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Years after legalization, where are we now? The New Director of the Office of Cannabis along with local dispenser Malcom Mirage discuss...
About the Speakers:
About Nikesh Patel:
Born in San Francisco, and raised in a single-room occupancy hotel in the Tenderloin, Nikesh Patel’s first experience with serving the City and County of San Francisco began nearly twenty years ago as a high school intern with the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Followed by a summer internship with the San Francisco Ethics Commission, and multiple clerkships and permanent positions with the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office and, most recently, the Office of Cannabis, his career path has long aligned with his love of, and gratitude for, the city that has raised him.
Nikesh Patel currently serves as the Director of the Office of Cannabis (“OOC”). Prior to being elevated to the position, he served as the Associate Director of Oversight for the OOC. In this role, he steered a public advisory body (the San Francisco Cannabis Oversight Committee) of sixteen (16) members that issues recommendations to the Office of the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors. He also led external communications and media relations for the OOC, and contributed to setting policy and legislative priorities, analyzing applications and guiding applicants through the permit process. He has been an active member of the State Bar of California and an attorney since 2017. Prior to joining the Office of Cannabis,
Nikesh worked as an Assistant District Attorney and member of former San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón's Communication and Policy team. In these roles, he supported a variety of criminal justice reform initiatives, including the DA’s vision to proactively expunge more than 9,000 cannabis-related convictions eligible for dismissal under Proposition 64. He also bolstered processes within the office to enhance transparency and access to public records and data, and played integral roles in developing innovative educational and public safety campaigns.
With the San Francisco District Attorney’s (“SFDA”) Office, Nikesh also served as one of the first prosecutors assigned to a novel crime reduction program. Known as LEAD SF, the pilot program conjoined the SFDA’s Office, Department of Public Health, law enforcement agencies, the Public Defender’s Office, and community-based organizations to manage a caseload of 200+ participants in a City-wide effort to reduce recidivism.
Nikesh believes in the power of government to be introspective, flexible, and ultimately, a partner in ushering a more equitable society. As the next Director of the Office of Cannabis, he is energized to elevate the momentum of the office and continue to champion a model equity program and premier cannabis industry.
Nikesh holds a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from Stanford University, a Masters of Science in Migration Policy from Oxford University (UK), and a Juris Doctor degree from the Berkeley School of Law.
About Malcolm Mirage:
In 2013, on one of Malcolm’s monthly drives from San Francisco to New York City, he saw a vision in the distance, a mirage in his mind’s eye: Prohibition wouldn’t last forever and California would be legalized soon enough. With over a hundred pounds of Northern California cannabis as cargo, Malcolm spent the rest of the drive laying out plans to start his own legal cannabis dispensary in San Francisco. He shared his epiphany with his father, and with Jerome’s support, established Mirage Medicinal as a registered California cannabis co-operative, started his website, and worked on plans to officially launch in 2015.
Malcolm worked painstaking hours to raise capital and execute his vision, but the dream went up in smoke the day he was arrested in Texas with over 120 pounds of top shelf Cali weed. After making bail, he flew to New York City, hustling tirelessly to recoup his losses by doubling down. In late 2014, Malcolm was arrested again and sentenced to a year in New York City’s notorious Rikers Island Prison for felony transportation of marijuana with intent to sell.
Everything came to a halt for Malcolm as he served time at Rikers Island. It was at this juncture that Mirage became a true family business, as Jerome picked up where Malcolm left off. Jerome was even better at growing the business than his son, but was arrested while doing so in New York City. With Jerome now convicted of conspiracy to distribute cannabis, Malcolm’s sister Nina stepped in to maintain momentum for Mirage while her brother and father were incarcerated.
When Malcolm was released in 2016, he joined Nina in advocating for the San Francisco Cannabis Equity Program. The program was to ensure people of color and cannabis criminals would not be shut out of the opportunity of the emerging legalization movement in California, as they had been in other legal cannabis states. They were successful in their grass roots lobbying effort, playing a major role in crafting the language of what would become the San Francisco Social Equity Program, and Malcolm became one of the earliest applicants to qualify for approval by San Francisco’s Cannabis Equity Program.
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