Founder Series: A Battle Cry to Spark Up

With legalization, I join the next generation of Cannabis entrepreneurs. I’m grateful to operate legally and happily carry the responsibility and weight of this opportunity. This is the biggest opportunity of my life and it is one where I feel right at home.

At my core, I’m a Dominican from Harlem. You can see it on me and hear it in my speech. Within those overlapping identities is a deep and complicated history with Cannabis - personally, familially, and culturally. Personally, years of hiding consumption from my family. Familially, watching the derailment and debasement of men in my family and community by the law. And culturally, celebrating Cannabis through hip-hop, parties, cyphers and more. But no matter what I kept consuming, we all did, because everything is better with Cannabis. Seriously, everything.

Cannabis legalization brings with it an entourage effect of positivity to the American people . We are just now starting to learn what those positive effects are. And maybe one day, when Cannabis is finally removed from Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substance Act, we will be able to finally understand what our ancestors have always understood. That everything is better with Cannabis. Seriously, everything.

The day is coming, the day when Cannabis is no longer whispered about and hidden. When we speak freely in meetings about how we use it and why we love it. When we share with each other how we grow it, cook with it, and heal with it. In a way, the legalization of Cannabis is a step forward into the past. A past where we valued the plants more, and found in the Earth everything we needed to lead happier and healthier lives.

So, I present to you all ANJA. My take, our take, on Cannabis culture. I hope you see all of us in ANJA. All the moments, songs, movies, corners, stoops, joints, blunts, friendships, romances, lighters, grinders, pipes and bongs that made Cannabis special to us. I hope you feel all the ups and downs, highs and lows, joys and sadness from every puff of ganja in our store. We love this plant, just like Bob Marley and the hippies did, back in the 70s.

Now, enough reading - go light one for us!