THE EQUALITY ISSUE
HOOD INCUBATOR
Co-founders Lanese Martin & Ebele Ifedigbo discuss what’s next for the Black-led, Bay Area-born organization committed to reversing the harmful impacts of America’s drug war.
leafnationmd.com
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WE COULD USE A LOT MORE PLACES LIKE HOOD INCUBATOR IN THE WORLD. aug. 2020
Founded by Lanese Martin and Ebele Ifedigbo in 2016, Hood Incubator is an organization with the stated goal of “ending the drug war and reversing its harmful impacts on Black communities.” Initially, Martin and Ifedigbo focused on their local community in Oakland with a business accelerator, assisting hopeful Cannabis entrepreneurs with the resources, training and mentorship required to land a permit with the city. “There was this wave of Cannabis legalization happening, first in Colorado and then in these other Pacific Northwestern states,” said Ifedigbo of their motivation to partner with Martin on Hood Incubator. “We were seeing a trend of the industry being whitewashed. Knowing that California is a leader in this industry - and seeing that some of the factors that we needed to do this work were already in place there - we decided to launch here, in Oakland, and pick up the work from there.”
