Xzibit: It’s the Lasagna Ganja Podcast. I am Mr. X to the Z, Xzibit.

Tammy: And I’m your girl, Tammy, a.k.a. The Cannabis Cutie.

Xzibit: It has been a crazy holiday season. I think Thanksgiving is kicked off the planet too quickly.

I don’t like Christmas. I don’t like holidays where I have to buy people shit.

Tammy: I made a deal with my kids. What’s the one thing you want?

Xzibit: Are your kids’ birthdays on any holidays?

Tammy: Yeah, both of them. I had my son on Easter and my daughter’s birthday is on Thanksgiving every 5 years.

Xzibit: So do you save the big gift for the birthday or Christmas?

Tammy: Christmas. But big birthdays also get big gifts.

Xzibit: What’s a big birthday?

Tammy: When you become a teenager. My daughter just turned into a teenager. She’s 13.

Xzibit: I get it. I have a 13 year old. He’s into fashion. He’s already taller than me. His clothes won’t fit him in, like, a week!

Tammy: It’s a different world. We didn’t have social media. There were regional styles. Now everybody is trying to look like a celebrity in the 7th grade.

Xzibit: We have someone with us today who is a celebrity in cannabis. Who do we have with us today?

Tammy: We have Tahir Johnson from Trenton, New Jersey.

Xzibit: Thank you for coming on the show.

Tahir: Thanks for having me!

Tammy: So one of the things that I’ve seen on the internet is that you have a new store opening up.

And you partnered with Wanda James.

Tahir: So my dispensary is Simply Pure Trenton. We opened on MLK Day, January 15th.

I’m partnered with Wanda James. She’s the first black-owned recreational dispensary owner in Colorado.

Carrying on the legacy is great. We’re one of the first black-owned dispensaries in New Jersey to get licensed, too.

Tammy: And she serves as a mentor, too.

Tahir: Yeah.

Tammy: So how did your partnership with Wanda James come about?

Tahir: Facebook. I used to do virtual cannabis seminars. We’d live stream them. I used to work for the National Cannabis Industry Association.

One day, I saw her in the comments. I replied to her comments and she messaged me her number.

When it came time to do the dispensary, it made more sense to do it with her because I’m all about trying to build culture. I figured expanding her brand would do more for the culture.

Tammy: So is Trenton, New Jersey, the first expansion?

Tahir: It is. This will be store #2.

Tammy: Do you guys have any plans for any other stores? Are you guys planning on partnering with people in different territories? Or are you guys just focusing on Trenton and Colorado?

Tahir: Well we’re definitely trying to grow the brand. I know that Wanda’s had conversations with some people in other states. I’ve been a part of some of those.

The goal is for us to build a black-owned brand across the country. Something like that doesn’t exist right now.

Xzibit: Tell me about the New Jersey market. How many stores are there and do they have their own in-state brands?

Tahir: Jersey is still a pretty new market. It just got legalized April 20, 2021.

When they opened the recreational market, the multi-state operators that were already medical were allowed to sell first.

So there were only 12 dispensaries when the market opened up. Now we’re at 75.

Xzibit: Are they spread out or concentrated?

Tahir: They’re all over the place. In my county, there’s only 2 right now.

In terms of cultivators, there aren’t that many. But there are quite a few folks coming online—people from the legacy market or independent operators.

Xzibit: That’s a sweet spot to be in. As far as brands, what are people gravitating to out there?

Tahir: My homegirl, Martha, she just launched her ButACake, a brand of edibles.

My bros, Bendan and Stan, they have a joint called Mud Brothers. It’s concentrate. They have 2 black-owned brands that are out right now.

Most of the stuff that you’re buying right now came from the larger companies.

Tammy: What do you want to bring to the market?

Tahir: One of the things that is a part of the Simply Pure tradition is housing black-owned brands.

I want to have the main brands, but also have the minority brands.

One of the other things is we are going to have a big area for merch and stuff, too.

Tammy: So you have done a lot of work in New Jersey that is political. Talk to us about that.

Tahir: My work in policy started before New Jersey. I grew up in Trenton. That’s the capital of New Jersey. I went to Howard University.

I was working in finance before cannabis. Fast forward to 2019. My dad got diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. It causes a lot of different pain.

He was trying different medications.

Tammy: It’s a chronic pain disorder. They don’t really understand what it is or where it’s coming from.

Dr. Ethan Russo believes it to be an endocannabinoid deficiency disorder.

Tahir: That could be it. But when my dad got diagnosed with that, I came to him and told him that he should try some medical cannabis. He laughed and said he’d been smoking since the ‘60s.

But I told him that it’s a bunch of different stuff now. He didn’t want to get a medical card. He thought it would just mean that you’re on record for using pot.

But I told him that if he got his medical card, I’d get mine too. So that’s how I started exploring the legal cannabis field in the first place.

I was working part-time at a dispensary in Maryland. I ended up quitting my job in finance.

During that time, I found myself at the Lobby Day for the Minority Cannabis Business Association. I’m actually a board member now.

But at the time, I didn’t know anything about lobbying or policy. There was a list of congresspeople that we wanted to go talk to throughout the day.

And I noticed that one of my boys was a Chief of Staff for one of the representatives. I was like, “Should I hit him up?” Everybody was shocked I had connections.

One of the things that I’ve learned being a financial advisor is that it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. And more than that, it’s who knows you. I’ve always been a ‘super connector.’

I started building a network and found we’re all facing the same stuff.

From there, I moved on to a bunch of different organizations. For example, the Marijuana Policy Project. Or the US Cannabis Council, where I represented all the largest companies in the country.

I’ve been trying to bridge the gap between traditional civil rights justice movements and cannabis. In my mind, cannabis is the biggest social justice issue of our time.

I know a lot of people who have been locked up for cannabis.

Xzibit: And only cannabis. Non-violent offenses.

Tahir: Yeah. Literally never done any other type of crime.

Tammy: It is a civil rights issue. We went from slavery to convict leasing. We get to Jim Crow and then mass incarceration. The question was how do we criminalize everyone?

There are black families that have not been able to vote since they’ve been on this continent because of slavery, because of poll taxes, because of literary tests, and because of incarceration.

When we say the War on Drugs failed, it only did for us, the people. For the system it was designed for, it was very successful.

Xzibit: Having a financial background, tell us what is a good cannabis investment?

Tahir: I think private, smaller companies are good investments. Long-term investments in those bigger companies will be profitable, but smaller dispensaries don’t have the overhead and they are in markets that don’t have a lot of competition.

When I was seeing a lot of different CEOs at these companies, they had the same background I have. I didn’t have the money like them, but we had a lot of similarities.

But it’s difficult talking to an investor and asking for a million dollars. It’s hard to say it with a straight face.

Knowing your numbers, knowing your books, it all made a difference. My background in investments was helpful.

But I always wanted to take the skills that I have and use it for the community. Access to capital is hard.

At a minimum, it costs a million dollars to open a dispensary. If you don’t have it, your family doesn’t have it, where are you going to get it?

Cannabis is federally illegal. You can’t go get a business loan. So you’re dealing with venture capital, private equity, and wealthy investors.

And minorities don’t have wealthy investors in their network. And these people are sharks.

I took some losses and did things that I would now do differently. From a budget standpoint, this whole venture ended up costing a lot more than I thought it was going to.

I learned a lot about people. I tend to trust people. But what I’ve found is that a lot of people are out for a dollar for themselves. Having a good legal team is important.

Xzibit: Do you hire friends and relatives?

Tahir: No. I figured out how to incorporate my family, but I don’t want to have expectations for them.

I would rather figure out how to put them on and help them with their stuff.

I don’t take favors from people. I want to know how much it costs. I don’t want them coming back later and saying I owe them stuff.

Xzibit: I heard someone say that success is like having a baby. Everyone says congratulations but no one knows how many times you got fucked.

Tahir: This shit is hard. To get this far, there have been a lot of struggles.

Xzibit: I feel it’s worth it.

What’s next for the dispensaries?

Tahir: In Jersey, I want to keep expanding there. I just submitted an application for cultivation.

We want to do delivery, too.

We just submitted an application for Maryland to have a dispensary there.

Xzibit: How many people do you have on the team?

Tahir: In addition to myself, I just brought on my COO, Tiffany McBride. I have my CFO, Deedra Barksdale. She was the CFO of the United Negro College Fund, so she knows money.

My head of HR, Lanette. She was the head of HR at Curaleaf, the largest cannabis company in the world. She was employee #3.

And my marketing manager is from Curaleaf, too. He just came on.

Being able to have other people help you with stuff is amazing.

Xzibit: You’ve got to have good people around you.

Tammy: People ask me how I do it, and I’m like, there’s no way. I have all these great people around me.

I made the choice for my kids. I could go after my career and travel. I had a mom who was busy. She worked. She didn’t have a choice.

And I have the choice to pick my kids up from school and drop them off. And that means so much to them. I know it does.

But I’ve learned to schedule rest. My body can’t handle it 7 days in a row.

Xzibit: I’ve started trying to look for that balance.

Tammy: Well the beauty of this plant is that it promotes homeostasis, which is just a fancy science word for balance.

Xzibit: How do they get in touch with you, Tahir?

Tahir: You can find the dispensary at www.simplypuretrenton.com. Follow me everywhere. I’m @tahdiddy on Instagram and all the platforms.

Look forward to connecting with you all.

Xzibit: Thank you for joining us. It is the Lasagna Ganja Podcast. Let’s go!