Many will remember the incident that brought tragedy to Mama Clark and her family, and which led to several nights of protests in Sacramento.
On March 18, 2018, Mama Clark’s 22 year old son, Stephon Alonso Clark, was approached by Sacramento Police while in his grandmother’s backyard. Responding to a reported burglary in the neighborhood, police mistook Stephon’s cell phone for a weapon and opened fire, shooting him six times in the back, causing his death. Stephon left behind two young sons.
Mama Clark responded to her grief by committing to activism and to remembering the life and legacy of her son. She started the I am S.A.C. foundation, the initials referring both to Sacramento but more directly to her son, Stephon Alonso Clark.
Now she’s launched a new weed brand in California, Justice Tree, which offers flower and prerolls with all proceeds benefiting the I Am S.A.C. foundations. It’s part of a larger plan that Mama Clark has to build up a brand that benefits families impacted by unjust police violence.
Mama Clark founded Justice Tree as a social equity applicant with the city of Sacramento. To bring her idea to life, she teamed up with Ujima Tribe, a social equity brand incubator. Ujima Tribe’s mission is to “foster an ecosystem for cannabis and hemp products cultivated, manufactured and distributed by licensed social equity entrepreneurs.” Working with Ujima Tribe allowed Mama Clark to bring her product to market. “They just swooped me up, embraced me, and helped my vision become a reality.”
My vision was to have a cannabis brand that would commemorate Stephon’s life in a positive light but would also bring about change, bring about awareness for this fight, bring about awareness for this movement.
-Sequette Clark, aka Mama Clark
The brand is offering several products to start with. Her initial strain Zo Blow, named after her son’s nickname, is an Ice Cream Cake strain grown by Perfect Kush in Los Angeles. It is available in 1g flower or 1g prerolls. She’s just now bringing out a new strain, Cherry Gelato, grown by JBS Cultivators.
Zo Blow, she says, has been a big success. “It’s a good one, it brings a mellow, relaxing type of a high,” Mama Clark says, adding that the community has so far responded well. “People love them. They just absolutely love the prerolls.”
Justice Tree is so far being carried by Cookies Sacramento, Cookies Melrose, Gorilla Rx, and Zipp Delivery.
For Mama Clark, Justice Tree is only beginning. She sees it spreading across the state and even going national.
“My vision was to have a cannabis brand that would commemorate Stephon’s life in a positive light but would also bring about change, bring about awareness for this fight, bring about awareness for this movement,” Mama Clark says. “I want people to “Light up for the Cause.” I want people from every aspect of life to be part of this movement because it takes all of us.”
Although Mama Clark wasn’t one to indulge in cannabis herself until recently, she started the brand in honor of her son because he was, as she called him, a “true pothead. He was really into the cannabis scene.” She wanted to tap into the cannabis community to bring awareness and give people a means to take action.
“Because the cannabis community is such a passionate community, what better way to allow them to be part of the movement. You have people who will smoke pot for the cause and not go to the march and not come to a city council meeting. In order for us to really get change we have to have everyone on board. So it’s another way to get people on board,” Mama Clark said.
She hopes the brand will spread and that the branches of the “Justice Tree,” as she envisions it, will spread to include other families who have suffered from police violence,” with all proceeds from the sale of products going directly to support that family.
For Mama Clark, using the cannabis market to try to create an opportunity for victims to raise money was an important part of the concept. “I’m a Social Equity applicant. So it’s also bridging the gap between social equity and reparations and social justice so that they come together, and I think that’s a really positive point.”
View our Justice Tree brand page to find out about its products and availability.
Support the cause at the I Am S.A.C. Foundation website.
Follow Mama Clark @mamaclark916 on Instagram and Justice Tree @justice.tree.
Support Ujima Tribe by visiting the Ujima Tribe website and by following @ujima.tribe on Instagram.
