Marijuana social equity: Seeds planted but will they grow?
3 years, 7 months ago

Marijuana social equity: Seeds planted but will they grow?

Associated Press  

DENVER — Terrence Hewing was working for a package delivery company in 2007 when police approached his cargo van in suburban Denver. It makes you almost feel kind of outcast.” Hewing, 39, recently became one of only a few Black entrepreneurs to receive a business license in Colorado’s recreational marijuana industry. States are making progress toward a more diverse marijuana industry but so far the push for social equity has been plagued with a lot of delays and litigation, said Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies at the Marijuana Policy Project. “I’m paying rent on an empty building,” lamented Kika Keith, a leading Los Angeles activist and co-founder of Social Equity Owners and Workers Association. Hoping to address such concerns, Woodson’s group, anchored in the historically Black neighborhood of Five Points near downtown Denver, runs a 10-week business course to help students navigate the social equity application process and to connect them with industry leaders.

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History of this topic

Opinion: Why legal weed is one of the most successful — yet disappointing — social movements
6 months ago

Opinion: Why legal weed is one of the most successful — yet disappointing — social movements

LA Times  

A member of the San Bernardino County sheriff’s Marijuana Enforcement Team destroys cannabis plants while raiding an illegal operation in 2022 in Phelan, Calif. Access to the legal weed market has been patchy nationwide. A 2023 survey found that less than 25% of U.S. cannabis businesses are profitable, with most of the money going to a small group of large …

The drug war devastated Black and other minority communities. Is marijuana legalization helping?
8 months ago

The drug war devastated Black and other minority communities. Is marijuana legalization helping?

Associated Press  

ARLINGTON, Wash. — When Washington state opened some of the nation’s first legal marijuana stores in 2014, Sam Ward Jr. was on electronic home detention in Spokane, where he had been indicted on federal drug charges. “Social equity programs are an attempt to reverse the damage that was done to Black and brown communities who are over-policed and disproportionately impacted,” …

NY’s marijuana businesses secure $150 million private investment for social equity fund
1 year, 5 months ago

NY’s marijuana businesses secure $150 million private investment for social equity fund

Associated Press  

NEW YORK — A long-planned fund to help disadvantaged people start legal cannabis businesses in New York is finally nearing its ambitious money-raising goal after a private company agreed to invest $150 million, Gov. The $200 million fund is among the largest sum any state has contributed to — to try to ensure diversity and equity in the rapidly growing …

8 trailblazing weed shop owners who survived the war on drugs — and City Hall
2 years, 8 months ago

8 trailblazing weed shop owners who survived the war on drugs — and City Hall

LA Times  

In the wake of California’s legalization of recreational-use cannabis, many cities — including Los Angeles — put in place programs designed to help budding cannabis entrepreneurs who had been unduly affected by the war on drugs get a leg up in the legal weed scene. “But it’s like I said to a friend of mine, ‘I get a chance to …

Key details await as NY eyes $200M pot business equity fund
2 years, 10 months ago

Key details await as NY eyes $200M pot business equity fund

Associated Press  

NEW YORK — In an ambitious move to make its new marijuana industry equitable, New York is proposing a $200 million fund to help entrepreneurs of color and some other groups get into the business. Kathy Hochul’s proposal, unveiled last month, would be among the largest sums any state has committed to try to ensure diversity and social equity in …

California promised ‘social equity’ after pot legalization. Those hit hardest feel betrayed
2 years, 10 months ago

California promised ‘social equity’ after pot legalization. Those hit hardest feel betrayed

LA Times  

The very thing that had once torn Ingrid Archie from her daughters and led to her incarceration now made her bubble with unbridled optimism. Los Angeles City Council members Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Curren Price recently called for changes to the city’s licensing practices, including giving the Department of Cannabis Regulation deadlines to review certain applications and update a licensing map …

Group forms to help give equal access to new cannabis market
3 years, 1 month ago

Group forms to help give equal access to new cannabis market

Associated Press  

HAMDEN, Conn. — A new association has been formed to ensure Black and other under represented communities will have an opportunity to participate in Connecticut’s new legalized recreational marijuana industry, as state legislators had promised. The Alliance for Cannabis Equity, or ACE, created by two local workforce and economic development organizations, will host various programs to help aspiring businesses owners …

Lawmakers advance legal pot bill, but more changes promised
3 years, 8 months ago

Lawmakers advance legal pot bill, but more changes promised

Associated Press  

Connecticut lawmakers on Tuesday advanced Gov. Members of Lamont’s administration tried to assure the committee back in February that the governor’s bill — which creates a framework for a new legal system — was the starting point for discussion. The revised version up for a vote on Tuesday adds new legislative appointments to a proposed Social Equity Council charged with …

L.A.’s promise of social equity for marijuana businesses has been painfully slow for entrepreneurs
3 years, 9 months ago

L.A.’s promise of social equity for marijuana businesses has been painfully slow for entrepreneurs

LA Times  

Whitney Beatty in her empty South Los Angeles storefront last week. “But it’s draining applicants who are the least financially able to handle these costs.” Los Angeles has long since granted licenses to some long-standing cannabis shops that met city requirements, but new retailers — those in its social equity program — have been slower to get approval. It’s “ludicrous” …

Advocates promote social equity in Virginia marijuana bills
3 years, 10 months ago

Advocates promote social equity in Virginia marijuana bills

Associated Press  

RICHMOND, Va. — Mike Thomas earned a college degree in accounting, but has never worked in his field. Democrats in the General Assembly frame this as a social equity issue, a necessary step to ending the disparate criminalization of people of color under the state’s current marijuana laws. Virginia’s new Democratic majority already decriminalized marijuana last year, making simple possession …

L.A. revamps rules for cannabis licensing, hoping to redress harm from war on drugs
4 years, 5 months ago

L.A. revamps rules for cannabis licensing, hoping to redress harm from war on drugs

LA Times  

Los Angeles is revamping its rules for handing out licenses to cannabis businesses, amid anger and disappointment over the tumultuous rollout of a program meant to address the damage done by criminalizing marijuana. The rules passed unanimously Wednesday by the Los Angeles City Council tighten the criteria for new applicants seeking to qualify for the “social equity” program, which is …

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