. We're still able to laugh and have joy over that weekend because we got each other.
Can you speak to what these businesses are doing for black communities, especially in a time where the city is in a transition, a lot of black people aren't able to keep their businesses in the city or live here. Can you speak to what you've seen these businesses do for black entrepreneurs and people in black communities?
I guess the first thing is giving them money, employing them. An old Councilwoman from Oakland who authored the first social equity license, Destiny Brooks, said once you do that for somebody, you give them dignity and you give them pride. So I think we start there, and then they realize that it's much deeper than that. We don't think that our values are the only values that you can have as a black person, but we do believe in self advocacy, building up their self esteem, and showing them to value one another. You're my brother, you're my sister type of vibe, we're a family. We know that some of the things that lead to violent actions around the city are not respecting the person next to you as a person.
And that somebody who was connected to you, when they win, you win. When I win, they win. So just trying to put those values into our employees at work through various efforts, whether it be team building or we get a little bit beneath the surface. Professional development where we are very critical and have a very high expectation about the service that you're providing and what you're doing. Whether that is us saying hey, you actually can't be gifted weed today because you've been smoking too much weed and we see that it's negatively affecting your pockets and your energy, it's getting out of control. So just really having that hands on approach and being willing to do whatever because I'm looking at these people like they're my family, because they are. A lot of them are eight to 10 years younger than me.
So I do in a sense feel like they're next up and I wanna make sure that they're going to pour that into the next generation, similar to what our ancestors did for us. Just trying to keep that going and be a positive light. We deal with a lot of BS, black people in this city. When I was 21, I was in college but I was also homeless when I came back home. So not knowing where I'm going to sleep at or whose house I'm gonna be at, knowing I can't be with my mom because she's somewhere else due to gentrification. If they're dealing with something like that, then when you come to work it should be a positive environment where you feel like you're being empowered.
A lot of them just from seeing us, seeing that representation in real time have started their own businesses. Getting them even more money, even more dignity, even more pride, even more smarts on how to be an entrepreneur. Because a lot of us never had the opportunity to even see that. So it's deeply rooted. And it comes out in a plethora of ways throughout the way you run our business, but we invest a lot of resources, time and money into our staff. All of our missions are staff based, they're not customer based, and they're damn sure not weed based. It's really just about uplifting our communities.
A shift to the documentary, Young Gifting and Black. What made you all want to come together and create this? What was the end goal of putting this together?
Documentaries are all about characters. I'm a storyteller at heart, no matter what I'm creating. After that first emergency legislation was introduced on November 2nd and I heard the rhetoric that was pushed around about who I-71 gifting shops were and what they did; It was kind of jarring compared to the actual facts when you visited the stores, when you were aware of that community. So at that point it became a desire to shed an inside view of what was really going on in the stores, and how the stores were transforming lives and what they were doing for the communities. Because the people who were pushing the rhetoric out, weren't the people who were visiting the stores, or were in the stores, or as they say, boots on the ground. So the initial desire was to share a story about people, period. Not about weed. Not about cannabis. And not necessarily even about money, but about people. And I hope slash think that's what we did.
And the timing of the release actually closely coincided with the most recent emergency legislation that almost took out initiative 71 businesses again. Can you talk about the coincidence of that? What did you all think about that and did you feel purpose in how that timed up?
What was ironic was that they originally wanted to put it out at the end of February due to some important date that was supposed to be announced then. I think it was the decision on if the Rider would be lifted or not. So as a filmmaker, I was like that's nearly impossible, our first film day was January 8th.
Then after that, the Rider wasn't lifted and because the doc wasn't finished, we just ended up implementing that into the documentary. Then we didn't know that they were gonna release that emergency legislation until the same day as the documentary.
We made the final edit the night before, it was still just a push. And I do remember feeling like, well now we can use the audience here. Now the doc has even more purpose. The timing was God's timing. And now we do have the stories ready and we have a movie theater full of people to say look, this is what you just watched, this is going on and now what and heres what we can do.
It's crazy because Fox 5 reached out to us trying to show the opposition, as far as people feeling like these businesses are violent, and they show this violent clip of... I don't even know what that was honestly. Then they were like, we wanna interview you guys and show the documentary you’re doing. So they came to the premiere and filmed there and went live. And the next day they were like.. and this emergency legislation just came out, let's talk about this.
So it was all kind of crazy. It was perfect timing for the media and press, our documentary was perfect. You would've thought we had it in the stacks and then we just scheduled a screening because that happened, which probably would be some strategy going forward, but it was literally just perfect timing.
Yeah, that was crazy to me, how that lined up like that.
Crazy, and it really helped with the city council. We did end up sending a password protected version of the documentary to some city council members and we do believe they watched it and that influenced their decision on that Tuesday when they voted.
So moving forward, do you have any more goals in terms of getting the documentary out or are you all kind of just pushing this initiative forward in general?
No, the documentary is separate. We put a lot of time, effort, and resources into it. We've gotten great feedback. We wanna take it far, we wanna tell the story far beyond the political fight.
It's always funny because there's two sides of this coin, we're all for the movement and for those goals. And then me as a filmmaker, I'm almost always like, but this is a film! We also have to do film things with it. So, I'm trying to get it to the DC Film Festival. So it's been a constant negotiation of it's a political tool, but it's also a work of art.
Generally speaking, is there anything else that you all have planned moving forward, to bring awareness to the culture of marijuana businesses here, particularly with gifting shops?
I wouldn't necessarily say to bring awareness to cannabis businesses, but just bring awareness to black people's power over their own lives when it comes to policy and politics, and who we have in these offices. So a big push that we're about to do now is voter registration booths. Generational Equity Movement is going to have those at various locations in the city. And just talk about the importance of young people voting.
I never thought that my vote necessarily counted. I always did vote, but I never had a strong belief in it. I never cared about politics that much. I felt like if you're a politician, you don't fuck with me. You gotta be fake, you gotta be phony. So I don't wanna support you or back you as a person, or as a politician. And I think a lot of people have that rhetoric, black people especially who feel like the world and the government is just against them. But there is some power that we have in making these changes and showing up for ourselves and the generations to come in the form of voting. So we wanna have a big push on that. We're gonna continue to show the documentary. We've had three successful showings thus far. So we wanna add to that and we just want to spread the word.