Painful though it may be, discrimination happens in every industry. Misogyny, sexism, xenophobia, ageism, religious discrimination, racism, homophobia, discrimination on the basis of ability or lack thereof, you name it; discrimination is what it is and it is wrong. I know we would like to think our friendly little industry as accepting and welcoming, but more and more I am hearing stories of abject violations of workers’ rights. I am concerned. With all this in mind, I want to have a discussion that may be a bit uncomfortable to some of our forum members, however it is necessary. I want to talk about workplace discrimination specifically in the cannabis industry and the ancillary businesses that support it. Let’s identify instances of discrimination in hope that we can ultimately eradicate it altogether in the future.
When have you witnessed or experienced discrimination in the cannabis industry?
What a strong subject to start the week. Yes. Yes. and yes, as a women in the cannabis industry my skills and knowledge are constantly challenged. I don’t know why my looks would define my experience or anyone for that matter. I’ve learned to use the discrimination as a power move, allowing me to make smarter moves based on their ignorance. Respect all people the way you would like to be respected, its so simple.
100%. We are a double discriminated against company…very sad
My wife and owner has a masters in microbiology and worked for over a decade for Humboldt State University as the microbiologist. Shen has been published multiple times for her discovery of a Eucaryote…which not too many men or us cannabis folks can claim. She not only is a white woman but a minority like myself.
Because people are the way they are we stay a small business to focus on farms and stores that support minority business. Or don’t care who owns it and want the highest quality cannabis
None yet, but I am ever present to care for the little guy, pushed beyond endurance to earn a few extra bucks. Making sure breaks are counted and used for eat and eating. An area of easy abuse by growers wary of profits in competitive areas.
Its ironic considering the legalization movement is all about equality for a sub culture that has been discriminated against for generations.
I think its part of the fierce competitive forces, just like the pesticide epidemic that existed until around 2015, where some were willing to cheat and exploit others to get ahead. It will take time, but as great businesses emerge hopefully it will go away. Until then its important to align yourselves with the best leaders and companies with strong values.
I had dedicated my pathetic life to an Arizona based edible company called Baked Bros. Let me just say I had a high amount of respect for this company because they labeled thier products, they tested them before sending them to dispensaries, and best part you dont like thier product money back guarantee. Now of course I’m naive and didnt realize that this was standard in the industry. This was my first year of having a med card. Fast forward a couple years down the road after being loyal customer for Baked Bros I see a job opening for them and landed the job. Now first impressions, I was amazed the owner Thomas said he was inspired by a tradegy of losing his mother to opiates. So, dream come true simple as any other job except for one thing. You have to keep up appearances, make small talk with the people you know whom dont like you, kiss ass to people who refuse to even save your number because they’re management and think highly of themselves yet when shit hits the fan they panic instead of doing thier job. Essentially lie to your patients, I had to promote the companies products by explaining the effects of Baked Bros edibles talking to patients in a sense like a salesmen.( You should try us because we use distillate and terpenes its consistent, reliable, and if you dont like our gummys we have syrup! here have a free 150 gummy or 150 syrup on me!) I’d give them a business card for reedemable coupon no purchase necessary. Now after the first week i started considering if I should leave or wait and see what happens after witnessing questionable interpersonal communication skills from my new general manager Nick Martinez. My first day after my shift im waiting in the office for my ride and I saw my GM chew out my supervisor. Keep in mind its a small company so our warehouse was a trailer unit in a parking lot within a facility. He essentially told my supervisor he was wasting his time and awkwardly makes eye contact with me asking Micheal why I’m in the room. He explains I’m waiting for my ride then walks out. I loved the environment, your working with cannabis! Who wouldn’t love that majority of the people were cool another majority decietful motivated by money instead of thier heart. For the first month in a half there everyone would just pick on a woman name Corra mybe it was because she was wild and loud but thats just who she was as a person if she was quiet you knew something was wrong, The packaging manager Brandon didn’t like her would tell her to shut up behined her back alot of bad mouthing send her to do random tasks completely irrelevant to what we were doing like, taking the trash out to dumpster going around pick trash up outside in the middle of summer in Arizona, doing laundry, scrubbing bathrooms spotless, lets just say shes a harder worker than me and my manger put together willing to learn converses with anyone very outgoing optimistic. Im the only one that said i like corra when everyone else was silent like in fear of being judged i think its fucked up how the owners Nadeem Al-Hassan and Thomas Rimbach literally told this woman on her monthly review to stop talking so much i had never seen her so pissed off. I show up do my job the best i can, dont talk much because im brooding i had recently lost my mother to opiates and alcholisim she was a nurse so obviously im hurting hell at this point i was contemplating suicide every day, my favorite part of the job was in the monthly meeting the owners would read off testimonials from patients using thier products detailed letters explaining thier story and how thier life has changed now i keep doing my thing working smile here smile there and me and Corra were cleaning the floor the more experienced workers were suppose to clean but half assed it meaning she stayed behined after our shift scrubbing floors with simple green by herself i didnt know until Nate the production manager asks me if i can stay and he explains and im like yeah of course anything to help Corra so were cleaning talking then she asks if im sad and i explain and she has this like face of englightment like thats it that explains everything so after our awkward silence were talking about bands again cars food she was cool as hell, within a month in a half im being promoted to kitchen without realizing it im getting treated differently from my supervisor and packaging manager im finally getting hours like a normal job instead of working for 4 hours 2 days a week it seemed like life was good im meeting new people learning new things, Now heres where it gets weird i tell my supervisor Micheal im running late one day in traffic because a suv flipped over so of course traffic is gonna be backed he said ( no problem thank you for letting me know) later that week my manager Nate asks for my phone number because Micheal said he doesnt have my number even though we messaged eachother heres where my problem begins i call out for 2 days because i know im fighting a virus im told upon returning to work i need to have a doctors note to go back to work i call places and find out you cant back track those previous days so what do i do i decide to be honest instead of listening to everyone else saying i shouldve just forged the papers i told them i didn’t have the papers but i didn’t show up because i didn’t want to get anyone sick especially the patients even after being sick i wore a face mask around the facility throughout the week my supervisors and managers remind me to bring a note when the day comes i dont have one to give so i tell them i dont have it because you can not back track those previous dates so they let me work for them as usual things are going smooth were getting batches finished faster than usual than my monthly review was good my gm Nick said he appreciates everything how fast ive learned just brown nosing im on time and never make mistakes how i value the company the next day im fired over that doctors note and various things. so they got me for missed clocks and being late twice and no doctors note, Heres the truth when your slaving over production making sure everything is perfect its more than possible to forget to clock in from lunch trying to hurry back and not dissapoint your team by being late, i was stuck in traffic so being 20 mins late means i was never there yet i remember being there making batch after batch of thier proprietary gummies oh which by they way are albanese gummys and sour patch kids gummies saturated in distillate terpene extracted from the trim and stems and shake from Tru-Med dispensary coated with sugar not worth 60 bucks let alone 90 for thier syrup if you ask me oh which by the way is not vegan or diabetic friendly this syrup contans many additives and artifical flavors thats just not how they market thier products I know i got fired because Micheal didnt like me every review was written like it was a personal fued and it was always by him, what gave it away was the intricate details such as me having a vape pen on my break or me being silent or not responding to him when he speaks to me, not gonna lie i felt a little racist vibe from Micheal im sure he didn’t mean anything buy it but alot of his jokes if not all were very sterotypical like (i bet youve seen alot of torquiose) im half apache and half mexican and this wasn’t his only stupid joke or racial comment, Now the kitchen is where i learned thier dirtiest secret Baked Bros originally attempted to make edible brownies but they failed couldnt get the formula right thats how they got started thats why thier named Baked Bros i was on my break eating minding my own business when one of the owners is openly upset he had purchased a quarter million worth of hard candy making machines but he found a solution to where he did not need those machines anymore so he needed to find a way to sell all of these industrial machines wasting money, It was like they wanted to condition you to think and act like they do when i first started in the kitchen we could listen to anything we wanted after a month it was stricly clean songs it was little gestures like that made me feel uncomfortable within my work environment only because i knew they were hypocrites doing less work than the rest of the team it would enrage me when they would belittle thier only employees . This companies focus is becoming a sports brand accossiating itself with famous athletes for marketing purpose majority of thier social medias pictures will include a very attractive male or female phisically fit displaying thier product not your average everyday person like myself, I remember my manager Brandon would constantly remind me (Hey you know were the unofficial offical sponsor of the Cardinals), i always thought to myself if that was the case wouldn’t they publicly support Baked Bros on television or at least like a podcast or sports center at least, my assistant manager Ramon said we have three different customers, the people that need it, the people that want it, and the opiate users. In honesty i miss the job and then i dont, miss the perks like discounts free gummies but i will never miss the bullshit that Baked Bros foundation is derrived from.
To be honest the type of discrimination i have faced in the cannabis industry has to do with my age. Being that im not 100 years old, older people figure that i have no idea what i am talking about. I understand that i havent even been alive as long as youve been growing weed, but that doesnt mean i dont know a thing or two about the industry.
Complaining about this seems silly though because there are people facing actually damaging and dangerous discrimination out there, which is just plain wrong.
Ageism is real, and it happens all the time to both young and aging populations and it’s always wrong. Anytime you are denied an opportunity on the basis of age, gender, race, sexual or religious identity it is just plain wrong. Thanks for sharing your experience, @Ryan_CVault.
Hardest part is work habits and mentality with job tasks and such. When employees constantly make mistakes and all of the sudden the employee try’s to victimize themselves. “Oh they treat me like im stupid because my age” no it’s your habits that make you get in trouble.
I believe if we all gather together in one heart we will definitely let everything shin green. leaving the individual and negative things away when we be at or out the work are simple solution!!.
When I was in Oakland our shop was run by some older Mexican guys. Almost all the younger hires in shop were also either Mexican (or of Mexican heritage), or latino. Me and one other white guy, and then one asian girl were the only other non-latinos there during my entire period there of about 9 months.
As it turns out, the black and latino communities in Oakland do NOT get along together very well, and they said to me point blank they would never even consider hiring a black person to work in the shop. This was coming from latino upper management, too! This was under prop 215 mind you, so we were still dark grey market at best…
Then, when we started up the legal shop, I even witnessed discrimination against stoners. Ine freaking cannabis industry. The first wave of hires was all non-cannabis guys. That didn’t last very long. They eventually realized they were shooting themselves in the foot by hiring all people with zero freaking industry experience, then turned around and started hiring people who had cannabis industry experience.
