The proposal would expunge criminal records and help people of color break into the industry with loans and incentivesAn ownership study, which covered the entire county rather than just the city, showed 68 percent of cannabis business license holders are White and not Hispanic, even though non-Hispanic Whites make up 44 percent of the overall population.
“The historical enforcement of drug laws produced profound disparities in business ownership, wage earnings and mass incarceration within the criminal justice system,” said Kim Desmond, who leads the city’s Office of Race and Equity. “An acknowledgment of historic institutional racism and systemic inequity is key to understanding disparities in the cannabis industry.”
“Receiving this critical funding source is vital to jump-starting our cannabis equity program,” Gates said. “These dollars will provide a solid foundation for our initial cannabis equity applicants to get a strong foothold in the legal cannabis market.”