Kevin Johnson Jr., Director of Creative Marketing for Peake Releaf – Interview Series

When it comes to individual state markets, the Maryland cannabis industry finds itself in a unique position. Despite having a population of just over six million, the state’s market surpassed $1.1 billion in total sales in 2025. Maryland is also advantageously sandwiched between Virginia and Pennsylvania—two states that continue to drag their legislative feet on establishing recreational cannabis marketplaces. This geographic advantage has fueled substantial growth and opened up significant opportunities for local operators.

For a deeper look into the current state of the Maryland market—and to explore why authentic brand storytelling and community engagement are so crucial in an industry where everyone has a unique journey—mycannabis.com spoke with Kevin Johnson Jr., Director of Creative Marketing for Peake Releaf.

What were the main subjects that you studied while attending the University of Maryland, Baltimore County? What were the most useful courses you took during your studies?

I earned my B.A. in English, but I anchored that with dual minors in Technical Writing and Africana Studies. My focus during that time, which I believe influences my work now, was about understanding how language can be engineered to protect or erase histories. I think the most instrumental coursework combined structural mechanics with cultural exploration. There were courses like “Structure of English”, “New Media and Digital Literacies”, and “The Literature of Technology” combined with, and balanced by, “Studies in Black Fiction, Drama, and Poetry” and even “History of the Black Church.”

What student organizations were you involved with while enrolled, and how did those organizations better prepare your career and expand your opportunities?

Outside the lecture halls, my time was split between participating in the political and creative architecture of the Black Student Union and managing creative expressions for VOICES Literary Magazine. Looking back, I think that combination taught me how to look at media through an institutional lens while remaining protective of the human narratives behind it.

Prior to working with Peake ReLeaf, what types of projects did you usually help with as a technical writer? How did those early roles help you strengthen your skills as a writer?

Before entering the cannabis space, I lived a few entirely different operational lives in the worlds of IT, managed services, and government contracting. My days were typically spent handling the mechanics I guess of enterprise architecture: technical writing, business analysis, and software quality assurance. I was the translator responsible for mapping out high-level client business needs, writing use cases, creating workflow diagrams, and scripting functional specifications for development teams. I also spent time helping build out backend frameworks for content management systems like Drupal and Joomla. This might be the first time I’ve even uttered the word Joomla in close to two decades. I’m inclined to say that time stripped away the romanticism from my writing process – but at the same time it forced me to understand a digital platform or a creative asset is only really as good as the infrastructure supporting it. And when I transitioned into more marketing related work that mindset came to the forefront.

What caught your professional attention about working in the cannabis industry and with Peake ReLeaf in particular? Did you have any initial concerns about working in an industry that was barely medical-only at the time?

My transition into this industry was driven entirely by long-term professional relationships. I had originally worked alongside one of the executive vice president’s brother at an IT firm. Years later, we reconnected, and he told me his sister, her husband, and their business partner were returning east from Colorado to build something independent in the newly opening Maryland medical market. They needed someone to architect the brand story and establish a digital footprint from scratch, so I joined as a contractor while the Rockville building was still a shell of drywall. I did have concerns that operating in a hyper-regulated, early-stage medical ecosystem would present distinct challenges.

My primary concern wasn’t the plant itself, but the predatory tech landscape. The market was suddenly flooded with outside software vendors trying to retroactively fit broken solutions from other industries into the space without respecting compliance realities. Because of my IT and QA background, I was able to vet those tech stacks, ensuring we didn’t end up acting as unpaid beta testers for broken technology while trying to keep our retail license safe.

What are some of your regular duties as Director of Creative Marketing? What have been the most successful campaigns for Peake ReLeaf that you’ve overseen?

As the Director of Marketing across our retail portfolio my daily execution is about converting data into human equity. I treat our audience as neighbors rather than transactional entries in a POS database. I believe one of our most successful and sustaining campaigns has been the evolution of our Inside the Industry content series into a growing standalone media platform. By stepping completely away from standard retail product jargon and focusing instead on radical transparency, we built a voice that the market can actually trust. It allowed us to shift our marketing into a cultural asset.

What are some very notable ways that the Maryland cannabis industry has changed since you’ve held your role? How have you and the Peake ReLeaf team had to adapt to those changes?

The evolution from a highly restrictive medical model to full adult-use completely transformed the state landscape, bringing a wave of heavily capitalized corporate operators into Maryland. Because we are an independent, non-vertically integrated business, we couldn’t rely on massive corporate supply chains. We had to build through relational retail. We purposefully show up in regional cultural spaces that larger MSOs completely ignore, and we treat our community investment with transparency.

Who have been the most interesting or otherwise noteworthy guests to appear on Inside the Industry? What were the most universally important industry subjects discussed, and why does the platform serve as a true voice for cannabis professionals?

Some of our guests on Inside the Industry include Chauna C. Lawson (a multifaceted leader and founder of HBCUCon), John Shute (founder of PufCreativ), Caroline Philips (founder/exec. Producer of National Cannabis Festival), Delegate David Moon, and a host of others. We’ve built a platform that welcomes the diverse perspectives of individuals that have unique relationships to the cannabis community and industry as a whole. And our media ecosystem, specifically our Full Spectrum podcast spinoff of Inside the Industry succeeds because it strips away the standard marketing fluff and focuses entirely on the unfiltered operational realities of the plant. Some of our most compelling conversations have come from bridging legacy and commercial perspectives.

Why is the Chicory Project important to both you and greater Baltimore? What stories did Chicory Magazine originally cover and what types of stories do you hope to cover with the revival of the magazine moving forward?

My involvement as Co-Director and Lead of Publication Design for The Chicory Project is deeply tied to my identity as a Baltimore native and an experimental storyteller. Originally published between 1966 and 1983 by the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Chicory Magazine was a profound cultural record of poetry and art created directly by the city’s working-class and poor African American residents in East Baltimore. Heavily inspired by the Black Arts Movement, it operated under a mandate of maximum feasible participation, giving a raw, beautiful platform to communities that the traditional literary world completely internalized and marginalized. The revitalization project is crucial because it acts as a mirror and a catalyst for modern conversations surrounding race, place, and systemic social justice in Baltimore. 

As someone who’s worked in brand storytelling and technical writing, what are the major differences between the two fields? What are the most useful skills for brand storytellers versus technical writers, and is there any overlap?

I believe that the line between technical writing and brand storytelling is a choice between building a functional system and defining why that system deserves to exist. Technical writing is highly objective, and at times feels clinical; it requires you to map out use cases and dissect operational workflows to identify systemic weaknesses. Brand storytelling, particularly when you are looking toward equity-focused futures, requires a deeper understanding of the invisible narratives connecting technology, culture, and people.

Despite the stylistic differences both require intense active listening. My background as a business analyst means I don’t look at marketing as a series of abstract artistic choices. I look at our tech stack, our consumer analytics, and our operational workflows, and I listen to what our neighborhood is telling us. We use our marketing to amplify and respond to their reality, rather than arrogantly trying to dictate what they should like.

What are some predictions you have for the Maryland cannabis industry? How do you see the state industry further evolving in the future?

Looking downstream at the cannabis landscape, we are moving toward a period of market compression. The initial novelty of adult-use legalization is wearing off, and the corporate multi-state operators who built their strategies on purely transactional retail models are going to face customer churn. Convenience will always hold a baseline percentage of the market, but the operators who survive long-term will be the ones who treat their brand equity as a relational moat. And maybe we’ll see a consumer shift away from generic marketing jargon and toward more transparency in data, genetics, and operational ethics. Also I believe the companies that thrive will have an uncompromising, authentic investment in local culture.

 Thank you for joining us, Kevin! For more information on Peake Releaf, please visit its website.