When the Boston Celtics drafted Paul Pierce in 1998, they were in a lull—the team hadn’t won a championship since 1986 and hadn’t had a winning season in nearly 10 years straight. Pierce reinvigorated the team, leading it over the next 15 years to an NBA championship, to numerous playoff appearances, and back to a dominant position in professional basketball, all while setting multiple Celtics and NBA records. Pierce also became a trusted and admired figure in Boston and beyond, earning his befitting nickname: the Truth. He retired in 2017 and the Celtics retired his jersey number, 34, the following year, cementing him as the face of the franchise for his time with the team. Now he’s returning to Boston to become the face of something new.

After such a storied and revered career, Pierce could’ve just enjoyed retirement. And to some extent he has: He’s been traveling around the world, working in sports media, and spending time with his three children since leaving the Celtics. But Pierce also had one more mark to make. He wanted to build a business around another one of his passions—cannabis. He not only has a personal belief in the positive impact of cannabis, but also wants to right some of the social wrongs he’s witnessed firsthand.

What started as a small cultivation facility in California is now a full-blown brand, Truth Number 34, which Pierce created in partnership with Massachusetts-based The Hub Craft. And so he’s come full circle, returning to the state where he spent much of his illustrious career.

Pierce has been open about his admiration and respect for cannabis and has credited it on multiple occasions with helping save his mental health after a traumatic assault at a Boston nightclub in September 2000. “I started using CBD after I was stabbed 11 times. The recovery wasn’t easy and I’m lucky I had CBD oils to help reduce the pain and anxiety,” he tweeted in June 2019.

In the US healthcare system, physicians often prescribe patients pharmaceutical medications to treat traumatic injuries, but Pierce found they didn’t help as much as they could potentially harm. “I’ve never been a fan of pharmaceuticals in my life,” he says. “So many companies come out with these certain pills that you just don’t know exactly what they are, and we know they can be addictive. You don’t know where they come from or what they’re made of, there are all these big words on the package, and you see the side effects in people as they get older—and, you know, they’re really concerning. For me, I just feel like I can trust cannabis because it comes directly from a plant.

“It comes directly from the earth, and I know what goes into it and I know what comes out of it from start to finish because I’ve grown it myself and I’ve seen what it can do,” he continues. “That’s more trustworthy to me.”

As more states legalized medicinal and recreational cannabis use, Pierce learned from watching upstart brands capitalizing on cannabis as a cash crop and setting up short-lived operations. “When cannabis was legalized, people kind of just jumped in and didn’t learn the nuances of the business,” he says. “I’ve seen people getting into the business, getting the licenses, and setting up cultivation and delivery before ever trying to understand the industry. I stayed behind the scenes to grasp the learning curve.”

Pierce spent a lot of his time right after retirement working on his own cannabis ventures in California. “I wanted to have a full understanding of the business before I went out there. I didn’t want to put out a product that I didn’t believe was going to be satisfactory in the long run,” he says. “I’ve made my own mistakes and I’ve had my own ups and downs behind the scenes, and now I’m ready to launch my personal brand and I don’t think it could come at a better time.”

There may well be no better time. Pharmaceutical companies are taking an increased interest in the cannabis industry and existing cannabis companies are growing at exponential rates; both of these trends could make the cannabis industry a more mass-produced, corporate-owned phenomenon before long. For good reason, people are suspicious of many corporate cannabis companies and may be more interested in supporting smaller brands like Pierce’s.

Pierce wants to be a different presence in the cannabis industry. “I guess you could kind of look at me as more mom and pop,” he says. “Say, like, the restaurant industry. Some of the best [places] you can go to for great service and great food are local mom-and-pop diners and restaurants. That’s what I want to be in the cannabis industry. I feel like when you start getting into big corporations, it seems like they’re gonna cut corners and put out a massive amount of product that’s not really focused on quality.”

Pierce also wants to address the issue of social equity in the cannabis industry. “I’ve had friends affected by the laws surrounding cannabis, friends who’ve been locked up. More recently, I had a good friend named Corvain Cooper who I grew up with and went to high school with who was in jail for life for a nonviolent act: just selling cannabis. He did nine years and was granted clemency on the last day of Trump’s presidency,” he says. “We sit down and we chop it up and it’s powerful just to hear his story. I’m trying to be at the forefront of getting other people released. I just believe it’s crazy that people are still locked up for a simple plant that can really help people.”

Access to justice is also one reason Pierce decided to start his brand outside his home state of California. “California has been at the forefront of these initiatives, but I think as we move forward and other states continue legalizing and getting their industry off the ground, I want to help get justice for the people who’ve been locked up over cannabis,” he says. California has made an aggressive push to expunge criminal records related to possession and sale of cannabis, as well as release people in prison for cannabis-related offenses. Massachusetts is close behind, but Pierce hopes he can play a role in expediting the process.

“The Black community has really been affected the most by this—and by the stigma—and we’ve been locked up the most for this,” he adds. “So now, there’s an opportunity for us to come into this industry, which we’ve been in for quite a long time, and I feel like it’s a place we’re meant to be. To me, this isn’t about Paul Pierce trying to make some money in the cannabis business. It’s about Paul Pierce trying to create a movement for people he grew up with who’ve been treated unfairly because of it.”

As we move forward and other states continue legalizing and getting their industry off the ground, I want to help get justice for the people who’ve been locked up over cannabis.