415 4th Street, Oakland, CA 94607

Oldest Black-Owned Dispensary, Purple Heart Patient Center, Trying To Reopen Their Doors

Mar 10, 2021

America’s oldest Black-owned dispensary, Purple Heart Patient Center, has been closed since criminals used the cover of protests to decimate Oakland’s cannabis industry last summer. We talked with founder Keith Stephenson about the road to get the facility back open. 

Last summer, Stephenson noted in other interviews the battle he’d gone through with insurance adjusters to honor his claim. As the drills buzzed behind us, Stephenson explained how it all eventually played out. It involved a lot of hoops and him putting documents in their hands as fast as possible.