Seeking Social equity
Photo by Ashley hAyes-stone
Maisha Bahati
“We would like to be the first black-owned dispensary in Sacramento.” Maisha Bahati, co-owner of Crystal Nugs
Melina Brown
Small businesses like his choose to operate in the gray market in hopes of eventually affording license fees that will make them legal. “Underground sesh events are an undeniable resource for small-batch producers seeking legalization, allowing them to gain the capital necessary to become permitted distributors of cannabis goods in California,” said Thomas Shaffer, an Oakland sesh promoter and graphic artist who operates as Thomasleatherboi. Shaffer told SN&R that currently legal “brands like NUG and Cookie started at sesh events.”
Social equity programs are another way to fulfill Prop. 64’s promise to “reduce barriers to entry into the legal, regulated market.” These local programs offer assistance to individuals with previous cannabis convictions who are trying to start a cannabis business. License fees and some overhead costs are temporarily waived, giving the new business time to establish a foothold. “This is one of the fastest growing moneymaking industries in our country,” Sen. Kamala Harris of California, who is seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, said at She the People 2019 Presidential Forum. “And the very young men who were trying to make money doing the same thing, but got criminalized and are now branded felons for life, are excluded from the economic opportunities that are now available because of this new industry.” Late last year, state Sen. Steven Bradford’s SB 1294 passed, authorizing $10 million for cannabis social equity programs. California cities that qualify can fund business opportunities in neighborhoods affected by the disproportionate enforcement of cannabis crimes, dating to the 1990s. Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland and Long Beach have already created social equity programs. Sacramento’s is called CORE (Cannabis Opportunity Reinvestment and Equity), and is administered by the Greater Sacramento Urban League and the Sacramento Asian-Pacific Chamber of Commerce. According to Brenda Davis, who manages Sacramento Green Equity, the Urban League’s CORE program, there are some good prospects in the applicant pool. Applicants and others interested are invited to a June 20 orientation at the league’s offices. “CORE puts applicants at the front of the line,” Davis said. “But it’s still up to the city to decide who gets licensed.” That city oversight could undergo changes, while a replacement is chosen for Sacramento’s first cannabis czar, Joe Devlin, who resigned last week, after two years in the position. “Over the next few months, we will be organizing the outreach efforts to specific communities and developing the training and technical assistance programs,” said Brandon Lewis, the program’s manager at the chamber.
“ could ‘big cannabiz’ overrun california?” continued on page 18
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