My name is Devin Alexander. I’m the CEO and co-founder of Rolling Relief, a licensed cannabis delivery operator based in Massachusetts, United States.

I was arrested back when I was a senior in high school, about 11 years ago, for possession of just two or three grams of cannabis. I was in the backseat of my friend’s car. I was pulled out of the backseat and the cop grabbed me very roughly, made me take my socks and shoes off in the middle of the winter, and grabbed me in areas that I don’t like to be grabbed in. These cops weren’t wearing body cameras, so it was just my word against theirs. Who are they going to believe?

My story is just one of many. In the United States, African-Americans and Caucasians both use cannabis at similar rates, but the African-American individual is four times more likely to be arrested than their Caucasian counterpart. In the UK, Black people are nine times more likely to be arrested.

African-Americans and Caucasians both use cannabis at similar rates, but the African-American individual is four times more likely to be arrested than their Caucasian counterpart. 

I had plans to enrol into the U.S. Air Force, but those plans got derailed by my arrest. I found a job at a local pharmacy that would take me on and do training on the job. In order to get the job I had to fake a drug test, I had to take somebody else’s urine and tape it to my leg. I was making $11 an hour standing on my feet and being screamed at all day for stuff that wasn’t my fault. 

But working in the pharmacy actually helped me transition very well to work in a cannabis dispensary because we were doing very similar tasks, just with different products. 

In 2016 recreational cannabis was legalised in Massachusetts and I really wanted to get into the industry and set up a business that was socially conscious. If it’s legal and people are making millions of dollars from it, why should it hold me back?

Eventually, one day I broke through, I got a job as a budtender at a local medical dispensary in my hometown. I started off doing that. It was the best job ever. I got to talk about weed and sell weed all day. I eventually worked my way up to director of community outreach, where I started doing initiatives in my own home town that led to cleanups and fundraisers. Then back in September of 2019, I organised an expungement clinic where I brought together pro-bono attorneys and I gave individuals the tools and the resources to remove non-violent cannabis crimes from their criminal record. 

Expungement is the process of removing something from your criminal record. In Massachusetts they made the process a little more difficult than in some other states because you have to go through probation officers and courts. But in New York, they just recently legalised and they do automatic expungement. This is big because those records can hold people back from student loans, from obtaining housing, or from getting certain jobs. 

Shortly after I applied to take part in a social equity program, designed to support social equity in Massachusetts’ cannabis industry, which allows entrepreneurs from Areas of Disproportionate Impact throughout the state to access free resources to help them participate in the industry. I enrolled and was part of the first cohort on the entrepreneurship track. There were 16 courses in marketing, advertising, business plan and development, things to help you run your business, and I taught myself a lot of things on top. 

I found, for example, that the initial delivery regulations that were introduced in Massachusetts were not a financially feasible business model and they excluded people from entering the industry. So myself and a few other advocates formed the Massachusetts Cannabis Association for Delivery, which I currently serve as a vice president of. We met with the cannabis control commissioners and eventually, after filing a lawsuit, we managed to develop a new type of licence

So it just goes to show what grassroots activism can do and it shows the true power in numbers when you work together and have a common goal. The licence type came out in May of 2021, and in November of 2021, my company Rolling Relief became the first black owned, provisionally licensed delivery operator in Massachusetts.

I’m very fortunate for all the support that I’ve had. It starts at home with my family, me and my mother are very close with 16 years apart in age, and she’s been my number one supporter since day one. Now, when I go out to a local restaurant, somebody who I went to high school with sees me and says “hey man I saw you on the news, You’re doing your thing, I’m so proud of you. When is Rolling Relief gonna start?” So many people ask me when I’m going to commence operations that when that day comes, I’m going to get on top of my roof with a megaphone to shout at the skies. 

So the difference legalised cannabis has made to my life has been massive. I’m not afraid to walk around and possess cannabis. Before, just driving around, you get pulled over, they smell a little bit of cannabis odour, you get your whole car searched, you get everything turned upside down. But now, the odour of cannabis does not justify that search. There is still some stigma that surrounds the industry. The ‘war on drugs,’ the stigma created by Nancy Reagan and ‘“just say no” have created a lot of damage that still needs to be undone to this day, I think. We’re going on seven years now, and there’s still a lot of reefer madness around, so I think it’s vital that people can access education. 

In 2022 Dev won New England’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Dev now runs Rolling Releaf a Black-owned and social equity-certified business looking to make the industry more inclusive and which will be open for delivery this year.