San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Instinct, perseverence pay off
San Francisco’s Reese Benton has become the poster woman for social equity in cannabis across the nation. The first black female CEOowner of a cannabis dispensary, Posh Green Boutique, Benton calls her shop the “Nordstrom of Cannabis.” The business opened in June 2020 in the Bayview.
Benton nurtured her entrepreneurial instincts working in the fashion and apparel industry as a buyer and a stylist. The skills and experience from those jobs proved useful as she marched toward opening the kind of cannabis store where she would want to shop.
Posh Green is committed to supporting local farmers and greenhouse vendors. It also has a mission to be at the forefront of health and wellness education. Benton herself is a longtime medical cannabis patient and has created an original line of hempderived CBD products. The Posh Green CBD collection includes tinctures, rubs and gel sticks.
Benton’s retail acumen is evident, from the store’s quietly elegant yet approachable setting to its sophisticated, aggressive social media presence.
Benton started Posh Green in 2017 as a delivery service. In 2018 she was among several cannabis businesspeople (including growers and policy advocates) who were tapped by thenSan Francisco Supervisor Malia Cohen’s office to contribute to the creation of the city’s 2018 social equity program. As well as helping draft the plan, Benton became a participant in it.
The program eventually helped Benton evolve her business from medical delivery to a fullservice brickandmortar dispensary. She also worked with Nicole Elliott, who was director of San Francisco’s Office of Cannabis at the time. Elliott now has a similar position in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration.
Despite Benton’s institutional experience, she has dealt with many of the setbacks and roadblocks most people of color encounter on their way to creating a viable business. An injunction from a cotenant of the building where Posh Green is housed delayed its opening by several months and cost Benton “hundreds of thousands of dollars.” With the help of the mentorship and a $50,000 grant from the Ease Momentum equity program, Benton was able to weather that storm and eventually get the injunction lifted.
Benton stresses patience and perseverance above all else. “I’m not giving up. I know as an African American woman I’m not supposed to be competitive in business, and I know there will be obstacles, but Posh Green will survive.”