While South Carolina could be on its way to legalizing medical cannabis in the future, the state already has a thriving hemp industry. Though some of the issues with the broader cannabis industry in the West plague the hemp industry as well, namely the lack of diversity among leaders.
Many states have built in equity measures to give minorities and those groups most historically affected by the War on Drugs better footing to get ahead in the cannabis industry, but the hemp industry doesn’t tend to have those same protections.
But that hasn’t stopped professionals like Sheena Myers from forging their own space in hemp.
Myers is the CEO of hemp company Genotype Incorporated and the first Black woman in Charleston County, South Carolina to become a licensed hemp farmer.
On the Genotype Incorporated website, Myers explains that she decided to enter the hemp industry after her son was born prematurely in May 2019. Weighing just 1 lb. 8 oz., Geno stayed in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) for four months.
“Everyday was a struggle,” Myers explains. “I didn’t know if he’d make it, and if he did what kind of struggles he would face.
According to an interview with ABC News 4, Myers was informed that she would have to bring her son home with an abundance of medications. At that point, she began looking into alternatives.
“So, I began researching many ways to heal different disorders that come with micro preemies,” she says on her website. “I discovered life changing results from using Cannabis Oil. The oil healed children with disabilities, in fact a miracle worker.”
Rather than sourcing from someone else, Myers decided to become a farmer, extracting fresh CBD oil from her own crops to help her son as needed.
While entering the industry has helped her family, she says that she entered hemp to change lives and impact growth. “[It’s] empowering to know an idea was based on what it could do, not about wealth,” Myers says. “My baby Geno is flourishing everyday and is coming along just as any normal child would.”
Of course, it wasn’t a clear-cut process. On top of enduring the rigorous procedures to secure a hemp farmer license, Myers also said her loved ones were concerned about her new career move.
“In the beginning I had a lot of backlash. More so from the older folks, even people in my family, I had people thinking I was gonna go to jail,” Myers said. “Just all type of rumors was just out about what I was doing, but I knew I was doing it the proper way because I went through the proper steps to handle it. So I just let everybody just say whatever it is that they wanted to say.”
Though she pressed on, now offering a wide selection of hemp-based CBD products, including solutions for acne, dead skin, eczema and psoriasis, hair care, hyperpigmentation, lip care, anti-aging, boosting the immune system and more.
Similar to her mission for her son, looking to provide a natural and effective alternative, Myers said her best customer reviews are those who have exhausted all other options, only to turn to her products and finally see real results.
Myers said she hasn’t quite processed her status as the first Black woman hemp farmer in the Tri-County area—she’s mostly focused on helping people.
“I haven’t processed really being the first, I was just told that I was the first, but it is really not a thing for me because my products work,” Myers said. “It works for children, it works for adults, it works for all different ethnicities and that’s all my concern is.”
While Genotype products are available online, Myers is working on opening a physical space in Ravenel later this year, which will also include an area to sell herbal smoothies, a pharmacy and a classroom, where she hopes to educate others on her products and the path to becoming a business owner.
