June 10, 2026 · Sammie Rogers Jr.
From Cannabis Classrooms to Hemp Energy
Why the founder of America's first Black-owned cannabis vocational school is now building carbon-negative homes — and why it's the same mission all along.
People sometimes hear “cannabis education” and “green-energy construction” as two different careers. They are not. They are the same idea, expressed in two materials.
The first chapter: ownership through education
When I founded Higher Learning Institutions, the goal was never just to train people for jobs. It was to put ownership within reach for communities that had been locked out — the same communities most harmed by the war on drugs. HLI became the first Black-owned cannabis vocational and technical school in the United States by treating knowledge as an asset: something you can hold, build on, and pass down.
That worked. But a school is a starting point, not a finish line.
The second chapter: ownership through materials
Hemp is more than a plant with a complicated legal history. It is a supply chain — farming, processing, materials, and skilled trades — that can be built and owned locally. When you turn hemp into building materials like hempcrete, you create:
- Agricultural demand for farmers
- Manufacturing jobs for processors
- Skilled construction trades for installers
- Healthier, lower-carbon homes for residents
Every one of those is a place where a community can own a piece of the value chain instead of renting it.
Same mission, bigger canvas
The through-line is simple: turn knowledge and materials into generational wealth for the people who need it most. Cannabis classrooms proved the model. Hemp energy scales it — into the built environment, the climate fight, and a real American manufacturing story.
This is the work now. If you build, invest, teach, or farm — let’s talk.