Charles “Peewee” Hall III pauses, a pair of buzzing clippers in one hand, his other tilting his customer’s head to the correct angle.
“It’s just a good idea,” he shrugs. “I want to make sure the youth, the adults and especially the parents who sit in this chair and get their hair cut, get the message about cannabis.”
Hall, barber and owner of Future Cutz in Lexington Park, Maryland, is talking about a St. Mary’s County public health project focused on ensuring adults legally using cannabis know the risks for children and in particular how to store the drug safely.
In 2023, the state of Maryland legalized recreational use of marijuana for people over 21, joining 24 states to date, even as federal law maintains it is illegal to grow and consume the drug. Public health benefits of cannabis have been found to include reduction in opioid deaths where cannabis is legally available, opportunity for research into cannabidiol’s antiseizure, antianxiety and antipsychotic properties, and reduction in racial disparities of cannabis-related arrests. And yet, decriminalization also comes with challenges – for example, incidences of accidental cannabis overdoses in children and babies are increasing nationwide, with over 97% occurring in the home.
Hall, who has a way with words and people, has been cutting hair in Lexington Park for decades. This makes him a perfect choice to educate people on a topic that still carries the stigma of past criminalization, particularly in communities of color.
His customer, now with a fresh fade and crisp beard, pipes up.
“Peewee knows how to reach people. It would take me 25 years to catch people the way he does,” says Micaiah Wheeler, an online master’s student in the University of Maryland School of Public Health and the cannabis prevention and control coordinator for St Mary’s County Health Department. Wheeler first approached Peewee with the idea of cannabis safety last year and they’ve been working together since.
A master’s that marries practice and policy
Wheeler, who is completing the online Masters in Public Health Practice and Policy (MPH-PP) this month, loves the work he does at the health department – a position that Wheeler applied for to gain experience and complete the MPH program’s internship requirement.
“I love talking to people in my community every day – listening, hearing, empathizing, understanding their concerns. Especially around the issue of drug use and how to protect themselves and their children,” said Wheeler, who moved to Maryland with his family from Trinidad and Tobago when he was eleven.
Wheeler had been working as a health consultant for Abt Global when the COVID pandemic hit, clarifying for him the importance of public health as a career. He chose UMD’s MPH-PP because, he said, its focus on practice as well as policy fit his goals perfectly.
“I didn't want to just get my education from a book or screen. I wanted to get it from talking to people in barbershops, in the community, in food banks. I wanted to see how public health impacts everyday people.”
I didn't want to just get my education from a book or screen. I wanted to get it from talking to people in barbershops, in the community, in food banks. I wanted to see how public health impacts everyday people.
Wheeler also found the community and culture of the program welcoming and nurturing: “Every time I talked to a professor or classmates, I felt part of a bigger community. I've always had that one educator that's stood in my corner and pushed me to the mountains. At UMD, no doubt that was Dr. Fouladi.”
Dr. Negin Fouladi, clinical professor of health policy, directs the online master’s programs in SPH’s Department of Health Policy and Management, working with students like Wheeler.
“I love working with the online master’s students because of their professionalism and drive to make a difference in healthcare. They are my colleagues and equal partners in academic, research and practice endeavors,” Fouladi said. “Like all of our students, Micaiah has an unwavering passion to improve population health.”
The MPH-PP focuses on a multidisciplinary curriculum for people like Wheeler who are already working in healthcare but want to grow into leadership roles, with courses covering essentials like program planning, policy, leadership, communication, systems thinking, management, law and economics and research methods.
“The classes are all things that tie into what we see as public health in the real world,” said Wheeler.
Cannabis safety in southern Maryland
The specific real world where Wheeler is operating now is hard to pigeon-hole. St. Mary’s County, a rural-ish area south of Washington, D.C., that used to make its money from tobacco farming, now houses a naval base that drives a local economy of support services. The health department recently formed an academic partnership with UMD’s School of Public Health to strengthen their health workforce, improve wellbeing and offer practical opportunities for students.
“We have a little of everything here. Our main health issues are typical – childhood asthma, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease,” said Shannon Heaney, director of chronic disease prevention and control at St Mary’s County Health Department. “We also struggle with tobacco use and behavioral health issues.”
According to Heaney, since cannabis legalization, there has been an uptick in adult cannabis use from 9% to approximately 12% in Maryland, as well as increased use in high schools and even in middle schools.
“We are really focusing on safe use and storage because we don't want cannabis getting into the hands of those that shouldn't have it – high schoolers and even younger kids that accidentally get into it,” said Heaney.
When Wheeler took on this initiative, he wanted to make sure the implementation was effective. “In [the Black] community, where for decades people were over-policed, there is a lot of trust that needs to be rebuilt,” Wheeler says. He aimed to build that trust by working in collaboration with trusted figures in those communities. He started in barber shops in Lexington Park.
Wheeler works with barbers like Hall to provide free “lock bags,” created specifically for safe storage of cannabis, along with essential information about how cannabis products such as gummies – often indistinguishable from regular candy – can send curious toddlers to the emergency room and what to do in the event of an accidental overdose.
“Barbers as public health liaisons is not a new concept, but it is so effective. Barbers here see a couple hundred people a week. [Barber shops] are where I see other Black men go and talk about everything – even people who are typically closed off will talk about things you wouldn't expect,” said Wheeler, whose outreach currently includes two barbershops. SPH’s Dr. Stephen Thomas has long worked with barbershops to improve community health around topics from vaccines to type 2 diabetes prevention.
For St. Mary’s County Health Department, it has been a boon to have Wheeler on their team.
“It’s been wonderful to have students like Micaiah here. It gives us a younger and different perspective – for example, we would never have thought to go into barber shops to do this work,” said Heaney. “And, in turn, master’s students get hands-on experience. It’s a wonderful mutually beneficial relationship.”
Heaney knows that meeting people where they are in their own communities does a lot more for public health than posting a billboard or doing social media: “It puts a face to us and it puts a face to them and allows us to build a relationship,” said Heaney of Wheeler’s work in barber shops.
Future Cutz
Wheeler says the opportunity to do this kind of community health work is essential to his public health career. He took a pay cut to work at St. Mary’s County, but never looked back – it’s all a part of his future plan.
While he loves community work, he recognizes that some challenges can only be tackled by improving policy. The combination of practice and policy gained from his master’s has prepared him well for the career he wants, Wheeler said.
“I see myself working next at a state-level job where I can implement public health policy,” he said. “I want to take what I've learned here – talking to people in the community every day – and my education to a job where I can implement change on a larger scale.”
Back at Future Cutz, Hall is prepping the space for his next customer, sweeping up hair and reflecting on the importance of getting the word out. Wheeler has left cannabis safety information sheets and lock bags on a table nearby.
“It’s brilliant. Parents, you know, working two jobs are tired, they get careless. And kids? They curious. I have a young daughter so I know.”
Watch a video about Wheeler and the project.