Photos: Roll Up Life\YouTube
Tiyahnn Bryant has big dreams of running one of the first cannabis delivery companies in New Jersey. His company, Roll Up Life, currently delivers CBD products as it waits for the state to open applications for class six businesses, which deal with cannabis transportation.
The East Orange native said that during college, he was troubled to learn that Black entrepreneurs make up less than five percent of the adult-use marijuana industry, even as more U.S. states legalize the drug.
“I smoked a little bit, dabbled in selling weed here and there,” said Bryant, owner and chief executive officer at Roll Up Life, Inc. “I went to college, majored in political science, and started to see disturbing statistics…such as higher arrest rates [in communities of color], such as the war on drugs and what it actually did to the community.”
This inspired him to work toward entering the cannabis industry himself — and making it easier for others to do the same.
Cannabis regulatory officials in states like New Jersey, where residents overwhelmingly voted to legalize weed in 2020, have said “social equity” is a priority in rolling out the adult-use market. Read more.
