Cannabis is a term; cannabis is a plant, said Jeff Gray in an early morning conversation with The PotNetwork. Gray is the CEO of SC Labs, which stands for Science of Cannabis, and is one of the few African American executives in an industry thats fallen way too short on its promises of social equity. From a scientific perspective, it is truly an amazing plant in terms of what it produces and the amounts of these compounds that it produces."

What it's been used for by the people who have the power in order to control has changed, he continued.

Today, some of the people who make money in the legal cannabis trade are the same forces that made marijuana central to the drug war so many years ago, he said. To Gray, that idea is critical toward understanding the industrys current climate. And its an issue with historical blame on both sides of the political aisle.

The prominence of cannabis even in the anti-war movement, in communities of color as a tool to put people to incarcerate people, that was the way that they were probably going to make the most money at that time, said Gray, discussing the corporate landscape of the past 50 years.

And now, theres a different opportunity to make money, he continued, remarking upon the corporate infiltration of legal cannabis. So, let's change it up.

Gray was born in Gardena and grew up in California, where the atmosphere around cannabis was always progressive. Hes a graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz, whose first job out of college was at a government social service agency. Like many, his foray into cannabis began with a general fascination with the plant.

I cultivated a couple of things but never had a specific end in mind, he said, recalling his early days in what was yet to be an industry.

A smoker for sure at the time though not as much now since hes become a father Grays initial interests in cannabis lie more in the drugs greater possibilities. As he told The PotNetwork, there is a robust cannabis movement rooted in activism, safe access, and patients. According to Gray, having more control over treating oneself for certain things than with conventional medicine is a powerful form of self-autonomy.

And cannabis spoke to his independent, entrepreneurial spirit as well.

The marriage of the ideal with the entrepreneurial is what brought Gray, along with three partners, to found SC Labs. Labeling themselves as four activist-entrepreneurs, they sought to give consumers a way to trust the brands they were being sold by bringing cannabis out of the Wild West and developing the industrys first testing standards. Together they succeeded, with the guidelines they devised having been adopted into extensive use across the cannabis space.

Gray is modest when it comes to his accomplishments; however, crediting his partners as the backbone of SC Labs. I am not the I'm not the visionary behind this, he said. One of my partners was the first lab director at the first cannabis testing lab of its kind.

The lot of them convinced him that together, they could make a difference. I learned more than I had about areas that I hadn't even considered in 10 years that I've been participating in cannabis prior to that, said Gray, praising his partners and the work they do at SC Labs.

Jeff Gray is proud of the work he does at SC Labs and is invested in his role in the cannabis industry at large. But as one of the few Black men to break through the barriers of minority ownership in the legalized cannabis trade, he carries the burdens of racial disparity to often overlooked in everyday conversations about seed-to-sale, marijuana banking, and the like. As Gray explained to The PotNetwork, the political moment may finally have arrived at more in-depth discussions on race in America, but hes been a Black man all of his life.

I was reading James Baldwin, who said to be conscious and Black in America is to be in a rage every day, said Gray, speaking straightforward. My experience as a Black man in this country hasn't changed since these recent events.

Those events, of course, are the brutal police murders of Black men and women like Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, and the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that followed across the country. As Gray explained, watching the video of George Floyds murder was so visceral it was akin to a snuff film. If you're not upset, if that doesn't hurt you, if you don't empathize somewhere something's wrong, he said.

As down-to-his-bones angry as Gray is at this moment, however, he hopes it can be an opportunity for change the kind of change that goes beyond surface-level distraction and reaches a meaningful discourse within the zeitgeist. He sees the work of younger people who are taking to the streets and prays that the moment isnt missed.

Feeling a responsibility to speak, Gray recently took to Instagram, joining in what he hopes will be a larger conversation about race, equality, and cannabis. It feels like the appetite for the destruction of Black bodies is insatiable, he told his followers before speaking some necessary truths to the legal marijuana trade.

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With money comes the exclusion of people of all backgrounds who helped build this, he continued, calling cannabis [a]n industry devoid of people of color in positions of power. They were harsh words for a community that built itself on whats transformed into a facade of social justice and racial equity. Still, the statistics dont lie.

African Americans have been shut out of the cannabis industry. According to a report by NBC News earlier this year, less than one-fifth of owners or stakeholders are people of color. In the United States, Black-owned cannabis dispensaries make up less than one percent of the entire industry. Minorities are underrepresented in boardrooms across the globe as well.

Yet, Black communities continue to be persecuted for cannabis use. As the ACLU has pointed out, Black Americans are four times more likely to be arrested for cannabis than their white counterparts, even though both groups use the drug at similar rates. Even in states that have legalized the plant, African Americans still face over-policing for public nuisance crimes concerning cannabis at a rate higher than whites.

If you don't have capital, you don't have access getting into cannabis, said Gray, speaking from his own California-centric experience. He explained that as much as the situation has improved for example, he noted the lack of police helicopters searching for heat signatures to make large drug busts is a net positive its only improved for certain classes of people. Cannabis shifted from an all-inclusive economy to the same, uniform dynamics of every other capitalistic industry.

It all gets consolidated among the few, and the many get left out, he said.

But efforts at inclusiveness that look to uplift the Black community within legal cannabis mostly miss the point, according to Gray. Governments, activists, and industrialists who push for equal treatment now, as sincere as they may be, still ignore 400 years of racial disparity.

Economic equality is also critically important in the industry because without it getting into this industry is like starting a Monopoly game and somebody already owns half the property the disadvantage is on you, he said. We could be at such a disadvantage competitively for so long and then for everybody just to go okay, so we're good, even if we got to the point that we have equal treatment. We can't just start from there.

As Gray said in his Instagram video, however, diversity is marketed as a brand, especially in the cannabis industry. At the height of protesting in June, a group of African American women from Cannaclusive put out The Accountability List. It tracked every major cannabis brands response to the Black Lives Matter movement. While its perhaps difficult to gauge sincerity from a single Twitter post or Facebook feed, the women insisted that the industry put its money where its mouth is.

Cannaclusive followed up with each brand to see who was donating to the cause, and how many Black employees and Black executives they had in their ranks, among other markers. Too many brands were content with posting a blank square on social media and calling it social justice.

Gray doesnt want to judge sincerity either necessarily but is also too invested in the gravity of this moment to let surface gestures rule the day. He sees that for many in the industry, what theyve done is a marketing play; their efforts will be short-lived.

It's such a sad thing that it's going to take this moment and make it that it doesn't achieve its potential, he lamented.

Unlike others, though, he is doing something about it and has been for a while now. He and his team and SC Labs work with SACNAS or the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science, and UC Santa Cruz to recruit minority students in STEM majors into the cannabis industry. At SC Labs, these students gain valuable scientific and technological experience in the cannabis industry.

Its essential work to Gray, who noted the difficulty in finding talented scientists to work in the cannabis field. According to him, many people would shun the work for fear of what it would mean for their future career prospects, with those who took internships going as far as leaving it off their resumes.

There's the development of the talent on your team and the openness and commitment to elevating those people when giving them those opportunities, said Gray. We grow their careers. That's always a treat.

In the end, Gray stressed that he doesnt want to lose this moment for what it is, an opportunity.

We don't know the experiences we don't have, and that's okay, said Gray. Policing, the arrest rate, pre-trial cash bail for Black people stopped by police that affects the poor and people of color disproportionately. This system is largely oppressive for poor people, as well as sentencing disparities, the rates of parole. Then you have to put all this post-prison, securing employment, accessing the social safety net. I mean the right to vote. Weve taken away the right to vote for people.

All those things are part of that system, he continued. And where we sit in cannabis, we have this sort of extra responsibility.

Images: SC Labs lab employees (Courtesy SC Labs)

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Race, diversity, and Black ownership in the cannabis industry: A conversation with SC Labs CEO Jeff Gray - PotNetwork

Gugu Mbatha-Raw knew her role on The Morning Show would be a challenge. As Hannah Shoenfeld, the talent booker who survives a sexual assault, she provided a crucial turning point in the Apple TV+ series that centers on the sexual misconduct that plagued a news organization. It was her story, and ultimately, her tragic fate, that put a spotlight on unchecked abuses of power. Mbatha-Raw tapped into a gamut of emotions to showcase a trauma that so many women are only too familiar with, and hopes that Hannahs tragic ending can serve as a cautionary tale, showing the value in not staying silent.

DEADLINE: First off, I have to ask, how are you doing? The world is super unsettling right now. How are you holding on?

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GUGU MBATHA-RAW: Im doing well today. There are ups and downs. Its sort of a day-by-day, week-by-week process. But today Im doing well. I think it has been an incredible time and Im inspired. Im inspired to think that even though were going through so many challenges that hopefully positive things are going to come from everything.

DEADLINE: Your character Hannah was an impetus for change, which fits very well with the times were in. It seems like something has to happen, like what happened with George Floyd, for people to actually take notice and see what people have been experiencing for years.

MBATHA-RAW: I know. Its very sad that there was a sacrifice in that way that it becomes a catalyst. Certainly, in terms of The Morning Show, not to say it had to be that way, but I think sometimes when youre dealing with institutions, and youre dealing with cultures that are very slow-moving and set in their ways that unfortunately, like you say, sometimes there has to be something so jolting and so shocking and so sad that it awakens people. Both in the culture that were in now, but certainly in terms of the show, what happens in Episode 10 of The Morning Show is an awakening. Hopefully, the emotional trigger of that moment will sustain the evolution of the culture.

DEADLINE: Youre very vocal about Black Lives Matter and whats going on with racial injustices, with police brutality.

MBATHA-RAW: I think its a fascinating moment in history were in on many, many levels. Its really a seismic shift and a catalyst and an awakening culturally. Ive always believed that Black lives matter, thats not something new to me, but I think what is fascinating is when the culture also simultaneously awakens, and there is a sense of momentum and I think that thats when real change can actually happen.

Beyond anything that feels like activism on the fringe, this is activism in the front and center of our culture, and its an international conversation that is happening now. So that, to me, as much as its like giving birth, theres so much pain that needs to happen, but then for a new system and hopefully a more equal way of living. There has to be a reckoning and there has to be discomfort. I think its part of the process.

DEADLINE: Hannahs journey is just so vital to exposing abuses of power in The Morning Show. What were your initial thoughts when you first read the script?

MBATHA-RAW: I read the first couple of scripts, and because not everything was written, I couldnt tell from them exactly where Hannah was going to go in the story. I knew it was being cast by Vickie Thomas who is an incredible casting director, and who Ive met for many things over the years, and I know she always does great, interesting work. Through her, I got on the phone with [executive producers] Kerry Ehrin and Mimi Leder, and they explained the arc of Hannahs journey which I just thought was so powerful. So, it was really in them explaining where she goes. I was really inspired by the fact that, as well as having this traumatic experience with the Mitch character, she also confronts him. I think it revealed the complexities of how different people bury those kinds of experiences. In terms of relating to her, the writing was so great in terms of the world and the characters being very ambitious and driven. I definitely could identify with Hannahs in the world of entertainment that Ive met, in terms of that career drive, and so that was interesting, at least on the surface, but I was definitely more drawn to her secrets.

DEADLINE: What else drew you to the show as a whole?

MBATHA-RAW: Obviously, the cast. Knowing that this is Jennifer Anistons first return to TV since Friends, I knew it was going to be a big deal. Id worked with Reese Witherspoon very briefly on A Wrinkle in Time, and really respected the way she has been championing female voices in her storytelling and her production company. Steve Carell obviously is such an amazing actor with such a range. I was intrigued by Apple TV+ because it didnt exist really at the point that I got the scripts and knowing that it was going to be a new streaming platform, I thought it was a fascinating and interesting experience to be part of something brand new like that.

It was the first time post-#MeToo that Id read anything that addressed the power dynamics in the media landscape so directly, but also in a nuanced way. I thought the conversations were going to be interesting and provocative, and hopefully potentially healing if we got it right, in terms of showing all the different perspectives and looking at the gray area of these issues. Because I think it can be very easy to simplify them when things become a hashtag, and things become just very much part of the zeitgeist. I think its always important to remember the human cost and look at those issues more intimately. So, I was excited by that challenge.

DEADLINE: This show came at a time when a similar scandal rocked a very popular morning show, The Today Show. I know this show was written before all of that came to light but how mindful of that did you have to be when you were approaching this character?

MBATHA-RAW: Obviously, we always knew we were dealing with a fictional drama. Kerry Ehrin, the showrunner and lead writer, had done so much research with the writing team. I think it was a testament to the research and how eerily accurate some of the scenarios were. But it was never based on anybody specific in that way. I think that they wanted it to be relevant but also universal in a way that women could relate to it, and men hopefully can relate to it, or at least see a new light shared on experiences that maybe theyd overlooked.

Its always exciting to work on something that you feel is topical, because as painful as some of these issues are, I think that they do need to be processed. And I think when youre watching something that is a drama that is outside of yourself, that is fictionalized somehow on your TV screen or your phone or however youre consuming it, its a safe place. Youre watching it even though some of the scenes are close to the bone and potentially triggering for people whove had those experiences. I think to know that its a drama, to know its outside of you, that it will have some kind of resolution outside of yourself, is helpful for the culture, I hope.

DEADLINE: There was a healing quality to the story. Not just the Hannah story but with all the stories of the other womenof Bradley, of Alex.

MBATHA-RAW: To see so many defined female characters in one show, not just archetypes, theyre nuanced and complex and there are so many of them. Not just Hannah, obviously Reeses and Jennifer Anistons characters, Karen Pittman, Bel Powley, theres such a spread of different perspectives on that world and I just really appreciated the nuances of the ensemble.

DEADLINE: Your character was very good at what she did. She was a hustler, and she had the added weight of what happened to her, and the circumstances surrounding her promotion. Was that challenging for you to balance all those elements?

MBATHA-RAW: I love a challenge and I definitely felt that there was a lot going on for Hannah. But I think that thats very real, and that people dont always wear their heart on their sleeve in terms of their past and their trauma. I think people do want to move on, even if they havent processed things, and the idea of being a survivor of a situation like this, at least for Hannah, she didnt want it to define her. She wanted it to be something that she could forget about and move on from. Obviously, as we see, she hadnt fully dealt with it. But its very human to put out that tougher facade. The defense mechanism, the workaholic energy, all of that, is a way often to numb actually having to just be still and deal with your stuff. That is very familiar for people in the entertainment industry, in news, and somewhere in the morning show world which is a blend of entertainment and news which is very adrenalized, and that live TV element obviously adds an extra [layer] to everything. Its very easy to be in denial in a world that moves very fast.

DEADLINE: As women, especially in this industry, we always feel like we have to prove ourselves. Being a woman of color, Ive always been told we have to be two times better than our counterparts, especially our white male counterparts.Was that something that you felt that Hannah was dealing with?

MBATHA-RAW: I think that that was obviously an underlying pressure for her. It wasnt overtly expressed in the storyline but we did talk about her backstory. I think in the quest for equality, gender equality and racial equality, this is a big conversation were having culturally now. But in the quest for that, certainly when we were making The Morning Show, and in terms of Hannahs perspective on that, I think that she probably had internalized the culture that she was in to such a degree that she was just trying to progress and trying to do the best she could. I dont know if it was always conscious. It was very much internalized for her.

DEADLINE: Were in this moment where weve heard a lot of survivors come out with their accounts of abuse. While weve also seen people like Harvey Weinstein or R. Kelly having to answer for these wrongdoings, the sad truth is that were living in a world where people still question or place judgment on the survivors. Were you concerned at all about how viewers would receive Hannahs story?

MBATHA-RAW: I think everybody was concerned to do their best to honor that in a nuanced way, certainly in terms of going through those beats of showing Hannahs perspective. There has been some judgment in the media about why it takes a long time for people to come forward in these situations, or why they were in the hotel in the first place, and all of those kinds of things. Seeing that episode, really seeing somebody like Hannah, who was in a very vulnerable scenario after the Vegas shooting, a very traumatic experience in itself, and just really understanding how somebody like Mitch was a mentor figure for her and I think his perspective was so different to hers. She was looking up to him, idolizing him as the star of the show, and that hes actually giving her a little bit of extra attention in terms of as a mentor and being kind to her. I dont think she ever imagined that it would transition to anything more than thatTheres so much going through Hannahs mind in terms of what will the implications will be. She doesnt know how to deal with that situation so she just goes through with it. I think that to actually see those beats, and working with Michelle MacLaren who directed the episode, making it much more about the thought process for Hannah as well as the physical element was very important. So, I trusted the female leadership behind the camera. They really wanted to show a different side and in detail, a nuanced side of that experience.

DEADLINE: What kind of responses have you received to your performance and to Hannahs story?

MBATHA-RAW: Its been really interesting for me. Theres been a whole gamut of emotions. Many women have found it quite moving. People have reached out to me on social media, and some people have felt like its the first time they felt seen.

DEADLINE: Did you interpret Hannahs overdose as accidental, even though it was never really talked about or mentioned on the show?

MBATHA-RAW: Its incredibly sad and it could have gone many ways for Hannah. Knowing that she had this promotion, and a chance of a new start in Los Angeles with a different outlook there, which in a sense you could say its a fresh start, or it could be that shes also thought of a problem being removed out of sight, out of mind, and somewhat blackmailed to get out of that situation.

We talked a lot about that moment where Hannah accepts the promotion, or leaves a voicemail at least, and then realizes that that didnt solve it. That didnt solve this abyss, this pain inside of her, and that its really that. She feels like she needs to numb that. Obviously, suicide is such a sensitive and complex issue, and I think in terms of, Did she intend to do it? Did she not? we talked a lot about it, and I always felt like she didnt intend to die but that she did intend to numb.

But Im optimistic. Im hopeful there are so many stages of this process and weve gone through them very quickly in the last few weeks and I think that is going to be really interesting to see in the long term. I hope that the movement has stamina and I hope that the culture has the stamina for really implementing the shifts that need to happen, not just a hashtag, beyond the hashtag. As powerful as that is in our culture for a moment, I think its also about letting in things that are going to have longevity.

DEADLINE: What did playing Hannah teach you?

MBATHA-RAW: I learned a lot on many levels. I think I learned about the world of morning shows on a superficial level. But also, the power of actually staying silent doesnt help anyone. I think as we see with Hannah, her silence, or her inability to process, actually only becomes self-destructive to herself, and that has been a lesson for me. I think actually youre not protecting anyone by staying silent about those kinds of injustices. Its only eating you inside. So thats been a valuable lesson in terms of addressing things, processing them.

DEADLINE: What are you looking forward to at the moment?

MBATHA-RAW: I guess Im looking forward to just seeing how we as a culture evolve. The word normal, whatever that means, I dont think that normal was functional overall, the normal that we had for many people. I think that before things settle there has to be a new configuration. Im looking forward to the new normal and progress.

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The Morning Show Star Gugu Mbatha-Raw On Americas Cultural Awakening & The Road To A New Normal - Deadline