For Nike John, trailblazing is the name of the game.
At age 30, John has become first Black woman — and youngest person — to open a cannabis dispensary in Boston. The Heritage Club opened on Cambridge Street in Charlestown on Sept. 6 with plans to change the course of the industry through education, diversity and quality products.
A Dorchester native and current resident, John attended George Washington University as a pre-med major, looking for a career to help people live better. She ended up transferring back to Boston, however, where she completed a finance degree at Northeastern University with a minor in psychology.
“My idea was that if I could understand money and people, I didn't have to know what I wanted to do. But I could apply that to just about anything,” she said. After college, John launched her own real estate brokerage and was working there when her mother approached her three years ago and encouraged her to get into the cannabis business.
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John's response? "Mom, I don’t smoke weed.”
But after researching how the war on drugs continues to affect Black and brown people today, she was inspired to take action.
