Oakland’s cannabis equity program was designed to help poor residents and residents in high-crime areas benefit from the cannabis gold rush. This week, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the program is failing the very people it’s intended to help.
One of the most Oakland things of all time, the program is a well-intentioned effort to make right by the communities harmed in the government’s war on drugs. Nationally, only 4.3 percent of (legal) marijuana business owners and founders are black, while 81 percent are white. By carving out a reserved space for them in the newly-legal industry, equity efforts like Oakland’s aim to correct that imbalance. Shocker: That’s not what’s happening, writes Liz Wolfe in her latest piece at Reason.
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