October 2, 2019
The
Minority & Small Business Week
Page 3
INSIDE L O C A L N E W S
Week in Review
M ETRO
page 2
page 9
photo by b everly C orbell /t he p ortland o bserver
Adrian Wayman (left), the minority owner of a unique cannabis dispensary in Portland called Green
Box, and his employee Spencer Gray and one of their “green boxes” of marijuana products for
home delivery, the first business of its type in the state. Green Box was a recent recipient of a grant
underwritten by Prosper Portland to bolster minority-owned films in the legal cannabis businesses.
Cannabis Business Gets a Boost
Grants promoting
diversity help level
playing field
Arts &
ENTERTAINMENT
O PINION
C LASSIFIEDS
page 12-14
pages 7-8
page 18
by b everly C orbell
t he p ortland o bserver
When Adrian Wayman was a high school stu-
dent in Georgia, he and a handful of friends were
waiting for the bus when a group of police officers
approached them, searched them, and then arrested
them all because Wayman had a little bit of cannabis
flower in his backpack.
“We were just a group of black teens, not doing
anything wrong, not using anything and we didn’t
give them reason to search us,” he said.
The arrest branded Wayman as a criminal. He
was put on probation for two years, had to do 100
hours of community service and “spent lots of mon-
ey” on fines. He was left, he said, with a record of
having possession of a controlled substance, which
he then had to disclose when looking for a job or an
apartment.
Wayman hasn’t looked into expunging his re-
cord because marijuana possession is still a crime in
Georgia, he said. And he doesn’t care now because
he has his own legal business selling marijuana in
Portland.
Wayman’s cannabis dispensary, Green Box, is
Portland’s “first best weed delivery service,” where
customers can sign up for delivery of a different box
each month that contains a combination of edibles,
flower, vape pens, extracts, concentrates and more.
Starting a new business is always a struggle, but
Wayman, who opened shop two years ago, got some
help from a project of Prosper Portland, the city’s
A close up view of the home delivery marijuana
products from a unique minority-owned Portland
dispensary called Green Box.
economic development agency. A nonprofit called
NuLeaf Project PDX was selected as the provider
for the city agency’s Cannabis Business Develop-
ment Equity Program. Its purpose is to encourage
entrepreneurs from communities of color, people
who have been negatively impacted by the so-called
“war on drugs.”
NuLeaf is in its second year of operation and this
year awarded grants of $30,000 each to Green Box
and another cannabis retailer, Green Hop, which has
a hip-hop theme. The grants are funded through can-
nabis tax revenue.
The grant has been a tremendous help, Wayman
said, allowing him to hire Spencer Gray as an assis-
C ontinued on p age 6