Equity and inclusion for minorities in legal marijuana businesses was one of the goals of the law that launched the cannabis industry in Massachusetts five years ago.
But those good intentions have yet to pan out.
Very few minority entrepreneurs have been able to raise the necessary capital and navigate the red tape required to enter the legal market in Massachusetts.
A rare exception is Payton Shubrick. The 29-year-old is the CEO and founder of 6 Brick’s, a cannabis retailer that opened for business on Main Street in downtown Springfield, Massachusetts a few weeks ago.
She is the first Black woman to own a marijuana business in western Massachusetts and only the third in the state.
WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill visited with Shubrick in her newly-opened cannabis store.
