Run your mouth. I kind of use my relationships, my resume, and my years of experience to say, “Hey, look, if I’m talking to you about this, it can’t be that bad.” Even further, what we have to do is to gather even more credible messengers who aren’t afraid to speak up about facts and experiences, and then continue to educate them.
As part of my series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Khari Edwards.
As Head of Corporate and Social Responsibility for AYR Wellness, Khari Edwards has focused his professional career on movements in social equity within the cannabis industry. He comes from a background of healthcare and government, and is dedicated to bringing aid and opportunity to all of the communities he serves. Earlier this year, Khari was a driving force behind AYR’s implementation of a series of expungement clinics, for which the company partnered with not-for-profit and community-driven organizations to assist individuals in expunging cannabis and other non-violent crimes from their records.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I’ve spent over 25 years of my career in public service — most of it, government service. For a long time, my primary role was to deal with disparities in social justice, health inequalities, and housing inequalities. Last year around this time, I actually ran for Brooklyn Borough President. I was unsuccessful, but one of my wife’s friends who was also in politics reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in working in cannabis. At the time, I really didn’t see the synergy between the cannabis industry and what I was doing. Thankfully, she emphasized that there was a real need for that kind of work, and a need to talk about the disparities of social justice, healthcare and housing access in connection with the cannabis space. As a result, she got me in touch with Jon Sandelman, the CEO of Ayr Wellness.
I had a great interview with Jon, and he showed a lot of faith in the portfolio I’d built running for elected office and all of the programs and initiatives that I wanted to see through. He was very aware of the greater need for corporate social responsibility, on top of his own drive for equality and inclusion, so he looked at my work, and then offered me a platform to do it in eight states. And that’s what brought me to my position as Ayr’s Head of Corporate and Social Responsibility. This industry wasn’t something that I woke up thinking about, but it’s something that I’ve been really excited to be part of for nearly a year now.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
An unexpected nuance of working in this industry is learning how to refer to it. Cannabis? Marijuana? It always seems to vary so much depending on where you are, and who you’re talking to. I say weed in some places, I say cannabis in some places, I say marijuana in some places — and it’s always interesting to watch the reaction of people who have been in the culture for a while. Regardless of where you are, it’s a very welcoming community and one that seems very understanding of rookies like me. Still, sometimes I’ll refer to cannabis in a certain way, and I’ve seen people turn around like ‘Yeah, he’s not from here’ or ‘Oh, he’s new to this.’ So I’m still working on figuring out the proper description of this wonderful flower in all these different settings. Even here, you might hear me go back and forth. It’s just a part of learning this industry that I never thought of before I was in it.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I remember meeting one of our industry partners at a Black CannaConference in Louisiana. I’d only been on the job two or three months, and I went to introduce myself because I’d heard so many great things about her. The first thing she said to me was, “We gotta talk about Ayr. I think there’s more that Ayr can be doing for the community.” I didn’t even think, I just turned to her and said, “But… air is what we breathe.” It was simple, but we had this whole chuckle that really broke the ice. I used that moment as an opportunity to talk about our company name, Ayr, because it was a funny exchange but it was also a moment for learning. The mix-up was a perfect opening to address how vital inclusion in this space is for communities that have been impacted by it the most, and that corporate social responsibility itself should always be taken seriously. That definitely stuck with me.
Can you describe how you or your organization is making a significant social impact?
I was the Vice President of External Affairs for Brookdale Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, which is my hometown. It’s specifically in Southeast Brooklyn, an area with a population and workforce that are both 97% composed of minorities. I was the first vice president of color in the history of that hospital, and I was being called a token and an Uncle Tom by a lot of my own folks. A lot of people thought I’d just been thrown in because the executives needed a little color. Even now working in the cannabis space, it’s still hard for individuals who look like me and have my background to get past that headspace. I use my platform to show that I belong, show that I’m sincere and genuine in who I am, and be that representation. More often, there are folks now that look at me and say ‘“How are you doing it? It’s a white man’s grab, it’s a white industry, how are you doing it?”
The representation of me being here paves the way for more people like me to follow. There is pressure in knowing that I have to do a good job, because if I don’t keep that door wide open, it may close for others. So I’m using my platform to be me, and being who I am as a Black male and leaning into that authenticity helps break a lot of stereotypes and opens up opportunities for other people.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
One particular individual who I impacted was my dad. He’s eighty-seven years old, and telling him I’m working for a cannabis company — or in his words, a marijuana company — was the hardest thing for me to do, because you grow up believing that it’s not a good thing to get involved with. He and I sat down together, and I told him about the communities that I’ve impacted, and the things that we’re doing at Ayr around expungement and helping people find their way to housing and educational programs. After I’d told him all about what I’d been doing, he just sat back and told me he was proud of me, and proud that I’d been able to continue working to help people even in this new industry that he was so unfamiliar with. To feel that pride from him so directly was huge for me.
When I travel to some of the markets that we’re in, meeting people in Boston or Florida or New Jersey, I get to see an even wider scope of that impact. When I shake someone’s hand and tell them “I’m Khari Edwards, I’m the Head of Corporate and Social Responsibility for Ayr Wellness” — I can really feel the significance of what that means to people. They’ll be openly appreciative of Ayr for giving me this platform, because it means there’s hope for other people with my background to find their space too. Then the conversations follow, questions about what I know of social equity work, what my professional background has been, and how consciously I pay it forward. I tell folks all the time — when you get into spaces like this, regardless of your color, regardless of whatever the industry is, you need to pay it forward. It’s on me to give people hope that not everything is a closed door, and it’s been a rewarding experience that I take very seriously.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
We need to have more open dialogue about all of the issues we’re facing in the cannabis industry. We need to stop hiding behind ignorance and allowing for an uneducated platform to call all the shots. Case in point, when I first started, I went to our Woodbridge dispensary location in New Jersey. There was a security guard at the door, an older white gentleman, and I introduced myself and he shook my hand. He was so enthusiastic — you know, when people shake your hand and hold your wrist, like they’re so happy to see you? I was a little confused, and my first instinct was to wonder if I knew him from somewhere, but it wasn’t that. He told me he’d been a New Jersey State Trooper, and had locked up a number of people for cannabis offenses — because he’d smelled it in their car, because of residue on the floor, really small stuff. But in working as a security guard for this dispensary, and seeing people come in with late stage cancer, arthritis, pain, anxiety — he’d seen firsthand what this wonderful plant can do to really heal people and change their quality of life.
This man was genuinely ashamed of the part he’d played in that broken system. He offered outright to give a testimonial about his experience enforcing those laws, and how our society is allowing false narratives to dictate policy and destroy lives. He’d seen how important it is to educate communities on the reality of these issues, and to get out there and talk about it.
Society needs to start to open up. A person in cannabis cannot sponsor a community basketball tournament if their kids are involved, but a beer company can. That kind of thing makes no sense to me. The politicians also have to grow up and start talking about what’s important — how we change the narrative, and how we stop locking people up. I give a lot of these states credit. Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York — those politicians have understood it, learned how to create a different narrative, and taken steps to move on. Still, I think there needs to be a lot more of those stories like the one of that security guard. I think those need to be heard more loudly and clearly than those twisted stories being pushed by the ignorant.
What specific strategies have you been using to promote and advance this cause? Can you recommend any good tips for people who want to follow your lead and use their social platform for social good?
Run your mouth. I kind of use my relationships, my resume, and my years of experience to say, “Hey, look, if I’m talking to you about this, it can’t be that bad.” Even further, what we have to do is to gather even more credible messengers who aren’t afraid to speak up about facts and experiences, and then continue to educate them.
Before my wife and I got married, she introduced me to smoking weed, and at first I wasn’t even interested, but eventually I gave it a try. I smoked maybe once a week. So, I’m a type one diabetic, and I used to get these black spots in my eyes. When I went to my optometrist for a checkup after I’d started smoking, he asked what I’d been doing. I wasn’t sure what he meant at first, but he said “Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it, because it’s bringing down the swelling in your eyes.” It clicked for me instantly, and all of a sudden I had this lived experience. So I tell folks all the time that I’ve had my own personal run with cannabis on the treatment side. We can’t be afraid to be honest and speak up about how our own lives are changed.
Nobody’s going to shun you. No one’s going to make you feel bad. In the beginning, I hesitated to put what job I had on my Instagram, because my Instagram was my community thing and my political thing. Then I just said, screw it. I’m gonna share what I’m doing on this platform. When people see that Khari Edwards is doing it now… that’s dope. It’s not bad. And, it’s been working; I’ve opened up a new perspective to a lot of people, even pastors and some staunch seniors who didn’t play with even the idea of cannabis for a while. Now they’re talking to me about it and wanting to hear more.
My goal is really to stay honest about cannabis. Be honest about why you are using it, be honest about why you’re not using it. If you are afraid to use it, be honest about what your thoughts are, because that communication opens up the door. I think good dialogue also connects to your previous question, because it’s that first pathway to community understanding, and then society follows.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
I think a lot of these lessons are closely intertwined with one another. You have to start with understanding the do’s and don’ts of different rhetoric, and navigating compliance — especially coming from government, where you can open up opportunities through not-for-profits. You can sponsor this, you can do this, you can open these. For example, while I was working at Brookdale Hospital, I started a program called Brookdale At Your Door. We went into the senior centers and schools, and we started talking about good healthcare. I definitely wish I’d had a better understanding of how you can and can’t approach things with different audiences, kids in particular. That probably was one of the first kickers where I understood how tough it is to communicate across these barriers, when people will only allow you to say things a certain way.
Another big thing, even though I find myself to be a very open minded person, was the difficulty of going to some houses of worship and having these conversations. Religion still has a very large influence on how people view non-religious issues, so knowing how to navigate those conversations, no matter what you’re advocating for, is a must.
This bit may be a little controversial, but the level of bias from community to community in terms of things like race and sexual orientation really calls for a pre-set communication strategy. You have to be very aware that even if someone isn’t in the community of smoking cannabis, that those other social issues do play a role in the way people respond to it. That’s something that I understood to a degree, from a standpoint of how some communities and some ethnic groups are marginalized, but I didn’t realize how hard it became to balance the voices from all these issues at once.
I am very appreciative of the way that cannabis has embraced Pride, and very pleased at the way cannabis is integrated into different social justice movements. So going back a little, when I say it’s controversial, it’s like — yeah, you’re Black and you smoke weed. You’ve got a double thing. Or you’re LGBTQ+ and you smoke weed, there’s another double thing. It’s a difficult balance to strike because of how it’s still received, and I wish I’d known more about it when I entered the space.
What’s also important to understand is the way that you can work with a non-profit if it’s choosing to take money from cannabis, but at the same time, you don’t get a tax benefit from it. That’s a big one on the corporate level. We can support as many not-for-profits as we like, but we can’t write it off the same way any other company writes it off.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Actually, our CEO Jon Sandelman’s idea of being a force for good is something that I’ve really tried to stick with and build from. The more that we delve into these communities, the more that we move to do right by others and put other people first, paying it forward or reaching behind and bringing people up — everything from our social justice programs and expungement programs, to our educational programs and technical assistance programs — all of our moves as a company have opened up a true understanding for me of what being a force for good looks like, and how it feels.
It’s about people, people, and people. When you make sure that someone can go home with a job, or someone can go home with a clean record, or somebody’s child can go to college, it’s the kind of thing that folks notice. Being a cannabis company and going into communities to offer them support and understanding does so much to change people’s hearts. So, the movement is this force for good, whatever it may be — but no matter what, it has to be about bettering people’s lives.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
At the age of four, when I got first diagnosed with type one diabetes, I was in a coma for six months. It’s kind of crazy that I’m still here. Because of low blood sugar, I’ve had seven or eight real near-death experiences. And this is why I think I’m at Ayr versus somewhere else; those scary experiences made me realize that putting your innate abilities to use is deeply important. Even if you don’t believe in God or the universe, being grateful for the ability to appreciate life is where it’s at. That appreciation for me took the form of wanting to do good and wanting to put other people first, because I was given a second and third and fourth and fifth opportunity — and all of those opportunities brought me to Ayr.
So for me, the life lesson really is just appreciate the life that you have. Appreciate the air that you breathe — no pun intended — and give yourself an opportunity to do better for yourself and others.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
@ayrsocialimpact is our CSR Instagram. Shout out to our Corporate Communications and CSR Associate Cami McNeely and our VP of Corporate Communications Rob Vanisko for giving me the opportunity to create this platform, where we’re able to share the things that we’re doing for our community. I know there’s a delineation between the cannabis side of it and the community side of it, but we do some really good work altogether. A lot of it comes from Cami and I sitting down and creating metrics, and then getting approval from Rob and Jon Sandelman that it can be done. So far, I haven’t been told ‘no’, which is a great thing because I think I’ve been going in the right direction. My goal right now is to hit 10,000 followers on that Instagram account, so if people could give us a follow on @ayrsocialimpact, it would be a great way to show support.
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
Social Impact Heroes: Why & How Khari Edwards of AYR Wellness Is Helping To Change Our World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.