Six and a half years after the REC market opened, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed the state’s first cannabis equity law.
Colorado Politics
- The law creates a class of social equity license.
- It also allows the governor to pardon low level cannabis offenses.
- The ceremony took place at Simply Pure Dispensary, owned by Wanda James, one of the state’s most prominent Black cannabis entrepreneurs.
Elsewhere in equity:
- Los Angeles revamped its licensing rules to benefit equity entrepreneurs.
Los Angeles Times - Reese Benton’s Posh Green is San Francisco’s first dispensary owned by a Black woman. ????WW California has more.
S.F. Weekly - The industry is contemplating its debt to those who spent years in prison for non-violent pot offenses.
WeedWeek - At Forbes, Chris Roberts writes about why it’s important “to buy weed from Black and brown people.” (Separately, Roberts asked if police will protect pot shops from opportunistic burglaries.????WW California has more.)
- Los Angeles magazine published, “The socially responsible weed shopper’s guide.”
- Multi-state brand Dixie said it would change its name.
- MJBiz talked to Black cannabis entrepreneurs about bigotry in the sector.
- At Green Entrepreneur, Ophelia Chong has interviewed several Asian American cannabis entrepreneurs about the barriers and stigma that confront them in the industry.
- Massachusetts Legalization group MassCann removed right-wing provacateur Samson Racioppi from its board of directors. NORML declared it too little, too late and cut ties with the group in a Facebook post.
