Member Blog: My Journey Through The Intersection of the LGBTQ Community and Cannabis Movement

By Erich Pearson, SPARC
NCIA Board and Founding Member

Reflecting on the decades-long fight to end prohibition of marijuana, one person comes to mind this month as we look at the similar and interconnected decades-long Gay Pride movement and what it means for the LGBTQ community today. One activist largely credited for legalizing medical cannabis in California is the original “cannabis influencer” Dennis Peron. We have much to be grateful for as we remember his legacy advocating for AIDS patients in California to have access to medical cannabis.

As for my role in both of these these important causes, I arrived in San Francisco in 2000 after graduating college in Indiana. I was happy to find San Francisco to be not only accepting of me as a gay man, but also accepting of me as someone interested in the cannabis movement. In the 1990s, there were a handful of medical cannabis dispensaries operating, un-permitted and un-regulated. It wasn’t until 2006 that Americans For Safe Access (ASA), Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), and Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) along with a handful of local advocates led the charge to regulate dispensaries.

A few of the most vocal advocates were veterans from the political days of Dennis Peron. Dennis was not involved in the regulatory process of 2006. It was widely known that Dennis didn’t like regulations (he repeated this during the Prop 64 campaign years later). Dennis thought cannabis should be grown and sold freely, outside of an alcohol-type regulatory environment. He was right, but unrealistic – hence his waning interest in the politics of it.

Dennis did have a few friends who wanted to see cannabis regulated in San Francisco, and one was Wayne Justmann, a gay man that used to work the door at Dennis’ cannabis club at 1444 Market Street. Wayne is a friend of mine today, and we worked closely together to advocate for a dispensary program that respected the existing operators, despite their “inappropriate” locations in many cases. We ultimately won this battle, as San Francisco has a healthy respect for social pioneers.

San Francisco was also the first city to regulate on-site consumption. This was allowed in order to provide AIDS patients a safe place to medicate, outside of government housing. This has proven to be a successful program, with little public resistance even today as we permit more of these lounges, primarily designed for adult-use consumption.

I started a free compassion program in San Francisco in the early 2000’s at Maitri AIDS Hospice. We still deliver twice a month to patients there. This has been an incredibly successful program and a very rewarding experience for myself and the staff who carry it out.

Today, I don’t see a lot of synergies anymore between gay progress and cannabis progress despite its intertwined history, but we at SPARC honor that history with a t-shirt claiming victory: “Legalized Gay Pot.” Of course, the fight for fair treatment and equality for both cannabis and LGBTQ right is far from over, but in San Francisco, I’d say we’ve come a long way on both fronts. And as cannabis legalization sweep through other states across the country, we can see studies that show gay, lesbian and bisexual people being the highest level of consumers among other select demographics, showing that our communities continue to overlap.

In looking back on all of this history and progress, I am thankful for all of the advocates who put themselves forward to fight for cannabis AND LGBTQ rights – we wouldn’t be here without their hard work, dedication, and selflessness. I now look forward to a future where everyone, in every state, can access the cannabis plant and be treated with respect and fairness.

Erich Pearson is a recognized leader in the cannabis industry – a long-time advocate, legislative consultant, dispensary operator, cultivation expert, and NCIA board member.

A proponent of medical cannabis regulation, cultivation, and best practices since 2000, Erich served on the San Francisco District Attorney’s Medical Marijuana Advisory Group and consults on state and local medical cannabis policy and legislation.

Erich was instrumental in the passage of both San Francisco’s Medical Cannabis Dispensary Act and the law enforcement “lowest priority” resolution of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. As a result of Erich’s work he was appointed in 2007 by Supervisor David Campos to sit on San Francisco’s Medical Cannabis Working Group.

In 2010 Erich launched SPARC, a nonprofit medical cannabis dispensary providing safe, consistent and affordable medical cannabis to patients in San Francisco. SPARC provides high quality, lab-tested cannabis to qualified patients, and collaborates with local hospices, residential care facilities, and dispensaries to successfully supply medical marijuana at no cost to seriously ill patients.

How does SPARC do it? By growing cannabis more efficiently. Erich’s expertise is constructing and managing large indoor cultivation facilities. With a robust Research & Development team, Erich is meticulously focused on developing the optimal environmental recipe for high-yield cultivations using unique systems of lighting, ventilation and design.

SPARC is a Founding & Supporting Member of NCIA.
Erich holds a BS in Construction and Project Management from Purdue University.

NCIA Board Candidate Statement – Erich Pearson (Incumbent)

By Erich Pearson, SPARC (CA)

Our mission at NCIA is to advance and legitimize our industry — through education, improving professionalism, advocating for sound regulations, developing new technology, leveraging each other’s strengths, and learning from mistakes.

We come from all areas of cannabis. Individually, we are sometimes competitors. Together, as members of NCIA, we play for one united team. On this platform, we not only celebrate our individual successes, we advance the industry as a whole through our singular voice.

Serving you on the NCIA board since its founding in 2010, I understand the business from seed to sale, from operations to regulations. I bring a high level of expertise to the board – as a cultivator, dispensary operator, and legislative advisor. I represent the largest state in the union, an internationally recognized dispensary and brand, and some of the most well-engineered cultivation projects in the world.

It takes a team to accomplish great things. That’s why I’m quick to augment my skills with respected experts. I recruited the founder of Peace in Medicine, now Sebastopol Mayor Robert Jacob, to bring SPARC to the next level. We now have a unified team, offer health benefits to our employees, and are expanding to better serve San Francisco patients.

To graduate from good cannabis to great cannabis, large-scale, I brought in Dr. Robby Flannery, Ph.D. and plant biologist. Dr. Robby built and leads our R&D team to optimize crop production via physiological and ecological research in collaboration with UC Davis, and with input from experts at University of Chicago and Cornell. Dr. Robby lends his expertise to the greater herbal community serving on the cannabis nomenclature working group and the cannabis committee of AHPA, the American Herbal Products Association.

And the team keeps growing. We’ve built global alliances by hosting tours at our facility – guests include the Board of the League of California Cities and legislators from Germany. We’ve joined forces with regulatory movers like DPA, MPP, and ASA. And through NCIA, my biggest team is you.

Thank you for doing the great work that’s gotten us this far. It’s been a pleasure serving you.

See the full Board of Directors Voter Guide here.

Medical marijuana dispensary operator and NCIA Founding Member elected mayor of Sebastopol, CA

In another signal of the improving public perception of cannabis, cannabis consumers, and the industry that serves them, Sebastopol, CA has elected a medical cannabis advocate to be its mayor. Robert Jacob, 36, is the founder and executive director of Peace in Medicine and CEO of SPARC — both NCIA Founding Member businesses. Originally elected to city council in 2011, Jacob was selected as the next mayor in a unanimous vote of the city council.

Like many long-time cannabis entrepreneurs, Jacob entered the field through social work with people living with debilitating chronic illnesses. In addition to founding Sebastopol’s first medical marijuana dispensary in 2007, he has extensive experience at the head of nonprofits unrelated to medical marijuana and led a nationally-recognized charter school.

While he doesn’t attribute his election to his medical marijuana background, this out-front advocate identifies what’s changed in recent years in an interview with TIME: “what it signifies is that medical cannabis is no longer your whole identity. Historically, if you were a medical-cannabis advocate, that was your defining factor.” As cannabis businesses become more integrated in their communities through strong outreach and philanthropic programs, cannabis business leaders will become more integrated in traditional community leadership circles, and even elected to top positions.

“For me, to serve successfully — the organizations, communities or constituencies I represent — collaboration is key. I encourage anyone interested in getting more involved in cannabis or in local government to go for it. Starting at the local level, participation is how we shape our future” Jacob said in a statement to NCIA.

TIME has dubbed Jacob America’s “first ganjapreneur turned mayor”, but he is by no means the first to blend a career in public service with a career in cannabusiness: professionals joining the ranks of the cannabis industry now include a former DEA agent, aformer member of Congress, and former marijuana industry regulators.

View a video from NCIA’s Southwest CannaBusiness Symposiumfeaturing a talk from Robert Jacob and others discussing the importance of productive and effective relationships with government officials online.