Black, Brown & Red Badged

It is not work, if you love what you do, and we love fighting for social equity and making sure that Black and brown cannabis business owners are heard and represented.

Colorado is continuing to lead the way!

Black, Brown & Red Badged, a coalition of Black and brown owners of cannabis businesses in Colorado is now a reality. Hear what the Executive Director, Hashim Coates, has to say.

“The City of Denver is releasing this whole equity plan on cannabis, and it's bu****it. They're handing out these [dispensary] licenses and claiming there's a bunch of space for retail locations. But there are three BBRB members who've employed attorneys and brokers to look for space in the city where these retail licenses can go, and there's no space out there. “

https://www.westword.com/ma*****na/black-and-brown-ma*****na-businesses-owners-want-representation-11918528

Black and Brown Ma*****na Businesses Owners Want Representation The Black Brown and Red Badged network represents Black and Brown cannabis business owners.

BBRB's members SImply Pure and Viola have a lot to say about potency caps:

James added she can buy a truckload of Everclear at a liquor store but lawmakers don’t seem interested in limiting its 95% alcohol content or installing strict purchase limits like they might do with concentrates — which usually have 70-80% THC content — or other cannabis products.

“These legislators do this all the time,” she said. “It does nothing but put their names in the paper and get their 15 minutes.”

Lianna Loving, Colorado sales director for the Denver-based concentrate company Viola, said many customers attest to the products’ medical benefits, like pain relief and sleep aid.

If Colorado adopts a potency cap anywhere in the range of 60%, Loving said Viola would “have to change our whole business model.”

She added, “It would recriminalize something we fought so hard to decriminalize.”

https://www.denverpost.com/2021/03/11/colorado-biggest-overhaul-ma*****na-laws-thc-cap/

Colorado may see its biggest overhaul of ma*****na laws since recreational legalization Lawmakers are working on what could be the biggest ma*****na legislation in Colorado since recreational cannabis was legalized in 2012, with the possibility of a THC potency cap, a requirement that…

Black Brown And Red Badged (BBRB), A Coalition of Licensed Black and Brown Cannabis Business Owners, Announce Hashim Coates Has Been Appointed as Executive Director

DENVER (Mar 3, 2021) - Black Brown and Red Badged (BBRB), a coalition of licensed Black and brown ma*****na business owners, announced today that Hashim Coates has been appointed as executive director to lead the organization’s pursuit of equity and representation in the regulated cannabis industry.

Coates, 45, a Denver native who had been serving as BBRB’s interim director, starts in a full-time role on February 16 as the coalition gears up to oppose proposed legislation prohibiting high-potency THC products in Colorado.

“I am incredibly honored to work with an organization that focuses on Black and Brown licensed business owners and lifting up black voices in an industry that has largely shut them out,” Coates said. “Equity in cannabis is all about new opportunities and having the ability to capitalize on those opportunities, As a black gay man and a military veteran, I am all too familiar with how our justice system marginalizes our communities. It’s time to amplify our voices in the regulated ma*****na space.”

Coates has led and consulted on numerous local, city, state and congressional campaigns and has held leadership positions for the Democratic Party at the state, county, and multi-county levels. He serves on the Executive Committee of the Colorado Democratic Party. He got his start in policy matters as a HIV/AIDS awareness activist in the mid-1990s and has worked with several prevention and support groups such as Out for Life, Colorado Aids Project, People of Color Consortium Against AIDS, and It Takes A Village. Coates is a U.S. Navy veteran and a graduate of Metropolitan State University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice

“At a time when the focus is to grow ownership of Black and brown businesses in cannabis, we must not ignore the voice of those that are currently in the industry,” says coalition member and Board Chair, Wanda James, owner of Simply Pure Dispensary / Simply Pure Edibles. “The only thing harder than getting into the cannabis industry, is remaining in the cannabis industry. New policies must take into consideration that businesses of color are at a significant disadvantage to gain more market share while competing with hedge fund backed mega companies.”

The BBRB’s efforts are aimed at reinforcing critically needed political support for local and state efforts to improve the access to capital among business owners of color; allow social equity licensing for minority and women-owned cannabis entrepreneurs; and advance delivery options for licensed dispensaries.

“Now is the time to empower minority owned businesses. That is why I am a founding member of this organization.” says Sherard Rogers, owner of Roll Up Dispensary / Blaze Concentrates. “We need to be steering away from failed policies like prohibition.”

Acting on behalf of the state’s handful of licensed ma*****na businesses of color, the BBRB Coalition has most recently spoken out against an effort to ban ma*****na concentrated products arguing that the legislation, which was drafted with no input from licensed businesses or prominent drug policy organizations, would devastate medical ma*****na patients, crush social equity advances and drive ma*****na sales back into the black market.

“We aren’t going anywhere,” says Joshua Littlejohn, owner of Colorado Moonrocks. “We’re moving forward to grow our business for our families. Prohibition will always be the wrong approach to cannabis and I’m glad BBRB is working hard to make that fact known.”

BBRB is accepting membership. We look forward to representing all owners of color in Colorado and beyond. Please go to www.Redbadged.org to download an application and learn more about our causes. Or give us a call at (720) 772-7662

All the best,
BLACK, BROWN & RED BADGED
A COALITION OF OWNERS OF COLOR
700 East 24th Ave, Denver, CO 80205
o. 720-772-7662 | www.RedBadged.org

Home | Black Brown and Red Badged Here at BBRB, we see the value in Black and Brown entrepreneurship. We want to be a catalyst for positive change in the cannabis industry. The BBRB’s efforts are aimed at reinforcing critically needed political support for local and state policies to improve the access to capital among business ...