Dispensary Diversity: Why Ownership Shouldn’t Sway Your Choice

Imagine this: You walk into a dispensary, the air thick with the scent of cannabis, the walls lined with the green promise of euphoria and relief. But instead of being greeted with the cool weed aficionado, you’re bombarded with the owners’ identity. It’s as if they’re trying to sell you on their social status, their struggle, their carefully curated backstory. And while I’m all for supporting the underdog, I’m even more for getting the best damn weed at the best damn price. Period.

The cannabis industry is in the midst of a cultural and commercial revolution. As legalization sweeps through the country, a new kind of marketing strategy has emerged, one that seeks to elevate the social status of a dispensary based on the identity of its owners. Ethnic-owned, woman-owned, social equity—it’s become a roll call of progressivism that seems more concerned with catch phrases than delivering the goods.

The buzzwords are everywhere— (Insert any ethnicity here)-owned, woman-owned, social equity. They’ve been weaponized, turned into marketing gold, plastered on billboards and hashtags like some kind of virtue-signaling circus. But here’s the dirty little secret that no one wants to admit: It doesn’t matter who owns the damn dispensary. What matters is the product in that glass jar, the sticky-icky.

Let’s strip away the buzzwords and get down to brass tacks. When you walk into a dispensary, you’re not just there to make a political statement or engage in some form of retail activism. You’re there to buy weed—plain and simple. And what matters most in that transaction is the quality of the product, the consistency of the experience, and the price tag attached to it. It’s about finding the best bang for your buck, whether that buck goes to a (Insert any ethnicity here)-owned business, a woman-owned enterprise, or a giant corporate chain.

In the cutthroat world of commerce, identity politics have become a powerful marketing tool. They’ve been weaponized by savvy entrepreneurs and big corporations alike, transforming what should be a straightforward transaction into a moral dilemma. But the truth is, the identity of a dispensary’s owner has little bearing on the quality of the product they sell. Weed doesn’t know if it was grown by a man, a woman, or a person of color. It doesn’t care if the dispensary it’s sold in is owned by a social equity applicant or a Wall Street tycoon. All that matters is the care and attention that went into its cultivation, harvesting, and packaging.

Think about it this way: When you buy a bottle of wine, do you scrutinize the background of the vineyard’s owner? Do you search for a label that proudly proclaims it as ethnic-owned or woman-owned? No, you pick the wine that tastes the best, the one that suits your palate and your budget. Why should it be any different when it comes to weed? We need to stop pretending that the identity of a dispensary’s owner is a guarantee of quality. It’s not. What guarantees quality is experience, knowledge, and a commitment to excellence.

The cannabis industry is still very young, and with that comes a lot of growing pains. One of those pains is figuring out how to balance the need for social equity with the realities of a competitive marketplace. But as consumers, our role is clear. We need to demand the best product at the best price, regardless of who’s selling it. If a (Insert any ethnicity here)-owned dispensary offers the highest quality weed at the most reasonable price, then that’s where I’ll spend my money. If a woman-owned shop has the best selection and the best service, then they’ve earned my business. But if a faceless corporate chain can deliver the goods better and cheaper, then I’ll be walking out of their doors with my stash.

I’m not suggesting we ignore the broader issues of equity and representation in the cannabis industry. These are important conversations that need to happen, and real change needs to be made to ensure that marginalized communities have a fair shot at success. But those issues should not dictate our purchasing decisions as consumers. Our loyalty should be to the product, not the owner’s backstory.

In the end, it’s all about the puff, the hit, the high. It’s about that moment of bliss when the world melts away, and all that’s left is you and the plant. That’s what we’re here for, and that’s what should guide our decisions. The rest is just noise.

Keep it weird,

PS
This isn’t about dismissing the importance of social equity. It’s about recognizing that in a free market, the cream rises to the top. The best product will always win out, no matter who’s behind the counter. So let’s stop getting caught up in the identity of the owner and start focusing on what really matters: the weed.