Hope Wiseman is Making History
This very cool young woman is the youngest, black dispensary owner in the U.S. Her name is Hope Wiseman, and she has set out to take many of the misconceptions, judgments, and confusion that surround the use of marijuana, and educate more people on exactly how this plant works. She is set to open Mary & Main in Maryland next month; and one of her goals is to take the negative stigmas that come along with marijuana use, in order to educate her community.
This 25 year old investment banker /reality show star of WAGS Atlanta/ former Falcons cheerleader, along with her mother and a family friend, who are both dentists, have worked to create this business. While in the process of creating her cannabis empire, she also noticed the amount of confusion and skepticism she’s received from people close to her who feel negatively about the plant. In an interview with the Huffington Post, she details why people’s natural skepticism is one of the reasons education is so important, Wiseman explains:
“I understand that stoner stigma may come off very negatively. But then you hear the stories. Stories about children who had multiple seizures a day, which completely stopped because they’re taking CBD oil, or Cannabidiol, a compound found in marijuana which has absolutely zero psychoactive effect. Stories about people who have glaucoma who use it to alleviate their symptoms. Stories about people who have cancer, who have a better quality of life when they’re going through chemotherapy.”
Correcting The Stigmas
Wiseman also details how generally, mostly white men and women are celebrated for their use of the plant, and how they’ve used their business skills in order to generate billions in the marijuana industry. However, people of color are continuously locked up; in America, “black people have a lower usage rate than white people who use cannabis, but they are arrested for possession at four times the rate as whites,” per the American Civil Liberties Union.
With laws regarding marijuana use slowly changing across the coutry, Hope Wiseman’s ultimate goal is to educate, and she will be offering free classes in order to change some of the bad stigmas in communities of color. Her goals for these community education classes are:
“To explain the history behind the plant so you can understand why it became a scheduled drug, why African-Americans have been prosecuted at higher rates than other races and minorities and how that affects us today.”
Hope Wiseman is making history, and she seems to be excited on what’s to come. She has admitted, in the marijuana industry and at her position, it is a little lonely, but she has been able to build a solid team with her community and other dispensaries throughout Maryland. Let’s hope Maryland is showing up in droves to support this young entrepreneur!
Source: Huffington Post
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