have both created social equity programs for marijuana business owners, with grants, technical assistance and licensing priorities all part of the initiatives. These government-run programs are only for licensed and plant-touching businesses, however, and are based on economic, legal and location factors instead of ethnicity.
"The person who really wins in the Gold Rush is the individual selling pickaxes, and that is true in the cannabis space in some areas. We've helped businesses like [cannabis] clothing and subscription boxes, and services like accounting, legal, branding and marketing," Wyatt says. Students in the Denver program will face different industry landscapes than their counterparts in the Midwest or on the East Coast, as much of the western United States legalized recreational marijuana before the rest of the country.