Berner to make guest appearance at Cookies grand opening
Staff Reports | Digital Free Press
Arizona cannabis entrepreneur Andrea Deals is opening Arizona’s first Cookies cannabis dispensary on June 24 in Tempe.
Representatives of the Cookies brand report, Ms. Deals is the first Black woman to operate a cannabis dispensary stemming from a license awarded from Arizona’s social equity program.
The new Cookies dispensary is at 2715 S. Hardy Drive in Tempe.
Berner to make guest appearance at Cookies grand opening
The grand opening celebration is from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday, June 24. The event will include special discounts, deals and giveaways all day. Rapper and entrepreneur, Berner, the founder and CEO of the Cookies brand, will perform the dispensary’s ribbon cutting alongside Deals at 11 a.m.
“The Cookies brand is authentic and innovative, which is important to me as a new cannabis entrepreneur,” Ms. Deals said in a prepared statement. “I am proud to be entering the cannabis sector as a social equity license holder and the first to bring this popular brand to the state.”
Industry leaders contend Black entrepreneurs account for less than 2% of the nation’s cannabis businesses while women hold only 13% of executive roles in the cannabis industry, according to the press release.
Ms. Deals, representatives of the Cookies cannabis brand report, was the recipient of one of 26 social equity cannabis sales licenses issued by the state of Arizona as the result of Proposition 207, which legalized adult use and required the state to promote the ownership and operation of licensed marijuana establishments by individuals from communities disproportionately impacted by the enforcement of previous marijuana laws.
