Grade’s Social Equity Diversity Guiding Principles

Part of our core mission at Grade is to do all that we can to ensure that the legal cannabis industry is as equitable as possible for all involved, especially for Black and Brown communities whose lives were destroyed by the decades-long War on Drugs, with cannabis enforcement practices that created multigenerational trauma, incarceration and oppression of communities around the world. This mission is driven by our founder who is a current social equity applicant in California.

We are proud to have worked with organizations like the Minority Cannabis Business Association for the last 5+ years to craft cannabis policy frameworks that are equitable to help social equity participants and the industry as a whole to move forward. We regularly sponsor events such as the Equity Sessions and teach free retail compliance curriculum and lead workforce development training with groups like Equity for Industry at Success Centers and Our Academy to help social equity applicants get more access to education and training.

Throughout the year our founders speak about how policymakers and industry leaders can create a more equitable market.

Juneteenth is a paid company holiday for Grade employees, and we encourage our team to take this day to learn about the devastating effects of the War on Drugs and help brainstorm solutions to give back to communities of culture.

We're committed to using our platform, our voice, our resources and our community to continue to find more robust ways to support social equity.

Grade’s Inclusivity and Uplift Approach

Education

Grade believes technical and vocational training and education is a core foundation for Black and Brown communities to empower them as owners in their cannabis operations.

In Action:

  • We always lead with a compliance curriculum designed to fill the operational gap for new operators.
  • We prioritize compliance education to ensure these hard-earned social equity licenses are in compliance with all regulatory requirements.
  • We facilitate, adjust, and iterate curriculum based on the needs of the specific audience, taking into account socio-economic backgrounds and lack of access to quality education.
Access

Grade recognizes and honors the effects of racist policy creation and enforcement and commits to meeting applicants where they're at in all interactions.

In Action:

  • We recognize and honor the effect of drug policy, militarization of police, racist enforcement tactics, the prison-industrial complex and the tragedy of the homes that were destroyed, the families that were broken and the children that were raised in the foster care system.
  • We recognize there are customs, culture, and a host of other factors that play into where a person is willing and able to show up.
Allyship

Grade stands in allyship with the Black and Brown communities and considers all partnerships in terms of their transparency to applicants.

In Action:

  • We hold space for Black and Brown entrepreneurs when we share compliance curriculum, facilitate events, and onboard new dispensary and delivery partners.
  • We check for transparency in all social equity partnerships that we enter into to ensure social equity applicants are respected and supported to avoid predatory partnerships.

Grade’s Corporate Social Responsibility

Industry Leadership

Grade CEO and Co-Founder Bryant Ezeji has served as a social equity applicant in California and as social equity subcommittee member in the City of Long Beach. He is also a Member of California Cannabis Industry Association (CCIA), The Cannabis Distribution Association (CDA), IAM Acamademy,Hemp Association of Ghana and African Union’s Expert Committee on Cannabis. Grade is also a proud member of the United Cannabis Business Association and works with these influential trade associations to unite the legal cannabis industry and create a unified voice at the state and national levels.

Since 2020, Grade has worked to provide education and community feedback to regulators and legislators; we traveled thousands of miles to make public comments and lobby at every state and country cannabis regulatory session. We're committed to advocating for licensed cannabis dispensaries to have lower taxes and more access to professional and financial services like any other modern, state-legal business

Community Building, Education & Connection

Over the years, Grade has hosted hundreds of free and low-cost cannabis industry events to share information and empower licensed operators with the knowledge to succeed in this new, emerging industry. Every year, Grade offers discounted and free scholarship tickets to social equity operators and those affected by the War on Drugs. We donate a percentage of all net revenue from this annual event to a select nonprofit partner working for social equity or compassion in the cannabis industry.

Compassion Programs

We support compassion programs including Sweetleaf Collective and Warriors for Weed which donate free cannabis to low-income, terminally-ill patients. Grade gives these compassion programs free storage of patient data in Grade's HIPAA-secure database, and we provide resources to help all operators powered by Grade's software to set up their own in-store compassion programs to process donations for medical patients. Over the years, we also worked with Weed for Good to remove obstacles for medical patients to get access to free cannabis programs and will continue to do so.

Allies Creating Equity

Being an Ally Creating Equity means we commit to learning about the ways in which generations of white Americans have benefited from institutionalized racism and systematic oppression; dismantling subconscious racial bias, listening and educating ourselves on the ways race and privilege intersect in all facets of our culture; taking action in defense of human life; and designing systems that benefit Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities that have been long oppressed. As a company, we're committed to this pledge, which means every year we mentor BIPOC students, hire BIPOC interns, evaluate diverse candidates before making hiring decisions, send annual donations to select pro-equity organizations, and share educational resources to help our team actively dismantle subconscious racial biases.