Weed Dreams - Episode 1

When California legalized cannabis in 2018, Oakland became the first city in America to launch a Cannabis Equity Program, reserving half of the licenses for business owners with local cannabis convictions and residents of the primarily Black neighborhoods targeted for cannabis arrests.

Weed Dreams is a 9-part docu-series chronicling several Black entrepreneurs over four years, as they try to succeed in California’s predominantly white cannabis industry through this groundbreaking program.

In this episode, we meet Jahful Price harvesting in the dark in a massive grow facility where he works, dreaming about one day doing this in his own greenhouse. We meet Alphonso Tucky Blunt detailing a car, as he recounts the arrest that qualified him for the program. Detailing is still his primary employment until he can open his new business. We meet Marshall Crosby working out and explaining how he took up fitness to protect himself from police harassment. We meet Carlton Williams, who takes us to the East Oakland park where a horrible tragedy took place during his childhood. To Carlton, the program is about a lot more than just weed, it's about righting past wrongs, both personally and for his community. We meet former city council member Desley Brooks, who sparked the creation of the program and battled critics from the city's pre-existing medicinal cannabis industry, who said the program would put Oakland at a disadvantage, and leave too many businesses under the control of unqualified owners.

---------
Original music produced by Marcos Crema
  / marcoscrema