The state’s Cannabis Equity Grant Program for Local Jurisdictions made available $30M in social-equity funding. Six million will go to the city of Los Angeles, which last year received $1.8M.
That’s the good news for Los Angeles.
The city’s Department of Cannabis Regulation’s botched social-equity licensing rollout last fall was deemed “reasonable and appropriate” in an audit released last month. But that hasn’t stopped a group called Social Equity Owners and Workers Association from suing the city.
NBC Los Angeles/Los Angeles Times
- The state’s $30M in Local Jurisdiction funds are dispersed to provide verified applicants with workforce development and business development services, among other resources, and access to grants and loans.
- The department’s beef with the entrepreneurs who would become Social Equity Owners and Workers arose in September, when hundreds rushed to submit applications. Only 100 licenses were available, and 14 of the 226 applicants vying to be first in line gained early access. The lawsuit says the early 14 gained a “significant advantage.”
Quick Hit
- In a nation still intent on busting black users disproportinately — even in legal states — we have Shasta, Contra Costa, Humboldt and Alameda as our counties with the greatest racial disparities in pot arrests. Here, too, is where I’m trying not to be arrested.
California Norml
