Star Buds, an established weed company from Colorado had the experience to help get SB IL Grow LLC, a 2/3 Black-owned social equity corporate entity started in Rockford Illinois.
The Illinois Department of Agriculture held a ribbon cutting for the first of over 340 licenses given out in the last year to open its doors.
Star Buds chose south Rockford for its home and expects to add dozens of jobs in a place hit hard by the war on drugs.
“If you’re really looking at eradicating the generational wealth gap in minorities you’ve got to bring access and diversity into business such as this that can do just that,” said Tiffany Hightower, part owner of Star Buds.
“Proud to a part of an amazing team with an amazing group of people. We all really worked our butts off to get here. To be the first Responsible Vendor approved by the state of Illinois , The First Cannabis Transportation license, now to be the first Predominately Black Owned Craft Grow to open is a Blessing,” says partner Victoria Williams.
Of the 2021 licensing cohort of which Star Buds is part, 67% of those licensees identified as non-white.
In June, A Rockford judge had put new licenses to grow marijuana on hold, granting a temporary restraining order to a dozen applicants for craft-grow licenses who claim the state isn’t following the marijuana law correctly.
