Posh Cannabis

Posh Cannabis

In the few years since starting Posh Green Collective, owner Reese Benton has already made cannabis history

BY G.G. BARRON

Posh Green, also known as the “Nordstrom of Cannabis,” is not only one of San Francisco’s fastest-growing cannabis dispensaries, it is the city’s first Equity Retail Cannabis Dispensary to be independently-owned by a woman of color. Owner and San Francisco native Reese Benton started Posh Green Collective in 2016 (poshgreencollective.com).

During the few years since then, she has already curated one of the most renowned, high-quality cannabis menus in the Bay Area. She has contributed greatly to the creation of San Francisco’s Cannabis Equity Program. And she has endured legal battles, an attempted robbery, and a worldwide pandemic—all before she could even open the doors of her dispensary.

But let’s take it back to the beginning. The story of Posh Green starts with a breakup. Benton’s former-partner owned a cannabis dispensary in the Bay Area, and when they ended their relationship, Benton lost access to his store and products.

She tried visiting a few other dispensaries, but she wasn’t satisfied with the available options because none of them sold the high-quality products she wanted and none of them provided the client relationships she sought. So, she decided to start her own.

Not long into her journey, Benton was contacted by the office of former District 10 Supervisor Malia Cohen to assist with creating the legislation that would later become the Cannabis Equity Program of San Francisco (officeofcannabis.sfgov.org/equity).

The Equity Program was developed to support cannabis entrepreneurs like Benton, whose background had been severely affected by the failed War on Drugs in the United States. During her childhood, Benton’s father had been incarcerated and her mother and other family members had used hard drugs.

The program aimed to act as a restorative economic justice program that would provide ownership opportunities within the cannabis industry to those who had been hardest impacted by the War on Drugs. Through ownership opportunities and consequent businesses, money generated from the billion-dollar cannabis industry would be returned to the communities that have suffered the most.

Read more at https://issuu.com/rareluxuryliving/docs/troora_san_francisco_2021_pages/428