Cannabis is now legal in Massachusetts, and people are trying to take advantage of the growing industry and economic opportunities. However, one unforeseen circumstance of the new marijuana industry is the effect big businesses and lobbyists have on controlling the market.

“It really became painfully obvious,” co-owner of small, local cannabis company, Pure Oasis, Kodie Evans said. “Based on their size and ability to spend money, they have hired lobbyists who have been able to influence the political process.”

Evans and his business partner, Kevin Hart, are attempting to bring Pure Oasis to Medford and obtain a host agreement at 479 Broadway. Evans said they are one of only two applications in the state who already have a host agreement with another city or town, and they are hoping to beat the odds of competing with the big businesses to come to Medford.

“The only people who can get those meetings and get the subsequent host meetings are those big business that have politically correct connections and hire lobbying consultants who can make a phone call and set up a meeting in a week," Evans said. "Unfortunately for us who A) are a small business, and B) have economic empowerment designation, it almost makes it impossible."

Evans explained that 350 to 400 host agreements have been issued in Massachusetts and only two of those hundreds have gone to a small business or those with an "Economic Empowerment application," which is supposed to help people from marginalized communities, like Pure Oasis.

“It’s important to respect the will of the voter who may have not voted because they use cannabis but they voted because of the social justice component and the opportunity to create equity in the State,” he said. “I think that’s a big deal. I don’t want people who voted for that to feel like they have been disenfranchised because equity isn’t possible."

Evans and Hart currently own a cannabis dispensary in Dorchester, and they are battling in the industry as African-American, small business owners. Evans said the advantage for big companies in the cannabis market is a problem across the country, but explained that Massachusetts tried to combat the problem. However, there are still major issues in the host agreement process.

“They were the first to mandate equity, meaning people like Kevin and I would have a leg up in the application process,” he said. “But, secondly, what they did was institute a host agreement. That gives local control. That local control means we have to go to Medford and try to get in touch with the mayor to get a meeting to see about getting a host agreement.”

Pure Oasis is one of many cannabis companies in Medford attempting to obtain a host agreement. Although the city has a lot of applications, it is not done with its ordinance yet, which provides key guidelines for cannabis companies.

“We have been working on the marijuana ordinance,” said Medford Mayor Stephanie Burke. “Until we have the ordinance in place, no one can open up because I’m not signing a host agreement and neither is the Council as best as I can tell until we have the ordinance established.”

Burke explained that by law, the City has to allow Cannabis into the community, and based on the Medford population, it needs a minimum of three cannabis companies.

“Three is being dictated to us by Mass law,” Burke said. “It’s statutory.”

Burke said she understands the issue of big businesses dominating the market and hopes to create an ordinance that supports small businesses and minorities as best as she can.

“We have seen the deep pockets that are in this industry,” Burke said. “We want to make sure to the extent we can do it by law that we can build in guidelines that make it so we can have a certified women’s owned business, a certified minority owned business, and not have the big guns backing it. We want to see some of the small purveyors prevail in opening up in our city. We don’t want to see just the big outlets come to Medford."

Burke further expressed her support for bring small businesses to the city.

“We are big supporters of small businesses, and we want to make sure we can do whatever we can within the law to invite them into our community,” Burke asserted. “We are going to do as best we can within what we are allowed to do by ordinance so we want to really entice our small businesses and our local businesses to be able to be part of this.”

Actions, not just words

Evans said Burke’s words sound great, but he is reluctant to believe any words by "politicians" due to their tough experiences in other cities. However, he hopes Medford follows the lead of Somerville and Cambridge by creating an ordinance that helps small businesses.

“You see all the sideways movements of political activity and you think it’s just isolated to Washington and then you see the article that it’s spread across the country as a whole and it’s not Democrat and it's not Republican,” Evans said. “There are cities and towns that are working diligently and have put strong language in their ordinance to make sure the playing field is level. Cities like Somerville and Cambridge have really codified that they not only speak the language but they are willing to put it in writing. Those are the people who have really gone above and beyond and have demonstrated that they are not just saying something but are doing something.

“You have other towns like Brockton who play this other game of we are going to work towards this but they don’t do anything about it,” Evans continued. “They play the same political game. Saying something is one thing. It’s a matter of what happens at the end of the day in terms of creating equity. We are still waiting to see those words come into action.”

Burke hopes to complete the ordinance by the end of the month.

“We are really close,” Burke said. “We have had the luxury to see what has gone on in other communities, from traffic jams and other things, so I think our ordinance will be really top notch, because we have the luxury and time to see the pitfalls. We are hopeful we will have something done in the month of May, and we are very eager to get that done.”

Creating the business

Evans and Hart both grew up in areas of high crime and drugs. Evans is from Dorchester and currently lives in Roxbury as a real-estate broker, while Hart is from Baltimore and lives in Randolph working in hospitals and the health care industry.

“I saw my fair share of drugs and violence growing up in inner city neighborhood,” Evans reflected. “We have deep roots in the community. We have a pretty good business sense, as well as some good common sense mixed in with some street sense.”

Evans and Hart began looking at opening a dispensary a couple of years ago, and Evans explained what attracted them to the industry.

“We knew the law was coming down the pike and we thought it would be great because they had provisions in there for locally owned, economic empowerment run by minorities," Evans said. "We started looking at the application process a couple of years ago, and last year we formally started the application process and started working towards everything you need to do, such as finding a site, where to complete the application."

The two are really good friends and spend a lot of time together, and Evans said they both wanted to take advantage of the law by creating a cannabis company.

“Knowing how the law was being written, with provisions for people like us who are minorities living in and around the city, we thought it would be a good idea,” he said. “We did it more on a whim, but things get kept working in our favor and the next thing you know, we were able to find a location and working towards completing our application.”

Although Massachusetts has many great opportunities for employment for many different groups of people, Evans said there is still an “economic divide” in the state.

“You see all this opportunity in the state but there is another report that there is a giant economic divide along socioeconomic lines in terms of what the average a person of color was worth in Massachusetts versus a white person,” he said. “Seeing there is a big economic divide and the law was written to create some sort of level playing field, it was an opportunity that seemed to be for us so why not take advantage of it if it seemed to be designed for us?"

However, they quickly realized it is difficult to be a small business in a large industry.

“We thought we were fighting the big businesses, which we are,” Evans said. “But, it’s a two-headed monster, the other being the politicians who look at favorable relationships in terms of who they meet when they give host agreements.”

Evans and Hart hope to receive the host agreement and bring their company to Medford.

“To create opportunities for small business owners, who don’t have the money to hire giant lobby firms who live in Massachusetts, who have deep roots in the community, who want to open a business but shouldn’t have to deal with all of the red tape, and the politics and the bureaucracy that this country is known for,” he said. “We have to shine a spotlight on some of the old habits of politics that don’t have a place anymore.”