Black Women-Owned Dispensary Wants To Remove Stigma And Keep People Safe

Maria Davis, Crystal Anderson and Nakia McAdoo are three Black nurse anesthetists who own Excelleaf Dispensary. PHOTO PROVIDED BY RISE STRATEGY GROUP.
Maria Davis, Crystal Anderson and Nakia McAdoo are three Black nurse anesthetists who own Excelleaf Dispensary. PHOTO PROVIDED BY RISE STRATEGY GROUP.

Black Women-Owned Dispensary Wants To Remove Stigma And Keep People Safe

By Tia Carol Jones

Maria Davis, Crystal Anderson and Nakia McAdoo are three Black nurse anesthetists who own Excelleaf Dispensary in Dekalb, Illinois.  While the women live in Chicago, they were awarded a dispensary license in DeKalb. 

Anderson, Davis and McAdoo wanted to be able to help their patients outside the hospital setting, because they were aware their patients might be using cannabis. They wanted to educate themselves on the reasons why patients might be using cannabis and how they used it. During that education process, they decided that they wanted to enter the cannabis industry.

 Anderson and Davis applied for a medicinal license in 2014, thinking that their roles working with Veterans and being in the medical field, would qualify them for that license. They were not awarded the license, but tried again in 2019, with McAdoo, and were awarded a craft license and a dispensary license, under the Social Equity program.

“We are already in the business of titrating and dispensing medication on a daily basis for patients, that’s what we do every day, so it only made sense that we pivot into something, all of us wanting to be entrepreneurs, this seemed like the perfect fit for us,” McAdoo said.

Anderson, Davis and McAdoo, among themselves they have 70 years of experience in the medical field and working with veterans. They have faced many challenges, hurdles and struggles going through the licensing process and even since they opened their dispensary in December of 2023.

Excelleaf services about 100,000 customers in the DeKalb area. There is not another dispensary within 40 miles. McAdoo said they were fortunate to get into that space and have been embraced by the community. The people in DeKalb had been fighting for a dispensary in the area for a very long time and the residents were really excited when they opened.

Anderson, Davis and McAdoo have put their own money into the business. Very few banks will fund cannabis dispensaries for small business loans, because it is not a federally recognized business. While they have obeyed the rules and complied with the regulations required by the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act (CRTA), they say illegal and intoxicating weed being sold as hemp in communities and the illicit cannabis market has created a challenge for them. 

McAdoo said when patients who have ingested Delta-8 products come to the hospitals and medical centers, they aren’t sure why they are having adverse reactions because they believe they have ingested weed. She said what her, Anderson and Davis have worked so hard to build, as far as messaging about cannabis, is being destroyed by the illegal and intoxicating weed being sold as hemp and the illicit cannabis market.

McAdoo said the cannabis business owners, in the state of Illinois and its legislators have spent a lot of time trying to make it a safe industry. They want to remove the stigma from cannabis, that means they have spent a lot of time and effort to remove that stigma, with packaging, labels and dosing requirements.

“We know everything that’s in every product and every package. We start with asking customers and patients what’s their experience and how experienced are they with cannabis. If they’re not, just like I do in a hospital, we’re going to titrate this up, we’re not going to start with maximum doses, we’re going to start with small doses and titrate to effect,” McAdoo said, adding that it is how they’ve trained their budtenders in the dispensary.

On the other hand, when people buy cannabis off the street, they don’t know the dosages or what else might also be in it. With the intoxicating hemp market, there aren’t restrictions on what is put into those packages. McAdoo said a lot of times, there are high dosages of THC in those packages, which would never be allowed in a cannabis dispensary. Anderson said she wants to see legislation come to pass that will benefit small businesses and entrepreneurs who follow the rules and regulations. She would like to see all the same rules and regulations be followed for all parts of the industry.

Anderson sees herself, Davis and McAdoo as trailblazers, and said it is exciting to be owners of a Black women owned cannabis dispensary. Because of our work as nurse anesthetists, which wasn’t easy, and because there are very few Black women in that field; owning a dispensary, being the first and being the only, while being a trailblazer for Anderson is a continuation of that .

“I think it’s a great feeling that we’re able to start a business like this, help the community out, be forward thinking, in our thought process of how to keep this business open, and be productive in it,” Anderson said.


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