When voters in Massachusetts approved a ballot measure to allow for the sale of recreational marijuana in the state, advocates pushed to ensure that the profits earned from the burgeoning cannabis industry would go back into communities of color that were most impacted by the criminalization of marijuana.
Legislators mandated that the state’s regulators prioritize ensuring minority business owners receive licenses. After more than a year since the first marijuana shops in the state opened their doors, however, many minority business owners say they’ve been locked out of the marijuana industry.
During an interview with Boston Public Radio on Tuesday, Boston Globe reporter Dan Adams said that one of the biggest obstacles facing minority business owners is a lack of capital.
“It’s an absolute cornerstone of the marijuana law in Massachusetts that the disenfranchised, these communities that were really heavily overpoliced [and] where there were high rates of arrest for drug crimes are supposed to get sort of a ticket to the front of the line, and have a real shot at this industry,” Adams said. “If you’re sitting there waiting for your license to get processed...you could be paying thousands or tens of thousands of dollars a month just keeping the lights on there but not generating any revenue.”
Adams is the cannabis reporter for the Boston Globe and author of the “This Week in Weed” email newsletter.
