How BIPOCann Works Towards Equity in Cannabis

When Colorado opened the doors to the country's first adult-use cannabis market in 2014, the state was booming.

"The conversations back then were not about equity and how can we address injustices that occurred for individuals from communities that were directly impacted by the war on drugs."

Ernest Toney, founder and principal at BIPOCann, noticed this discrepancy back in 2020. As legal cannabis scaled into a multi-billion dollar industry, the trailblazers of the early days of cannabis, who bore the brunt of the drug war's enforcement, were largely locked out of the legal one. In 2020, he founded BIPOCann to do something about it.

Watch the full interview on our YouTube channel here.

In our recent interview with Ernest, he recounts a summer of social media activism, watching waves of performative gestures roll through Instagram. "People were posting black squares," that generated visibility, but little structural change. 

So Toney built BIPOCANN around something more tactical: connection. 

A Mentorship Model Built on Access

At the center of BIPOCANN's work is a structured mentorship program that has now supported more than 65 unique businesses. The program puts founders in rooms with each other and with established companies that can open doors those founders couldn't open alone.

That's exactly what happened with Andrew Jackson, co-founder of Grassberries. Jackson was close to launching but was buried under the costs that come with getting a cannabis business off the ground. Through his connection with BIPOCann, Jackson was introduced to Wyld, which stepped in to help subsidize some of those early costs. 

What Toney Wishes More Companies Would Do

Reflecting on partnerships like the one with Wyld, Toney draws a distinction that cuts to the heart of corporate social responsibility in cannabis: