Alphonso “Tucky” Blunt Jr., the owner and CEO of Blunts and Moore in Oakland, Calif., faced many challenges before opening the first cannabis dispensary licensed under the city’s Cannabis Equity Program. His story is one of perseverance, determination, and ultimately success in a rapidly changing industry.
Family Heritage
Blunt’s family heritage includes a long history of selling cannabis. He began selling cannabis in 1996, all while maintaining a 4.0 GPA and a full-time job in high school. Blunt never thought possessing or selling cannabis should be criminalized, and he viewed the plant as an opportunity.
“Both of my parents sold it, but I watched how they sold it. It was never outside on a corner,” he said. “I knew early on I wanted to sell weed because I smoked it and I just knew good weed, and I knew a lot of my friends wanted weed. So, for me, it was an easy transition because everywhere I worked at, I sold weed at. Yeah, I was a 4.0 student and all of that, but I liked weed and I liked going to work because that provided me money to do what I wanted to do.”
Drug War Era
Growing up as a Black man during the drug war era meant having ties to those directly impacted by the injustices of prohibition. Blunt had several friends and family members go to jail for small-money drug cases. In the years following then-U.S. Sen. Joe Biden’s co-crafted and bipartisan Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan, Black people became even greater targets of stricter penalties for drug offenses.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the average federal drug sentence for Black people was 11% higher than for whites before the Anti-Drug Abuse Act passed in 1986. Four years after the act was enacted, which included a federal mandatory minimum sentencing provision for crack cocaine offenses, the average federal drug sentence for Black people was 49% higher.
Tucky knew early on that he wanted to be part of the solution. “It wasn’t for cannabis. When you see the egg frying and ‘This is your brain on drugs,’ that didn’t apply for me for cannabis. We laughed at that. For me, it was more so just seeing the family split up behind a plant that’s legal now.”
Early Inspiration
Tucky’s inspiration to one day own and operate a dispensary derives from an errand he ran with his grandmother in 1999. The trip was to pick up some medicine from a dispensary at Telegraph Avenue and 19th Street in downtown Oakland, but Blunt did not know it was a dispensary while en route.
Also unbeknownst to Blunt, his grandma obtained a medical cannabis card a couple years before that trip, shortly after California became the first state to legalize medical cannabis under Proposition 215 in 1996.
“She just told me she was going to pick up some medicine. I didn’t think nothing of it,” Blunt said. “She came outside with a white bag, like, I will never forget this. She came out with a white bag. I said, ‘Granny, what’s that?’ She was like, ‘It’s weed.’ I said, ‘You bought weed out of a store?’ She was like, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘Oh, yeah, I need one of those [stores].’ She said, ‘Well, when you get one, I’ll be there every day of the week.’”
From that day forward, Blunt’s mission was to one day own a dispensary so he could sell cannabis legally, he said. And as fate would have it, Blunt got a call from his friend in 2017 about Oakland City Council’s Equity Permit Program, which prioritizes the victims of the drug war and minimizes barriers of entry into the industry. Thanks to being arrested in 2005, Blunt qualified for the program. He met with his business partner in September 2017, went through the license application process, was approved, won a license through a lottery in January 2018, and then became the first operational dispensary owner under the program when Blunts and Moore cut its red ribbons in November 2018.
A Dream Fulfilled
“Man, it was amazing,” he said about his dream becoming a reality. “To open a store in the same ZIP code where you caught a felony cannabis case in, and now you’re selling legal cannabis in that same ZIP code … it’s kind of hard to describe the feeling. It was a lot of emotions all in one. And I still go through the emotions every time I pull up to the store. It was life-changing.”
But as the string of robberies targeting all-cash cannabis businesses in Oakland continued into 2021, specifically with hundreds of roving caravans taking over the city, Blunt said the Oakland PD has since been more receptive and responsive to businesses affected by repeated criminal activity. “They actually came to my store and took fingerprints, took evidence for the first time in four years,” he said. “So, that has helped. I haven’t heard anything about new robberies coming up. You know, I’m also into the streets and listening. But, so far, being that the criminals know that Oakland Police are no longer going to give them eight hours to roam around and target businesses, we have been a little less targeted.”
The Business Climate
Stepping back further to take a broader temperature of the cannabis business climate in Oakland and in California, Blunt said his dispensary doors won’t be open in three years from now if the current tax rates and regulatory hurdles continue. He referred to California’s state-legal program as a rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul scenario under 2016’s voter-approved Proposition 64 and the subsequent Medical and Adult Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA).
While Gov. Gavin Newsom called for cannabis tax reform in his budget proposal last month, the state’s industry continues to be marred by a multilayered tax structure, security costs, regulatory burdens, falling prices, and overproduction from lack of open retail markets, which in turn have allowed the illicit market to continue to thrive. “Business is great as far as being open, having a place in the community to enhance the community,” Blunt said. “We bring in money. But the overtaxation and the amount of money we spend on security is making it where there’s no profit at all. So, it’s lovely to do what I’m doing, but in California, it’s got about another three years and it’s going to be over with. And that’s not just me. That’s everybody.”
Lack of Representation
Blunt did say it’s an amazing feeling to be able to sell cannabis legally in his city, especially in regard to opening his doors 15 years after he was told “Blacks would never own” in the cannabis space. But the reality is that while Black people make up 14% of the U.S. population, only about 2% of America’s estimated 30,000 cannabis companies are Black-owned, according to a 2021 Leafly report.
“Without the capital, without the education, without us as Black people realizing we can work together, if none of those things change, we’re going to continue to represent a marginalized group in society. It’s important for us to come together and support each other, whether it’s through education, networking, or providing opportunities for each other. We have to push past the systemic barriers and limitations placed on us and strive for success together. It’s not just about individual achievement, it’s about uplifting the community as a whole. Only then can we truly break free from the cycle of marginalization and thrive as a powerful force in society.
