Black History Year - Devin Alexander and Rolling Releaf

The War on Drugs devastated more families than we can possibly imagine. For many that may not know someone who was involved in the criminal injustice system because of this horrid war, the harms of it are always a little esoteric, concepts they can understand but never imagine.

Many stories have been told about the stolen wealth opportunities, the removal of Black and Brown fathers from families, children growing up devoid of a united household. These stories are not all the same however. They don’t all go like that.

Few stories have been told like Devin Alexander’s of Rolling Releaf in Massachusetts. Devin was arrested for possession in high school back in 2011. The local newspaper printed his name, labeling him a weed criminal. His dreams of joining the Air Force were destroyed.

He chose to attend Quincy College and study psychology instead, working in a pharmacy while he figured out his next steps. After graduating, those steps took him into budtending at a dispensary in his hometown of Quincy.

What makes Devin’s story of the War on Drugs particularly strange is that as a budtender, he was sometimes selling weed to former teachers of his. The local police often used the bathroom at his dispensary, putting him in the extremely unique position of selling weed “right in front of the same police department that arrested me.” - Devin, in the Patriot Ledger

This is an entirely unrelatable experience to almost everyone on the planet. Truly surreal in the most potent sense of the word. We assume. Only Devin can truly know.

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Fighting Battles Against Regulations

Devin joined the Social Equity Program in Massachusetts in 2019 as he embarked on the journey of launching his own company. He chose to go after the delivery operator license and started Rolling Releaf because he saw far less competition in a new license type.

The way the regs were set for delivery in Mass., Devin didn’t see a viable business model; the restrictions were too onerous and prevented the ability to succeed. There’s a very similar situation in Colorado currently, where delivery licensees are only allowed to contract with a retailer to sell their products, and can not warehouse or store products on their own.

Instead of just accepting what was proposed, Devin and a few others created the Massachusetts Cannabis Association for Delivery and got to work at the capitol pushing for reform.

They succeeded! The regs were changed to allow delivery companies to procure products directly from cultivators and manufacturers, allow them to store product overnight, and have a 3 year exclusivity period to the license type.

This is the work. It takes organizing like this in the cannabis industry to win gains, to not just accept the first iterations of regulations. Devin showed the nation that you can organize and win. They did it in record speed. Between May of 2020, when the regs were officially released, and August 2020, they managed to make massive changes. 

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The Next Fight - Two Driver Rule

Another battle fought and potentially won by Devin et al. is the removal of the two-driver requirements in Massachusetts. The regs were (and still are) written to require two drivers in every cannabis delivery. This practically doubles the cost of delivery for no benefit. They look set to go into place in October or November, 2024.

“It’s about damn time to get these changes fixed that were voted on in December [2023],” said Devin Alexander, the CEO and co-founder of cannabis delivery company Rolling Releaf, in a phone interview. “[I feel] relief because the excitement [about these changes] was back in December and the excitement wears off after several months. You just want to get it done.”

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Rolling Releaf is Rolling Forward

Now Rolling Releaf is on the move, serving all of Greater Boston and based out of Newton. Consumers in Boston are enjoying the sweet experience of having cannabis delivered to their doorstep, provided by a passionate group of the hardest working people in the biz.

How could they not be? With this story and experience, it’s hard to imagine having anything other than undeterred grit and determination.

You can source brands through Rolling Releaf that include the only Black cultivator that owns a cannabis business in the entire North East! “So when people buy deliveries through Rolling Releaf, they’ll have a chance to support the two black-owned brands with one purchase” Devin told MJ Brand Insights.

If you’re a producer, brand or cultivator in Massachusetts, make sure your products are available through Rolling Releaf by contacting them through their website.

You can also connect directly with Devin Alexander on LinkedIn here.

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