Hope Wiseman (she/her), founder and CEO of WISECO, had been a longtime cannabis user when she decided to enter the industry in 2015. A former investment banker, she noticed the economic opportunities in the space and applied for a dispensary license in Maryland. Hope found the field to be a perfect fit for her, saying, “I just found it a great way to marry 2 sides of my personality, kind of this super laid back, chill, more recreational side of who I was with my business interests, my career interests, and my life goal of creating wealth and teaching others how to do the same.”

Read on to find out how Hope is achieving her goals and helping her community.

To this day, you’re still the youngest Black woman to own a dispensary. Is the industry diversifying?
You would think that this industry would be full of people that look like me, but it’s not. Since I first started in the industry, participation from non-white people and women has gone down which is happening because the industry is getting more sophisticated. So, it’s attracting people who are very well-capitalized and have experience in sophisticated business models. And that’s  cutting people out.

But I think states are doing a really good job at creating programs that prioritize those people who have been over-policed and disenfranchised because of the war on drugs. We need to provide support and resources for underrepresented groups to get into the space. And then we need to create an environment where they can maintain their ownership in their business while still partnering with experienced operators and/or financiers to get their businesses off the ground.

Like you said, the war on drugs has disenfranchised, incarcerated, and even killed a lot of people, particularly Black and Latino folks. Does this inform the type of education you do in your dispensary?
It’s just naturally what we do, it’s who we are, where we are, and all of that. Here in Capitol Heights, Maryland, it’s a predominantly Black and lower income area. So, we focused a lot on basic cannabis 101 and really understanding the plant because we found that even people who were longtime consumers didn’t really understand the medicinal capacity of it, what all it could do, and  the different ways we could consume it. We talk a lot about the history of cannabis prohibition and now legalization, so people can understand the role that we have played in this space and also the opportunities. We do a lot of education around the business side of the industry, too.

Cannabis for medical use has become more commonplace, but there are still a lot of misconceptions. What would you say to someone who had little to no knowledge about medical cannabis?
Cannabis can be used for a lot of different purposes and it affects everybody differently. We have something called an endo-cannabinoid system, which is just your nervous system and any other system that regulates your body to get to homeostasis, which is where you’re operating at your optimal state. Cannabis speaks to inhibitors in your brain that helps you to balance yourself out. That being said, cannabis can be used for a host of ailments, including anxiety and depression, physical pain, neuropathy issues, anything like that. But it takes some trial and error and  testing to figure out the optimal dose, method of consumption, and type of product that will work best for you.

If someone is interested in getting an opinion on cannabis use, what do you suggest they do?
Well, I’d say that most licensed dispensaries at this point, even adult use or recreational shops, have people that are super knowledgeable. Because at the end of the day, cannabis is medicinal no matter how you’re using it, when you’re using it, or where you bought it. No matter what anyone tells you, it’s medicinal. It has medicinal properties to it. Most dispensaries are trained for that.

Is there anything else you want to share?
Maryland is still in medical use until July 1st of this year. We’re about to go through that transition right now to adult use. And we’re super excited about focusing more on CBG, the product side of the industry, and creating experiences for customers. I’m thrilled about this industry maturing and getting to the next stage. I think one of the next huge catalysts, of course, is going to be federal legalization. I’ll be following that and participating heavily in what that looks like over the next 5 to 7 years.