Fighting the Good Fight for Medical Cannabis with Hakeem Brown

Grassroots Marketing talks about Life Enhancement Services and Fighting the Good Fight for Medical Cannabis with Hakeem Brown. Hakeem Brown has been fighting the good fight in the medical cannabis industry for years. Despite facing racism and raids as a Black grower and dispensary owner, he continues to push forward and provide medicine through his company, Life Enhancement Services. With his company, Life Enhancement Services, he is providing medicine for his patients. “I think early on, police were used to arresting Black and Brown men for cannabis, and just because suddenly the state changed it, in their minds, nothing had changed,” Brown says. “Cannabis is one of the only cases in the U.S. where you’re guilty until proven innocent, and that gives law enforcement a lot of leeway to arrest you. I’ve been arrested multiple times, raided, arrested with my son in the car. All they had to do was look at the paperwork and see we were doing everything legally, but they couldn’t get that into their heads.” This type of brutal prejudice would have soured most from the industry, but not Brown. He keeps pushing for patient rights and advocating for cannabis and continues to do what he loves and work in the industry. “That’s the story of my life, being raided by officers who were overly eager, being treated like a drug dealer instead of a real cannabis advocate. So, it was tough getting into legal cannabis, because you have to have the money, and because of the assumptions people make. But I want to keep fighting and keep pushing to show people that Black cannabis dispensary owners aren’t just criminals.” In 2011, the referendum to impose a business license tax rate of 10 percent on the sale of medical cannabis products within the city was passed, thanks in part to Brown’s support. Thanks to his efforts, Life Enhancement Services and Brown are able to serve the community with legal cannabis. Cannabis activists with Re-Start Vallejo and Vallejo Patients Coalition supported this move. To support Brown, medical patients in Vallejo can patronize his store, Life Enhancement Services. Others can follow along with his story and continue to support Black cannabis entrepreneurs, criminal record expungement, and a final end to the racist war on drugs.