Bradshaw leads a cannabis dispensary with plans to open in 2021, and which has been stuck in the state’s licensing process for going on three years. He’s the first to tell you being one of the first cannabis companies owned by a person of color slated to open in the state, more than two years after the recreational market officially opened, is no positive distinction, considering the industry was supposed to prioritize communities negatively impacted by the War on Drugs.
Bradshaw has fought to maintain majority control of his business in the face of an economic ecosystem which routinely pushes people of color out of majority stakeholdership in exchange for funding, and when New Dia finally gets the greenlight, he plans for it to be devoted to bettering its community. Large, white cannabis companies could learn a thing or two from Bradshaw.
