Cannabis influencers: She’s persuasive and blunt about inclusivity

Jessica Gonzalez

Only 2% of lawyers in America are Latinas, Jessica F. Gonzalez says. “I’m proud to be part of that 2%, that absurdly low number.”Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Adva

This story is part of a series of profiles, The CannaInfluencers: The people shaping the cannabis industry in the Garden State. Written by NJ Cannabis Insider reporters, the profiles will publish the weeks leading up to the Nov. 3 election, when New Jersey voters will decide whether to legalize recreational, adult-use cannabis.

Jessica Gonzalez and her family emigrated from the highlands of Ecuador to Jersey City when she was 3. By the time she graduated high school, she had moved eight times in neighborhoods marred by gang-related crime and mired in poverty.

So it was with great purpose and effort — working two jobs while she went to school — Gonzalez pursued a career as a lawyer. She saw it as a means of providing the financial security she craved and arming herself with knowledge of how to protect herself, Gonzalez said.

“I wanted to become an attorney because growing up, I felt a sense of insecurity and I didn’t have the tools to defend myself in a world that’s constantly changing,” said Gonzalez, 29, who was the first in her family to graduate from a four-year college, Boston University, and the first to complete graduate school, Suffolk University Law School in Boston.

“When I looked at the law, it pervades every area of a person’s life,” she said. “Having a good understanding of the law would always help me.”

Since passing the bar in 2016, Gonzalez has worked in three law firms, including one she co-founded. Currently employed by Bressler, Amery & Ross, she has developed a specialty in intellectual property law fashioned around the burgeoning cannabis industry.

And as general counsel for the national organization Minorities For Medical Marijuana, Gonzalez is also unafraid to hold the the cannabis industry and government regulators accountable for failing to include more people of color. She’s a sought-after speaker and opinion writer who can articulate what social equity and opportunities for Black and brown people should look like.

She led informational “boot camp” training in Camden, Newark and Trenton, explaining contract and intellectual property law to aspiring cannabis entrepreneurs. “A lot of these communities don’t have a lawyer. You are leaving your assets up for fair game.”

In an op-ed that appeared on NJ.com in July, Gonzalez took aim at the 2019 state law creating “micro-licenses,” offering people who lack the millions of dollars to apply for a vertical license by letting them pursue a narrower slice of the business.

“The inclusion of micro-licenses reads well on paper. In reality, the ownership, size and quantity restrictions are not financially viable and there is no mechanism to convert a micro-license to a full license,” Gonzalez wrote. “Even though the application costs for micro-licenses would be half that of a regular-sized license, applicants must still meet the same criteria, which entail a large team of lawyers, writers, accountants and consultants, just to name a few.”

She also warned that the 15% license goals for minorities and 15% for women and disabled veterans “can easily be manipulated depending on when the application is filed, leaving room for companies to take advantage of these licenses,” she wrote. “Even worse, as of yet, there are no avenues for those with cannabis-related criminal records to expunge their records, which can result in preclusion from participating in the legal cannabis industry.”

Imani Dawson, communications director for Minorities for Medical Marijuana, said her sister, medical cannabis activist and MFMM board member Dasheeda Dawson, introduced her to Gonzalez.

“She’s an extremely smart and knowledgeable attorney who is passionate about making an inclusive cannabis industry in New Jersey,” Imani Dawson said.

In public speaking engagements, Gonzalez is persuasive and blunt in describing how far New Jersey is from creating an inclusive framework for people of color and how the state ought to get there, Dawson said.

“Legalization will be better because of her efforts,” she said.

Gonzalez said she has bucked the traditional career path for lawyers. When she quit her first job out of law school, her mother, a longtime employee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was not pleased her daughter was walking away from a stable career at Scarinci Hollenbeck. But she was intent on finding both professional success and personal satisfaction as a cannabis lawyer.

“I wanted to fight for something that would have not just an impact on my life but on other people’s lives,” she said. “I have never been afraid of change because I had to undergo so much change when I was younger.”

Jessica Gonzalez

Jessica F. Gonzalez, in 2018, posing in front of the many volcanoes found in the highlands of Ecuador, where she was born.

She found intellectual property, dealing with trademarks and branding, a flourishing area of cannabis law. But she was drawn to the pursuit by something more spiritual. Ecuadorians are ocean and  mountain-based people who value plant-based medicine, she said. And fighting for greater minority access in the cannabis market also satisfies her soul, she said.

Even in her off hours, Gonzalez is relentless about her self-improvement path. A voracious reader, her current favorite read is “Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day,” by Jay Shetty.

Whenever she can, she puts her bilingual skills to use to educate people about the inequitable history of marijuana and its potential economic and health benefits because few educational materials are available in Spanish. Two years ago when she visited family in Quito, they were “curious” and concerned about her career choices and peppered her with questions.

“Now they are sending me articles about what’s happening there,” Gonzalez said, referring to the recent approval of low-level THC products for medicinal purposes. “That would not have happened had I not been able to translate it for them,” she said.

“Women still face barriers across industries and have to fight to be taken seriously, and cannabis is no different,” Dawson said. “We were heartened by the early emergence of women but as the venture capitalists have poured in, we are seeing the same traditional battles along gender, class and racial lines.”

As far as Dawson can see, Gonzalez is undaunted by the challenge. “She has the kind of energy and and dedication that breaks barriers. It’s not easy, it’s why you have to be committed to a vision. She is,” Dawson said.

Only 2% of lawyers in America are Latinas,  Gonzalez said. “I’m proud to be part of that 2%, that absurdly low number,” she said.

Being a Latina lawyer in the cannabis space, “I’m a unicorn of sorts.”

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Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio.

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