Mayor, Small Business Services Appoint Dasheeda Dawson as Cannabis NYC Director
Mayor Eric Adams fulfills with Dasheeda Dawson, Founding Director of Hashish NYC. Picture Credit history: Ed Reed/Mayoral Images Business.
As the initiative’s founding director, Dawson will serve as the most important liaison among SBS, other city companies, and vital stakeholders. On October 12, 2022, Mayor Eric Adams and Compact Enterprise Commissioner Kevin Kim introduced the appointment of Dasheeda Dawson as founding director of the City’s new Hashish NYC initiative. For CityLand’s past protection of the Hashish NYC initiative, click below.
As director, Dawson will be the main liaison among SBS and other town businesses, the New York Condition Place of work of Cannabis Management (NYSOCM), and group stakeholders like elected officials, community boards, and field associations. Dawson will also assistance set up, and finally collaborate with, the NYC Hashish Advisory Council, an advisory board of sector and neighborhood stakeholders making sure an equitable, progressive hashish industry.
Dawson is a world wide hashish advocate, award-successful Fortune 100 organization strategist, and a bestselling creator on the cannabis field. She earned a degree in molecular biology from Princeton and an MBA from Rutgers Business School, serves as Board chair of the Hashish Regulators of Coloration Coalition, and has worked in the cannabis market for practically a 10 years.
Previously, Dawson advocated for the landmark NYS Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, which was effectively passed in 2021. At the same time, Dawson was also tapped to direct hashish regulation efforts in Portland, Oregon. As hashish software supervisor for the Metropolis of Portland, Dawson oversaw all regulatory licensing, compliance, instruction, and equity initiatives and managed the Social Fairness & Instructional Growth (SEED) Initiatives. Her office’s SEED Initiatives included the SEED Grant Fund, the country’s initial community reinvestment fund tied to regional hashish tax income.
Beneath Dawson’s leadership, Portland also approved a multimillion-dollar Hashish Emergency Relief Fund, getting the country’s 1st authorities jurisdiction to allocate cannabis tax earnings to present support and unexpected emergency relief to the business.
Dawson has been given assist from stakeholders like the Drug Policy Alliance, NYSOCM, U.S. Associates Jerry Nadler and Adriano Espaillat, and NYS Assembly Bulk Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes.
Dawson shared that her appointment was a whole-circle moment: “Growing up in East New York, I survived the top of cannabis prohibition and witnessed specific enforcement derail the lives of my buddies and spouse and children. I was stopped, searched, and handled like a felony in advance of I ever touched the plant, which shaped my initial perceptions. Now, as a cannabis patient, educator, and regulator, I get to help other individuals, modest firms, and community stakeholders in the increasing field so that hashish — as soon as employed to suppress communities like mine — can be tapped as a tool for transformation.”
SBS Commissioner Kevin Kim additional, “Her expert working experience as an educator, regulator, entrepreneur, and advocate makes her ready for this minute. Her particular working experience — as someone who has been impacted right by the ‘War on Drugs’ — also uniquely get ready her to direct this groundbreaking initiative. I am self-assured that with Dasheeda at the helm of Cannabis NYC, we will help innumerable New Yorkers improved have an understanding of and fully just take advantage of this newfound option.”
Deputy Mayor for Financial and Workforce Improvement Maria Torres-Springer: “New York Metropolis is dedicated to making the country’s most equitable cannabis business. By naming an knowledgeable and attained industry chief like Dasheeda Dawson as founding director of Cannabis NYC, we are making sure our financial and social fairness goals will be fulfilled as this business grows across the city.”
Mayor Adams: “Our administration is committed to planting the seeds for fairness in a significant-advancement, budding sector like hashish profits. The nation’s most equitable cannabis business will be in New York Town, and to travel that purpose property, we have decided on a confirmed chief with unmatched expertise and believability in this area. Dasheeda Dawson will fill the requirements of business people in this space, and as a person with lived expertise and who was harmed by the ‘War on Drugs,’ this is private for her.”
By: Cassidy Robust (Cassidy is a CityLaw intern and a New York Legislation Faculty student, Class of 2024.)