The rain drizzled down Xavier Messiah, as he and his younger brother waited outside Union Station in St. Louis.

Donning their black “Deer Owl Family Farms” hoodies — their family’s cannabis brand — they stood ready with stacks of business cards outside the MJ Unpacked cannabis conference on Nov. 4.

“Happy Tuesday!” Xavier exclaimed, as he handed everyone he encountered a business card.

“I got that from my father,” he later said. “It’s a great way to stop them without interrupting their conversations.”

If they stopped to talk, he’d quickly get his lines in: “I’m Xavier Messiah, and I’m here representing Deer Owl Family Farms. When you’re inside, speak to my father, Magnificent Messiah.” 

Last year, his parents won a microbusiness wholesale license, which will permit their prospective cultivation facility in North St. Louis to grow up to 250 plants once it’s up and running.

The microbusiness program was etched in Missouri’s constitution when voters approved recreational marijuana in 2022. It’s designed to give people who’ve been harmed by marijuana prohibition the chance to get a foot in Missouri’s billion-dollar cannabis industry. 

Missouri currently has no Black-owned marijuana business that is vertically integrated — meaning licenses at every level, including cultivation, manufacturing and dispensary. And while the state doesn’t track business owners’ ethnicities, cannabis leaders understand anecdotally that few marijuana businesses are owned by minorities overall.

Xavier’s father, Markum “Magnificent” Messiah, has two decades of experience cultivating cannabis in the “legacy” market — what most would recognize as the black market. 

For the past year, he’s been creating a business plan and talking to investors. Once they land some start-up capital, Magnificent believes the business could be operational within 16 weeks.

He calls Deer Owl the “quintessential microbusiness licensee.” 

“We’re what the microbusiness program was essentially meant to help,” he said. “We are the Black and Brown. The War on Drugs certainly hit our ethnicity the most. We’re family run, and we’re native Missourians. We’re just trying to bring premium organic cannabis to Missouri.” 

Magnificent sees this as an opportunity to help his sons and daughters learn networking skills, marketing and how to succeed in business — but above all, perseverance. 

“They’ll be able to see the challenges that we had to go through to get there,” Magnificent said, “and then it’ll truly be a demonstration of dreams being able to come true and that no obstacle could stop you.”

There’s 12 Messiah children in all, but only the younger half live in St. Louis and are interested in the business. Xavier, 21, works two jobs and studies marijuana cultivation during his off time. Five of his brothers and sisters are also working or studying and then helping with the business when they can.

“Basically, we want people to think of our brand as home,” said Jaden Messiah. “They can just reach out, have good bud and good experiences. They could just find Deer Owl within the community, giving back and supporting the people. And hopefully, they’ll support us.”

‘Two different lives’

For a long time, Magnificent lived a double life. He’d tell his children he was going on “business trips.” 

Then he’d be gone for weeks at a time, cultivating marijuana in various states. 

“We never talked about it,” he said, surrounded by his sons during an interview in November with The Independent at their downtown St. Louis office. “It was the hardest part of that life because it was two different lives.”

At home, they had regular family dinners filled with laughter, and his wife, Marie, always went big on decorating for the holidays. They kept up a tradition of going to a local farm to cut down their own Christmas tree every year and never missed bundling up to see the Thanksgiving parade downtown. 

The business name actually comes from their backyard, where a family of deer and owls have lived since they moved into their North St. Louis County home in 2004. 

“I looked at it as a career,” he said of growing and selling black-market cannabis. “It was just how I made money, how I provided.”

Magnificent never saw the transition into the legal market coming because he said, “I really thought this was further off in the future.” 

After Missouri legalized medical marijuana in 2018, he started paying attention to the licensing process. And when recreational passed in 2022, he closely watched the microbusiness lottery announcement. 

There are seven categories where people can qualify for a microbusiness license, ranging from a lower income level or living in an area considered impoverished to having past arrests or incarcerations related to marijuana offenses. 

It wasn’t until the pandemic in 2020 that Magnificent really started to open up about his past with his children. 

“We were all packed in the house, nothing to really do but look at each other,” he said, garnering a laugh from his sons. 

Many of those stories “shocked” them, said Jesus Messiah, 23. He and his younger brothers were too young to remember the extended business trips because in the last decade, his father stuck closer to home. 

“It was a lot of crazy stories, a lot of fun stories, you know, a lot of laughs,” he said. “Finding out that new information was definitely pretty surprising.”

After everything his father and family has been through, Xavier said, “who would have really thought that growing weed would become a career, especially for the family?”

Magnificent spent two decades cultivating at all scales and in many different styles –  hydroponically, in living soil and using synthetic nutrients. 

His licensed facility will produce organic cannabis. 

“There’s not a style that I have not had some familiarity with,” he said. “And all those lessons combined have directed us back to living soil — because who can garden better than Mother Nature?”

It’s what they call “eco mimicry cultivation,” he said, and it models what happens on the forest floor. 

“Organic cannabis — cultivated the way we grow cannabis — produces more flavorful, more healthy plants,” he said, “which in turn, give you a better full spectrum profile.”

Above all, he lets his own tastes guide him. 

“I want to consume the best that’s out there,” he said. “So I want the same for my consumers.”

Magnificent says he and his family certainly understand the complications and challenges ahead of them as a microbusiness. 

The constitution limits microbusiness cultivation facilities to 250 plants, which doesn’t resonate well with investors. It’s been their biggest barrier to obtaining capital, along with the fact that they can only sell to microbusiness dispensaries and not the larger comprehensive licensees. 

For them, the big opportunity is to be able to make it one year as a microbusiness, and then they’d be eligible to enter a lottery to get a full comprehensive license, as the law outlines. 

“I’m definitely aware of the challenges,” Magnificent said. “It’s just about really plotting the best course and then weathering storm. We’re going to figure this out.”

‘Building a legacy’

Magnificent has five sons and one daughter committed to helping with the company, and they each bring a different strength to the table. 

Jaden, 20, believes he’ll be a solid grower once the facility commences, and he’s interested in taking a horticulture college course that allows him to grow hemp, as it’s federally legal. 

“That’s the best way I like to learn, real hands on,” he said. 

After accompanying his father to a number of cannabis-industry meetings in the last year, Chase Messiah, 17, is finding that he’s pretty good at networking.

“I’ve been around my father,” Chase said. “He’s great at networking, so I’ve learned a lot from him, watching him. I’m good at talking with people.”

King, 16, thrives in the social media arena.

“That’s really our stronghold because that’s our generation,” he said. “I think that’d be my strongest point to get our name out there. Social media is everything in this day and age.”

Before the business began, Xavier was someone people might consider “reserved,” Magnificent said. But that’s changed over the last year, as he’s become his father’s right hand in the business and a motivator for his siblings.

“When it comes to trying things new, it could be scary for some people,” Xavier said. “But that’s what I’m here for, just like, positive attitude.”

Both he and his older brother Jesus are hoping to “jump straight into it,” learn the business and pass down the knowledge — even from their mistakes — to their brothers.

Jesus is a fashion model, so he understands branding and how to dress and carry himself in a business setting. Like Xavier, he tries to encourage his brothers, and “let them know that we got this.”

If their business were a basketball team, Jesus would be the center.  

“If you compare me to a center, I’d say I’m like Victor Wembanyama,” he said of the San Antonio Spurs’ center, “cuz’ he can do it all.” 

More than anything, the family believes this opportunity is a “blessing,” and it’s about bringing up not only themselves but their entire community. 

“We’re building a legacy,” Chase said. “We’re building a Black empire.”