How to Be an Ally for Social Equity in Cannabis: FAQ
Allies are essential in the fight for social equity in the cannabis industry.
Allies use their voices, positions, and socio-political privileges to work alongside communities most harmed by the war on drugs: poor, Black people who live in over-policed neighborhoods.
Keep reading to find answers to the following questions about being an ally in the cannabis industry:
What is an Ally, and Who Can Be One?
An ally is a person who lends their privilege to someone who has less privilege:
If you are white, you can be an ally by lending your racial privilege.
If you are gender-conforming, you can lend your gender privilege.
If you are a man, you can lend your sex privilege.
If you’re straight, you can lend your heterosexual privilege.
Entering into allyship is possible for anyone who can be honest about their privilege and identify when their privilege can help marginalized individuals and groups.
What Allyship Is (and What It ISN’T)
A consistent commitment to the following behaviors will better align your thoughts and actions with authentic allyship:
Be responsible for your education. Read and watch educational materials published by people targeted by oppression and social equity experts.
Be open-minded and curious about others’ experiences. Don’t assume that you understand how someone belonging to a marginalized group feels just because you’ve struggled, too.
Be an active listener and work to follow minority leadership. The more privilege you have, the more likely people will default to following you. Aggressively work against this pattern.
De-center yourself. Prioritize clear, public amplification of the work done by marginalized individuals.
Find value in underserved communities. What can you learn from these communities? What do they have that you lack? Don’t assume that your socio-political privilege makes you better than anyone.
The following practices masquerade as allyship but can further harm marginalized communities:
Relying on your one minority friend or colleague to teach you how to fight the power.
Comparing your struggle with the struggle of the person or community you seek to amplify.
Being the loudest or most right voice in the room.
Taking credit for the work marginalized communities and those before you have done for social justice.
Pitying marginalized groups.
The heart of allyship is valuing what marginalized individuals and minority communities offer enough to give them a seat at the table.
Why are Allies Important?
Allies can use the power and privilege they have to help those with less power and privilege.
The following groups of people are particularly vulnerable to structural inequities:
Women
People who are gender nonconforming
LGBTQ+
People of Color
Immigrants and people in immigrant families
People with disabilities
Allies are necessary because they are less likely to be ignored, discriminated against, or otherwise harmed because of their identity markers.
In other words, allies can come to a marginalized community’s defense and bolster efforts toward social equity without the risks targeted communities face
What Holds People Back from Allyship?
Stepping into allyship is being responsible to your community.
When a community is safe for the most marginalized person who lives in it, it’s safe for everyone. Doing your part to create that safety doesn’t make you a hero; it makes you smart.
Still, allyship requires courage and willingness to respond to oppression even when it doesn’t directly target you.
As an ally, you have the option to put down the weight of systemic oppression whenever you feel like it. Targeted communities don’t have that choice. They carry that weight every day, in every decision, through every life experience.
Being an ally won’t always feel easy. It may never feel easy. But if you’re dedicated to becoming an ally, you’ll need to set aside your discomfort to advocate for someone else’s fundamental rights.
How Can I Show Up as an Ally in the Cannabis Industry?
Showing up as an effective ally in cannabis starts in the mind. Here’s a three-step process you can take to transform your thinking and harness your power on behalf of those most impacted by the war on drugs:
Step 1: Accept that the war on drugs is your problem, whether you’ve ever been arrested or not.
The war on drugs – especially cannabis prohibition – recreates Jim Crow through the mass incarceration of Black people. Prison sentences separate children from their parents, result in lost wages, and create psychological trauma.
The outcome is poverty, and poverty hurts everyone – even the wealthy.
Step 2: Honestly acknowledge your bias.
Before you can make a real impact, you have to arrest the irrational, racist thoughts underlying your own beliefs about cannabis, the people who use it, and the people arrested for it.
If you don’t consume, you’ll have to confront the biases you have about cannabis users along with your racial biases.
If you use cannabis, you’ll need to examine whether or not you believe some cannabis consumers are better than others, why you may have those beliefs, and if implicit bias is at the root of those beliefs.
Step 3: Take action.
If you’re serious about your approach to the first two steps, your conscience won’t settle for the status quo.
Here are immediate actions you can take as an ally in the movement for social equity in cannabis.
Allyship As a Cannabis Consumer
Purchase cannabis from social equity and minority-owned dispensaries
Let your local cannabis retailers know you only support businesses that sell minority-owned brands.
Allyship As a Policymaker:
Write and vote for cannabis legislation with social equity at its core.
Lean heavily on the insight from those targeted by the war on drugs.
Allyship As a Cannabis Entrepreneur or Business Executive:
Set, work toward, and monitor diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) KPIs.
Work with DEI staffing groups to recruit a diverse team.
Form strategic partnerships with minority-owned businesses in neighborhoods targeted by the war on drugs.
Other Actions Allies Can Take:
Vote for candidates who publicly support social equity and cannabis legalization.
Fund grassroots organizations dedicated to social equity.
Use your platform – your kitchen table, your social media accounts, your weekly check-in with your employer – to raise awareness about social equity and the role cannabis prohibition plays in obstructing it.
Marijuana Matters is a non-profit centering those disadvantaged by the criminalization of marijuana. M2 identifies and eliminates barriers to economic opportunity in the regulated cannabis industry through advocacy, entrepreneurship, and education. Support our work.
