{"id":85161,"date":"2026-01-20T15:33:43","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T23:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2026\/01\/20\/kiss-my-grass-speaks-truth\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T19:46:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T03:46:14","slug":"kiss-my-grass-speaks-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2026\/01\/20\/kiss-my-grass-speaks-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Kiss My Grass\u2019 Speaks Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Legal weed looks good on paper. Dispensaries that feel like Apple stores. Influencer product drops. Celebrities launching \u201cwellness\u201d brands from Manhattan to Malibu. But peel back the shiny packaging and the question hits hard: Who\u2019s really cashing in on cannabis, and who\u2019s still paying the price?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the heartbeat of Kiss My Grass<\/a><\/em>, a short documentary that refuses to let the industry off the hook. Written by Roy Wood, Jr., directed by Mary Pryor, Mara Whitehead, co-directed by Tirsa Hackshaw and narrated by actor and activist Rosario Dawson, the film doesn\u2019t waste time glamorizing the Green Rush. Instead, it zooms in on the people of color, particularly Black women, who\u2019ve had to fight their way into a market that was never built for them.<\/p>\n

In less than 20 minutes, Kiss My Grass<\/em> manages to hit every nerve with candid interviews that strip the false promises of legalization down to its bones. It\u2019s in these raw, personal stories from trailblazers including Kim James, Matha Figaro, Jessica Jackson and Coss Martewhere the documentary hits hardest. Watching them, you\u2019re forced to confront a painful reality: Legalization was sold as a new beginning, but the same old systems keep showing up with new branding.<\/p>\n

\"Kiss<\/a><\/figure>\n

After watching the film, I had a lot of questions about what it actually takes to make progress in such a complicated system and had the opportunity to ask some of the featured individuals about what\u2019s changed, what hasn\u2019t and what needs to happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrue equity requires structural repair,\u201d says Jackson, director of social equity for Minnesota\u2019s Office of Cannabis Management. \u201cThat means reinvestment into harmed communities; expungement and record repair; rules that prevent hidden ownership and monopolization; workforce protections; and readiness tools like technical assistance\u2014all interventions Minnesota provided from the start in Chapter 342 legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the cannabis industry is expected to hit $45 billion in 2025, equity programs meant to level the field often feel more like public relations stunts than progress in some states. The numbers from around the country tell the story: Only 0.35 percent of venture capital reaches Black women founders. Black people are still 3.7 times more likely to be arrested for possession.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccess to capital, affordable real estate, and navigating complex regulations are major barriers,\u201d says James, who leads Detroit\u2019s Office of Cannabis Management. \u201cMany equity programs don\u2019t address the systemic economic disadvantages experienced by people who come from communities disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Wanda<\/a>
Kiss My Grass <\/em>appeared at the prestigious Tribeca Fim Festival this past summer in advance of its wider digital release. Wanda James, Simply Pure\u2019s CEO and Regent at the University of Colorado, appears in the movie. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s just even more of a reminder that legal doesn\u2019t mean fair for the communities that got felonies instead of spots on the Forbes list for selling cannabis.<\/p>\n

As Coss Marte, founder of fitness empire CONBODY, puts it, \u201cIf you\u2019re making millions off cannabis, you have a moral obligation to invest in the communities that paid the price for prohibition,\u201d he says. \u201cThat means jobs, ownership and capital\u2014not charity optics. Repair starts when money, mentorship and opportunity flow directly to the people most impacted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, this isn\u2019t a film that wallows in defeat. It\u2019s about persistence. You feel the exhaustion, but also the refusal to give up. You see the discouragement, but also a spark of hope for the future. If there\u2019s one message this film makes clear it\u2019s that equity won\u2019t grow on its own, but it can<\/em> take root if we tend to it.<\/p>\n

For Figaro, the founder behind ButACake and CannPowerment, the future of cannabis isn\u2019t just about who gets in the door now, but what the next generation of women of color will inherit. When asked what needs to change to make that possible, she didn\u2019t hold back. \u201cMy hope is that future generations inherit thriving cannabis businesses and the tools to bring underrepresented voices to market,\u201d she says. \u201cBut to get there, we must dismantle the small-minded and misinformed policymakers writing rules they\u2019ll never be forced to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n

After making its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival<\/a> this past summer, Kiss My Grass<\/em> is set for a wider digital release at a later date. Whether you work in cannabis or just care about justice, it\u2019s essential viewing about what happens when an industry sells progress but delivers privilege. It leaves you moved. It leaves you mad. And, just maybe, that\u2019s the point.<\/p>\n

\n

The post \u2018Kiss My Grass\u2019 Speaks Truth<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n


\n
\nRead More: \u2018Kiss My Grass\u2019 Speaks Truth<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Legal weed looks good on paper. Dispensaries that feel like Apple stores. Influencer product drops. Celebrities launching \u201cwellness\u201d brands from Manhattan to Malibu. But peel back the shiny packaging and the question hits hard: Who\u2019s really cashing in on cannabis, and who\u2019s still paying the price? That\u2019s the heartbeat ofContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":85162,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,19692,19693,2462,125,85,19694,16788,19695,19696],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85161"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85161"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85163,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85161\/revisions\/85163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}