After years of struggling to get off the ground, several Black-owned cannabis businesses recently have opened or expanded in Illinois, bucking the trend of companies that haven’t been able to acquire financing to get going.

One of the recent openings is the self-described Black-, Latino-, veteran- and queer-owned SWAY dispensary in the Lakeview neighborhood. The retail store is a collaboration between cannabis equity advocate and Army veteran Edie Moore, and LGBTQ rights and local business leaders Art Johnston and José “Pepe” Peña — both now 80.

“It’s a long time coming,” Moore said. “Financing is always a big challenge. It’s very expensive to do one of these facilities. Zoning (in Chicago) is a bear, and expensive.”

Access to marijuana was an important issue in the gay rights movement, especially in the 1980s, because so many members of the community were suffering from AIDS or cancer.

“After all of these years of prohibition,” Johnston said, “it will be an honor to provide safe access to cannabis for our community and beyond.”

Johnson and Peña also are co-owners of Sidetracks, a popular gay bar since the 1980s, across the street from SWAY.

Statewide, there are 213 recreational or “adult use” dispensaries, almost half of which are social equity dispensaries, generally defined as those owned by people with prior low-level cannabis convictions, or who come from areas of high cannabis arrest rates or high poverty.

Another 100 or so conditionally licensed companies are working toward opening. In May, state officials announced they were awarding an additional 48 new conditional licenses.

The openings come as many of those companies face difficulties meeting a July 11 deadline to open. The state will grant further extensions based on need.

At SWAY, its opening brings to fruition a goal that Peña proposed decades ago, never thinking it would come true: ”Wouldn’t it be great to sell weed instead of alcohol?”

...continued

©2024 Chicago Tribune. Visit at chicagotribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.