Finding My Tribe

Cannabis as a Pathway for Healing & Community by Arianne Richards

Roots

As a little girl growing up on the south side of Chicago, I would have never thought the adults around me were smoking something that was labeled bad, let alone illegal. I just thought that a joint was “those funny smelling cigarettes,” no different than alcohol, and I just knew it was for the grown folks. I spent my early years on 47th and King Drive, the low end, Bronzeville. Bronzeville is where my roots lay in Chicago. I’m a true south side girl through and through.

When I lived in Bronzeville it wasn’t the neighborhood that it’s becoming now. Those funny-smelling cigarettes weren’t the ONLY thing in the air. In those days, Bronzeville reeked of poverty. Some of the things I walked past on a daily basis my kids could never imagine. Bronzeville, just like most of the south side, is categorized as a disproportionately impacted area from the War on Drugs. Even though there was poverty I have some good memories from there as well as some lifelong friends.

While my family moved away…