Meet Timeka D. Founder and CEO of BIKO Flower, a cannabis brand that creates luxurious, potent products and experiences.
How did you get into cannabis? Cannabis saved my life. In the early 2000’s, after medically withdrawing from law school, I began working for a dispensary (Compassionate Caregivers – West Hollywood) to be able to be gifted the type of cannabis medicine I needed to heal my body. Through that position, I opened a doctor & patient referral service and placed the first advertisements for legal cannabis in underground, free publications including the LA Weekly. At the time, I was suffering from what was diagnosed as Crohn’s Disease, and I was told that I would need to have life-changing surgery that would remove parts of my colon and require a colostomy bag – I was also told that due to the toxic medications I would need to take my whole life as well as the stress a pregnancy would have on my body, I would not be able to have children. Due to the success of my healing journey with cannabis, I am now the mother of 4 children and have not had to have any surgery to address my digestive disease.
Why do you think people of color, in particular, should consider a career in cannabis? This industry is painfully new – we have to create the industry that we want to see. The only way that we can ensure representation in the industry as people of color is to continue to put ourselves out there, demand to be considered and prove why the data around diversity creating more profitable, stronger businesses exists.
What is the best piece of advice you have for people entering the space? Be yourself at all times. I think there is an incredible pressure to bend and change into what we think we are expected to be when entering a new position or trying to fit into an existing team dynamic – the more we can lead with our authentic selves without fear, the better equipped we are to know when a company or a culture doesn’t fit and won’t lead to value-alignment in the long run. Sometimes, our role might be to help change a company culture or influence its direction or trajectory – that’s also a valid position, and an incredibly important one.
How might the cannabis industry execute social equity better?
1) Cannabis companies should do more charitable giving to organizations that have been working to address the harms caused by the war on drugs for years before cannabis legalization was ever considered (the The Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign led by Cheri Honkala is one of many examples). Addressing housing inequalities and homelessness, unemployment, hunger and a lack of access to fresh produce, the school to prison pipeline that the war on drugs helped support and more all continue to be critical in addressing “social equity” as it relates to the cannabis industry. Prison abolition and restorative justice should be discussed on cannabis conference stages with more tenacity than enforcement models for unlicensed operators that create an unfortunate and unnecessary continuation of the war on drugs.
2) Every single cannabis retailer (especially massive multi-store retailers) should be creating shelf space for social equity and underrepresented brands. Social equity retailers and brands should be forming powerful alliances that ensure our voices are amplified by each other and not drowned out by the highly organized, well-funded and publicly traded competition.
3) In my opinion, we should be expanding who we include in the equity framework – programs that aim to lift up and support system impacted and formerly incarcerated as well as Black, brown, queer, AAPI, indigenous and other underrepresented individuals and businesses are more inclusive in addressing the actual harms that were felt due to the systemic racism that fueled the war on drugs and the enslavement of human beings for generations.
If you could sum up your cannabis career in 3 words, what would they be? Learning, building, growing.
What are some career paths that you see as career growth opportunities in cannabis? I think ancillary businesses are exciting – there are so many ways to serve cannabis brands and operators with environmentally conscious and sustainable products, patentable innovations and what seem like an infinite amount of services. I saw someone post on LinkedIn the other day asking about interest in a totally biodegradable pre-roll pack insert, noting it does not exist on the market – I had been searching for that very product the day before! There is so much room for the industry to get more sophisticated and thoughtful.
What’s your favorite word for cannabis? (weed, pot etc) Medicine!
What is your favorite product, and why do you use it? I’m biased, but I created the Biko Juseyo Diamonds preroll after trying a hand-rolled preroll that had been sprinkled with THCa diamonds. I knew that I wanted to be able to purchase a product like this, but couldn’t find it on the market, so we produced it! As a medical cannabis patient for over 20 years now, I appreciate the potency and consistency of this particular pre-roll. When I need high-potency relief fast, it never disappoints.
What’s your superpower? I think my superpower is my optimism: finding a way to thrive even when survival is what I have been focused on. When I was bleeding internally, in constant pain and struggling to find a way to afford my medical cannabis, I never imagined that I would one day be able to build a career within an industry that makes cannabis medicine more available to every single adult across the country. I am passionate about this plant and restorative justice for the individuals and communities that have been harmed by laws targeting poor Black and Brown people under the guise of a war on drugs, and I am optimistic that we will find ways to begin to actually address what we are only beginning to truly and honestly discuss as an industry.
