In the summer of 2018, MedMen opened a boutique cannabis dispensary on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice — “the coolest block in America,” as the company hyped in a press release at the time. With natural light pouring through floor-to-ceiling windows and spacious display tables dotted with sleek tablets, company executives weren't shy about where they'd drawn design inspiration for their high-rent storefront: They saw themselves as the Apple store of weed.
-based National Diversity and Inclusion Cannabis Alliance. Largely left out, she said, have been social equity applicants — Black and Latino entrepreneurs, who despite vows from politicians that legalization would help atone for years of disproportionate criminalization during the war on drugs, have faced an essentially impossible combination of delays and lack of access to sufficient capital. Many have lost their life savings in the process.