As the former governor of New York, I have witnessed firsthand the complex journey toward cannabis legalization, a path marked by opportunity and responsibility. States have a historic opportunity and a responsibility to address the injustices and devastating consequences of past drug policies that disproportionately impacted minority communities.
One of the pivotal aspects of this journey is ensuring that social equity applicants have a meaningful stake in the burgeoning cannabis industry. A prime example can be found in Connecticut, which is uniquely positioned to prioritize partnerships in cannabis licensing between social equity applicants and locally owned in-state businesses, such as hemp farms. Local partnerships effectively allow states to rectify past injustices and create opportunities for individuals from marginalized communities.
When social equity applicants partner with local businesses and hemp farmers, it reinforces this connection and fortifies that the advantages of cannabis legalization are fairly distributed and sustainable. Local enterprises have a deeper understanding of their communities. Moreover, the nexus between small businesses and local neighborhoods often endures for generations, fostering trust and goodwill.
Conversely, large multistate cannabis companies often lack a genuine connection to local social equity applicants in a way that is well beyond short-term economic benefits. As behemoth entities, their primary interest is generating profits for shareholders. The one-dimensional economic interest of corporations leads to limited, short-term results for social equity applicants and their communities, perpetuating past injustices that undermine the core principles of social equity.
By contrast, partnerships between social equity applicants, local businesses, and in-state farmers go beyond simple, short-term economic benefits. Such connections lead to mutual long-term prosperity for everyone involved and benefit their communities.
Many social equity applicants nationwide grapple with securing funding for cannabis ventures. The financial challenges often stem from historical issues related to limited access to capital.
While minority and women-owned business enterprise (M/WBE) programs administered by state and local municipalities uphold a mission to provide opportunities for disadvantaged entrepreneurs to win contracts to procure goods and services for local government entities, they often fall short of essential business development, mentorship, and access to capital needs.
Although Connecticut has made improvements to its M/WBE program to include lowering bond requirements, raising minimum purchase orders, and enhancing reporting requirements, pervasive structural issues in the private sector go unchanged and unaddressed. Namely, the cannabis industry holds tremendous economic potential and untapped tax revenues to ease the fiscal burden on working-class families.
Allowing hemp farmers to participate in the cannabis market will not hurt social equity applicants or create oversaturation, as some suggest. Connecticut has ample room in its cannabis marketplace for social equity applicants partnering with hemp farmers.
Collaborating with local, in-state farmers will allow Connecticut’s social equity applicants access to a turnkey operation and financial support while reducing barriers to entry in an emerging industry.
Additionally, interstate challenges will continue to exist for the foreseeable future because Congress has not shown an appetite to remove roadblocks to the federal legalization of the cannabis industry, which includes banking impediments. All of which constrain the cannabis industry that is poised to spur economic growth. Hence, it is up to the states to unshackle opportunities within their jurisdiction that empower intrastate businesses and social equity players in the market.
According to a Hartford Courant article, nine social equity applicants were denied licenses, many because of deficient workforce development plans. Partnerships would make these plans more robust and more likely to be successful in the approval process.
Connecticut’s legislators should contemplate enacting a tiered system for canopy space that allows social equity applicants lower entry points to the cannabis market and the ability to expand, which will enable cultivators to grow quality craft products without the fear of oversaturation.
These kinds of partnerships bridge the gap between experience and opportunity. Social equity applicants will be empowered and supported as they enter and navigate the complex world of financing and managing a business in the dynamic and regulated cannabis industry. Local businesses will benefit from the fresh perspectives and innovations that the social equity entrepreneurs bring.
By providing for reciprocal partnerships in its cannabis legislation between social equity applicants, local businesses, and farmers, Connecticut can create an equitable, inclusive, and innovative cannabis industry. It can rectify historical injustices, benefit marginalized communities, and create broader connections and shared prosperity. New York stakeholders should contemplate the same.
Paterson is a former governor of New York.
Social equity in cannabis needs local partners
5
12
09.11.2023
As the former governor of New York, I have witnessed firsthand the complex journey toward cannabis legalization, a path marked by opportunity and responsibility. States have a historic opportunity and a responsibility to address the injustices and devastating consequences of past drug policies that disproportionately impacted minority communities.
One of the pivotal aspects of this journey is ensuring that social equity applicants have a meaningful stake in the burgeoning cannabis industry. A prime example can be found in Connecticut, which is uniquely positioned to prioritize partnerships in cannabis licensing between social equity applicants and locally owned in-state businesses, such as hemp farms. Local partnerships effectively allow states to rectify past injustices and create opportunities for individuals from marginalized communities.
When social equity applicants partner with local businesses and hemp farmers, it reinforces this connection and fortifies that the advantages of cannabis legalization are fairly distributed and sustainable. Local enterprises have a deeper understanding of their communities. Moreover, the nexus between small businesses and local neighborhoods often endures for generations, fostering trust and goodwill.
Conversely, large multistate cannabis companies often lack a genuine........
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