“I can’t think of one that has been good for women or for people of color. “Many people got totally burnt,” said Christine De La Rosa, co-founder and CEO of cannabis company The People’s Ecosystem, who planned to apply for a social equity license in Los Angeles but didn’t win the city’s lottery for a chance. The programs created big expectations, but implementation has been much trickier. The equity programs were supposed to help people of color and those formerly incarcerated for cannabis crimes get licensed to run all types of cannabis businesses: cultivation, manufacturing, delivery, retail. They’re nearly four times as likely as white people to be arrested for pot violations, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, even though the two groups use marijuana at roughly the same rate.ĭonnie Anderson, photographed in front of the $6,000-a-month space he rented in January 2018. Black people have borne the brunt of marijuana criminalization in the US over the past 20 years. ![]() The challenge has been particularly frustrating for Black entrepreneurs like Anderson, who were promised a leg-up getting started, but have seen little movement in that regard.įollowing regulation, several cities and counties in California created social equity programs to help entrepreneurs in communities most harmed by the war on drugs. ![]() But nearly five years later, the state and many of its cities and counties are still figuring out how exactly to regulate the industry. In November 2016, Californians voted to legalize recreational cannabis. ![]() “It’s killing business owners,” Anderson says. Inaction by the city is forcing him to give up his dream, he says. Sick of waiting, he’s selling all that equipment and giving up his lease.
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