Six years ago, Uneeda Nichols of Washington, D.C. struggled to lead a normal life. She suffered from painful physical and mental ailments, and her regimen of pharmaceutical treatments came with the price of uncomfortable side-effects.
In 2012, she first turned to medicinal cannabis as an alternative to opioids for pain treatment. Amazed by the plant’s potential, she continued researching different strains and discovered its myriad medical uses. Six years later, she uses it today to treat her anxiety, depression, PTSD, arthritis, and more. She is now free of both pharmaceutical treatments and their side-effects.
“We’re trained to go for a Tylenol or an Advil,” Nichols said. “Now I’m trained to go for a different cannabis strain for whatever’s wrong with me. Sometimes I make smoothies, sometimes I make candy, or I eat it in a cake. As I grow I’m learning more.” Not content to keep her knowledge to herself, Nichols decided to share her love for cannabis with her community.
In 2014, she founded a catering company, D.C. Sweet Sensations. Her services include both home delivery and event catering, with an all-organic, fresh and seasonal menu of salads, seafoods, meats, smoothies, baked goods—and of course, cannabis edibles. More recently, Nichols founded an educational group: Gurlz Grow Dank, which holds seminars to teach women how to grow their own cannabis.
“Through my cannabis catering company and my advocacy I’ve met many people and listened to their needs,” she said. “So through this new company, I teach people how to grow different strains and which ones make them feel better, mentally or physically.” Nichols partners with local dispensaries, growers, and producers of hydroponic grow systems. Her first class was on May 20, and she plans to continue holding them as often as possible.
Outside of her entrepreneurship, Nichols is a proud mother who raised up five godchildren, with one son living at home with her. She holds master’s degrees in both business and public administration, which she earned while owning and managing two hair salons and battling her health issues.
Nichols works on the frontlines of cannabis activism in her home city of Washington, D.C. She organizes with DCMJ, which led the successful ballot measure Initiative 71 to legalize cannabis in the capital in 2014. Her current activist efforts include pushing to repeal the ‘Andy Harris rider’, an amendment passed by the eponymous Congressman from Maryland in December 2014 which has prohibited legal cannabis sales in the city.
But Nichols is also helping lead the charge on DCMJ’s ‘Bring it Home’ initiative. This campaign seeks to protect medical marijuana patients receiving federal housing assistance, commonly referred to as ‘Section 8’. Nichols is herself on a waitlist for Section 8 assistance, and as an open cannabis user understands the seriousness of this issue.
The Housing Choice Voucher program, created under Section 8 of the 1978 Housing and Community Development Act, provides assistance for low- and middle-income tenants to rent or purchase homes on the private market. As of 2017, 5.3 million people in the US use this program to afford housing. 68% of this number are seniors, children, or people with disabilities, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Local public housing agencies (PHA’s), funded by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), issue vouchers to residents who qualify. The PHA enters an agreement with a participating landlord to pay some portion of the rent on a housing unit, with the resident paying the difference.
But as the legality of cannabis has changed in the last twenty years, Section 8 residents in D.C. and 29 states with medical marijuana laws have had to make an uncomfortable choice—between their housing and their medicine. Even if they live in a state with legal medical marijuana—like Colorado or California—housing residents can face eviction or termination of their housing voucher if they are found using cannabis by their landlords or local PHA. This is because marijuana remains illegal federally under the 1970 Controlled Substances Act.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development clarified their official policy on this issue most recently in December 2014. In a memorandum, they stated owners of federally assisted housing must prohibit admission to their program of any user of illegal drugs, including marijuana. But for existing tenants using marijuana, HUD stated that housing owners must determine on a case-by-case basis whether eviction or termination is necessary. It cited Section 577 of the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998 (QHWRA), which allows landlords and PHAs to exercise discretion in whether or not they will evict users of a federal controlled substance.
In essence, this means landlords and PHAs do not need to evict medical marijuana users—they simply reserve the right to. Nichols seeks to repeal this policy through her activism with the ‘Bring it Home’ campaign. She stressed the importance of protecting not just marijuana possession, but also the right to grow at home.
“If grandmothers and seniors in the HUD programs wanna grow their own cannabis—just like fruits and vegetables—we want them to have that right,” she says. “Many of these people can’t afford to go to a dispensary. The prices are too high. With a home grow, they would have it immediately available to them so they don’t have to rely on pharmaceutical drugs. We want to allow more people to use natural remedies for their pain, or for whatever reason. And we don’t believe it’s right to make people homeless because they need marijuana.”
Nichols is working to make Bring it Home a national movement. She and DCMJ have been sending out flyers and memos to activists in other states, urging them to visit their local HUD offices and protest on the issue. In the past several months, Nichols has participated in public demonstrations with DCMJ to raise awareness on the issue in her city. On April 2, she and her fellow activists rallied outside the HUD headquarters and handed out free cannabis.
Nichols understands well the social costs of working in the cannabis industry. She has struggled to overcome the shame and stigma surrounding the use of this plant—especially with her family. “My nana worked for the CIA so she was trained to think pot was a gateway drug,” she said. “But now she sees how successfully it has changed my mental health, so she really listens a little deeper. I haven’t got her to consume yet, but she’s tried my balms for her pain. It feels good. We have to work on our family so they can work on the rest of the community.”
Nichols is optimistic about the future of cannabis in her city and around the country. “Once these laws are lifted and people’s ears and eyes are open they’ll be ready to learn all about this plant,” she said. “They can enjoy it and be free of pain and depression. I’m looking forward to my business growing because more consumers are getting educated and I know I can help people in my community.”
She is also confident that the cannabis movement can help uplift more women and women of color. “Women are the nurturers,” she said, “so it’s important in this industry to have someone who is really caring and passionate. And It’s time for black women to be paid back for all their sacrifices that they’ve made for this country through their blood, sweat and tears.”
“I’ve been elevated through this plant,” Nichols said. “I can honestly say in my mind, body, and spirit—I’m seeing freedom. I want every woman to feel this on all levels.”