Social Equity

Los Angeles’ latest cannabis retail licensing round was thrown into turmoil this week after City Council President Herb Wesson called on regulators to stop issuing licenses and to launch an independent audit of the system.

Cannabis regulators in Maryland plan to hire private firms to investigate the state’s licensing review process and to verify information contained in the applications submitted by high-ranking businesses.

New Mexico’s adult-use legalization task force has handed in its final report to the governor; the report suggests low-level expungement policies and predicts up to $620 million in annual cannabis sales after five years.

Massachusetts regulators voted 4-1 in favor of home delivery and social consumption rules; licenses for the two new business types will be made available first to social equity and economic empowerment applicants.

Because of Massachusetts’ host community rules and a general lack of funds, social equity applicants in the state are unable to compete fairly with larger, better-funded cannabis firms, according to Cannabis Control Commission Chairman Steven Hoffman.

Washington state regulators are considering what they call “Cannabis 2.0” reforms to the state’s adult-use industry, which could include a social equity program and the abandoning of the state’s seed-to-sale tracking system.

Weedmaps will no longer allow unlicensed cannabis businesses to list or advertise on their platform; additionally, the technology firm announced a new social equity program to benefit minority entrepreneurs in the cannabis space.

Massachusetts has awarded the first provisional license under the state’s social equity licensing rules to Pure Oasis, a Boston-based dispensary; the owners say they will hire locally and hope to establish a business incubator.

Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler and Sen. Kamala Harris are introducing a federal cannabis reform bill called the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act to both decriminalize cannabis and set up the expungement of prior cannabis convictions.

Michigan’s cannabis regulators have announced a plan to cut fees on cannabusinesses in 19 municipalities that were disproportionately affected by the plant’s prohibition, as per the legalization initiative approved by voters in 2016.

Federal lawmakers yesterday hosted the first-ever bipartisan hearing to recognize and address the racial disparity in cannabis laws and enforcement actions. During the hearing, members from both parties pushed for the end of prohibition.

Illinois is officially the 11th state to legalize adult-use cannabis and will be the first state to regulate cannabis sales via the legislature. The new law, signed this morning, will also set up nearly 800,000 prior cannabis convictions for expungement.

Applications are flooding in for Maryland’s 14 new medical cannabis operator licenses; the additional licenses are aimed at increasing the number of minority- and women-owned businesses in the industry.

Hoping for the governor’s support, New York lawmakers have raised the proposed tax rate, lowered possession limits, and added expungement for low-level cannabis convictions to the state’s pending adult-use legislation.

In a 3-2 vote, Massachusetts regulators narrowly approved the creation of regulations for a pilot social-use cannabis program. Currently, Alaska is the only other state with a social-use program.

Illinois lawmakers are expected to unveil legislation this week that would legalize and regulate cannabis sales for adults aged 21 or older; Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker already supports the move.

Connecticut lawmakers are hoping for a 20 percent overall tax on adult-use cannabis products with an optional 3 percent tax for local municipalities; the tax plan would keep Connecticut’s cannabis tax on par with neighboring Massachusetts.

Maryland medical cannabis firm Curio is filing suit against the state Medical Cannabis Commission for allegedly violating its own rules by soliciting license applications without first completing a supply and demand survey.

In addition to the new legalization language being considered, the committee also advanced legislation to add opioid use disorder to the state’s medical cannabis qualifying conditions list.