On June 25, 2019, Governor J.B. Pritzker signed the Illinois Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act to legalize recreational marijuana. Since the bill took effect on Jan. 1, 2020, the industry has boomed in the area. The city was projected to bring in $1.5 billion, according to ABC-7.
With 118 dispensaries filled with various products, one of the brands that stick out is Community, which is backed by OURS, a Black-owned, women-led group that stands for Organic Urban Revitalization Solutions.
According to The Chicago Reader, Anton Seals Jr. and fellow entrepreneurs J.T. Stinnette, Jamaal Kendrick and Chris “Dough” Fryison teamed up with several silent partners to create the organization after the bill was signed.
The outlet shares the group wanted to create a “wellness-focused” that would offer members of the Black and Brown community ownership and employment opportunities as their contribution to addressing the disproportionate war on drugs.
“We were aligning to answer what social equity needed, but also choosing to form partnerships with the best people,” says Tanya Ward, the group’s marketing director, who spoke about their mission to find the solution of “social equity” in the cannabis space through forming partnerships.
“We looked at this as an opportunity to create generational wealth, because for people with our skin growing up in this country, that’s not guaranteed,” she explained.
Ward added that their drive to create solutions was “an effort to do for ourselves, but also to honor the people that came before us.”
After Illinois passed the legalization law, the organization applied for cannabis business licenses in the dispensary, craft grower, infuser, and transporter sectors. Their goal was to open a dispensary, which was seen as the industry’s top spot. Their initial goals were halted when they were only awarded an infuser and transporter license.
Due to the restrictions associated with the two licenses, the group’s principal members spent two years focused on working within the state’s legalization network and with new applicants to get assistance through a partnership they obtained with the Chicago Urban League.
Ward told The Chicago Reader their thoughts were, “‘OK, what about the people that are incarcerated still? How can we open up opportunities for people to work in the industry, but not necessarily have to touch the plant?’ Working in equity and justice turned out to be a great branding thing for us — we became a trusted source. We put in the sweat equity doing the right things.”
In 2021, OURS partnered with Nature’s Grace and Wellness, a company run by the O’Herns Stock Farm. They worked with the fifth-generation farmers to cultivate the cannabis needed to put community bars in dispensaries. Their first products were milk and dark chocolate bars that perfectly balanced taste and THC. The OURS website lists the lion’s mane mushrooms, Reishi mushrooms and vanilla. The website also states the bars contain cannabinoids, cannabinol and cannabigerol.
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Community bars have become a staple in over 90 dispensaries across Illinois at the moment. OURS stands on its dedication to equity by donating a portion of the sales to organizations that support minority and rural farmers. Organizations such as Grow Greater Englewood, HEAL Food Alliance, the Chicago Food Policy Action Council, and Farm Aid receive assistance from the organization as they continue to raise capital for their brick-and-mortar located on the south side.
OURS continues to build within the legalization network and work on more product collaborations and opportunities for Black and Brown workers.
In light of disclosing what they are working on, Ward said, “We’ve been noodling on a bunch of things. I don’t know that I want to say what, but there’s a lot of great stuff coming in the future.”
