The former investment banker sometimes sits in the driver’s seat of her parked Range Rover Sport and lets herself marvel at the customers trickling in and out of her Capitol Heights dispensary in Prince George’s County.
The crowd on a weekday could have just as easily been emerging from a Wegmans: Silver-haired men and women, people in business casual, couples with bags in hand. They come for newly-legal INCREDIBLES, Sativa Milk Chocolate and Equity London Pound Cake and leave the Mary & Main boutique happy.
Hope Wiseman, 31, feels gratitude watching her business bloom. She knows the odds weren’t in her favor as a Black woman seeking a foothold in an increasingly consolidated and overwhelmingly White industry. Six years in, she’s ready to maximize the output of her dispensary with the boost of legalized adult recreational cannabis use, partner with new licensees and offer consulting services for an industry she knows can be tough to navigate.
Wiseman said she learned a lot as she navigated the medical industry and Maryland’s transition to legalization July 1. She wants newcomers joining the market to feel supported in an industry filled with hurdles, to be proud and visible.
That’s exactly what some leaders of this affluent, majority-Black suburb want to avoid.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Lateshia Beachum over at The Washington Post
