“Fine I’ll do it.” has become a universal saying for women of color in almost every industry, probably because most of the time if anyone is going to get something done and done right it’s going to be a black or brown woman whether asked to or not. Kelly Perez is no doubt one of those get it done women, and the work she’s doing includes making sure that communities of color are given equal opportunity and fiscal support through and within the booming legal cannabis industry.
Perez is the CEO and co-founder of kindColorado, president and co-founder of Cannabis Doing Good, and a mother of five children. Her companies are fully self funded and organized/run my herself and her business partner Courtney Mathis, who is also the CEO/founder of CDG and president of kindColorado. For the past 3 years kindColorado has been fostering relationships and creating partnerships between legal cannabis businesses and the communities they are part of in order to create social equity.
“Social equity is the philosophy that we are setting forth laws in cannabis to make sure communities that have been affected by cannabis are given a piece of the industry,” Perez explained “The aim of these laws is to create and even playing field in a place where it isn’t as well. It’s creating equitable opportunity so your zip code or race doesn’t determine whether you can succeed or not in your community”.
Before heading a cannabis company, Perez was a social worker, community organizer and policy advisor for the governor in Colorado after Amendment 64, the people’s initiative that put legalization on the ballot, passed. During her time as a policy advisor, Colorado state legislators passed created the implementation of the new law Amendment 64 which would eventually legalize cannabis retailers and recreational use for adult in the state. But Perez noticed something interesting about Amendment 64 after it was introduced. When she reviewed it she noticed that there was an important piece that wasn’t included in the text.
“I came in post amendment 64, after a thorough process, but one not able to see much beyond the immediate criminal justice impact—which was a focus for advocates,” she said “The whole Amendment 64 piece was flawed because social equity wasn’t part of the conversation”. This was not the fault of advocates who worked hard on it, but rather due to having to give up a lot to pass the law in fairly conservative state. We were first but not best. I cared about mass incarceration and the War on Drugs, and these were not areas of in the law”.
After spending a lot of time working with these communities of color in Colorado she worried Amendment 64 would do more harm than good. She noticed that the law’s “zoned like alcohol,” would likely mean disproportionate impact in communities of color. The density maps of Denver of cannabis businesses aligned perfectly with community data for lower socioeconomic rates, high rates of people of color, and worse health outcomes. This unethical behavior made Perez very angry and wondered if anyone had talked to cannabis companies in the neighborhoods about working with the community. This is when she had the idea to create her own solution to the problem.
“I worked hard to get the governor on board, and created the Office of Marijuana Coordination to get the state departments responsible for parts of the law aligned. It was then that I saw that the details of the law in people’s lives would happen at the municipal level. Most importantly I saw that communities were not going to benefit from legalization,” Perez added. “I thought about it differently because I knew cannabis was zoned in those communities I operated in. I told the mayor that these POC communities were going to be gentrified and in danger if plans weren’t put in place for them but no one was really listening to me. I was so angry about it, so I started kindColorado because I knew the laws and I knew these communities and that cannabis and community were not talking. Communities felt taking advantage of and didn’t realize that the companies didn’t choose where they were zoned to operate”.
Since the inception of kindColorado and Cannabis Doing Good, Perez and her team have been working hard to connect all communities into the cannabis industry and vice versa.
“Our goal is to try to figure out how communities can benefit from legalization. If cannabis gets rid of these communities developers win, and we’ve lobbied on behalf of the community with cannabis. Communities were scared so my thought was why don’t we all work together. We’re accountable to the community, this is my community I’m not gonna do something that’s not gonna work for them. Over the last 5 years we’ve really been all about conscious cannabis behavior and best business practices that is equitable and accessible for all communities. We are here to make change.” Perez told me.
Of course many canna-business owners may not find such efforts valuable to their business and customers or don’t know where or how to start giving back to the neighborhoods and communities they are part of. It’s not necessarily trendy to do good. But that is the whole purpose of the work Perez is doing to show cannabis companies and lawmakers it’s not that hard to give back, in fact what she does makes it much easier.
“We’ve had to hustle to figure out how to move forward it’s quite complicated. Foundations need to be in cannabis spaces, because they also have no idea how this industry works. I’ve never met a CEO who was also well versed in public policy and also be in cannabis, who could do all that? That’s why we do what we do even though it’s such a small piece. Cannabis Doing Good is an easy way to bring people along with conscious company behavior but you have to change the laws at the same time because the laws don’t include being a friendly player,” she explained.
All of the projects under her organizations align with the mission of “doing good and doing well” and showing people and canna-business owners that’s it is indeed possible to do both. Some of their projects and clients include Lightshade Dispensary funding the Amazing Grace Church food pantry, Sweet Grass Kitchen co-branded cookies with Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains, and Buddy Boy Brands community facilitation and mediation.
Perez also told me another part of kindColorado’s mission is to “Positively impact communities that have been systematically underserved and oppressed, but also to help shape the cannabis industry’s evolving story”.
For many people of color they have a hands on experience and history with cannabis that hasn’t been as positive and profitable as the current cannabis industry, from that viewpoint it can seem like the cannabis industry is not being fair towards our communities. Hence why Perez is doing the work she is doing today.
In her own personal life Perez mentioned cannabis has has been healing for her, especially after a serious head injury, and hopes her efforts allow people of color to have the same access and opportunities to use cannabis medicine for every aspect of their lives.