Page 8 - Florida Sentinel 9-24-21

Feature
Owner Of Hemp And Marijuana Businesses Wants Public To Be Informed
BY MONIQUE STAMPS Sentinel Staff Writer
Galen Graham has a mission to educate people on the difference between hemp and marijuana. Graham is building his growing empire in both arenas and seeks to edu- cate the community on the lesser-known substance, hemp.
Hemp is a class of cannabis grown for industrial or medicinal use. Hemp can be refined into a variety of com- mercial products. Unlike mar- ijuana, hemp has less than 0.3% THC. THC is the chemi- cal responsible for most of marijuana's psychological ef- fects.
Graham grew up in the St. Petersburg and Tampa area
with plenty of family and friends. He attended Gram- bling University and Hofstra University.
He returned to the Tampa area in the mid-nineties and became the manager of several nightclubs including Club Manilla.
In 2011 he left to collabo- rate with rapper/entrepreneur Dr. Dre, and Graham’s now business partner, Sylvester “Sly” Jordan.
While he was in California, he met the owner of Kush Town Soda who was selling a marijuana-infused drink.
With Dr. Dre’s encour- agement, Graham started working with the company and later decided to take a chance and became an in- vestor.
GALEN GRAHAM
Through this connection, Graham met investment bro- kers working on acquiring medical marijuana and hemp licenses across the country. At the time, states were legalizing medical marijuana, but hemp was still illegal.
In 2014, President Obama signed a version of the Farm Bill that established the Hemp Pilot Program, al- lowing certain research insti- tutions to cultivate and study hemp. In 2018, hemp was offi- cially legalized on the federal level.
With the legalization, Gra- ham and his fiancée, Kayla Scott, began looking for land. Their neighbor decided to sell his 39-acre orange grove. The couple purchased the property and in 2019, Graham became the first Black hemp cultiva- tion licensee in Florida.
After establishing their hemp business, the couple began looking into medical marijuana licensing.
The process is extremely expensive and daunting. On September 2, 2021, the com- pany Planet 13 paid $55 mil- lion cash to operate cultivation farms and medical marijuana clinics.
The prohibitive cost of Florida licensing is discourag- ing, especially for African Americans. However, Gra- ham was determined to see his medical marijuana cultiva- tion business come to fruition and decided to get creative.
While still growing hemp in Florida, Graham discov- ered that the costs for medical marijuana licenses in Okla- homa were much more rea- sonable. He bought a dispensary in downtown Okla- homa City, and a license to grow marijuana.
Graham said that re- search and demanding work led to the success of their busi- ness. He splits his time be- tween Florida and Oklahoma to oversee his businesses.
Graham and Scott are working hard to build genera- tional wealth for their family. The couple have four children and want them to have some- thing to build upon.
To that end, Graham has spoken to school groups on the difference between hemp and marijuana. He does teach-ins,
educating young people about the uses of hemp in everyday life.
Graham has two initia- tives for the community on which he is currently working: Vets Relief – Helping Hands Help Vets, which helps veter- ans gain access to alternatives such as hemp-based CBD for pain management instead of synthetic medicines provided by traditional medicine.
The second initiative is called Truly Green Farm Proj- ect. Along with neighbor Domingo Guajardo, Jr., Graham has developed a sys- tem to turn unused land into sustainable farmland. Using solar panels, wind turbines, animal manure, and an osmo- sis watering system that takes moisture from the environ- ment, the kits can be used anywhere.
Nikki Fried, Florida Agriculture Commissioner, has expressed interest in Truly Green and will be meeting with Graham and Guajardo soon. Interest in the project has come from as far away as Africa.
Dynamic Health and Well- ness on Fletcher is another one of Graham’s businesses. People can get counseling on diverse types of alternative medicine and other services.
PAGE 8-A FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2021