Meg Nanna
When Green Hop opened its doors last year and became the first hip-hop-themed pot shop in the nation, it was cause for celebration. But its opening also exposed an embarrassing truth: There’s only one Black-owned dispensary in Portland. Green Hop co-owner Nicole Kennedy entered the cannabis industry in 2016 with the idea of opening a hip-hop-themed dispensary. “Then it turned into this grandiose idea of revolutionizing the cannabis industry,” she explains.
“The more events we went to, the more involved we got in the industry… well, it wasn’t shocking, but it was brought to the forefront of my mind that this industry is completely whitewashed,” Kennedy continues, “even though criminalization is completely brownwashed, if that’s a thing.”
