California Officials Award $18.4 Million In Marijuana Tax-Funded Grants To Support Local Equity Efforts

California officers have introduced that they’re awarding $18.4 million in marijuana tax-funded grants to cities and counties throughout the state to assist fairness packages and assist take away limitations to entry within the hashish trade.

This is the most recent spherical of funds that the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) is offering underneath its Cannabis Equity Grants Program for Local Jurisdictions.

The function of this system is to “aid local efforts to support applicants and licensees by offering technical support, regulatory compliance assistance, and assistance with securing the capital necessary to begin a business,” GO-Biz mentioned in a press launch on Tuesday.

“Offering these types of assistance also supports statewide efforts to reduce and eliminate the illicit cannabis market by bringing more people into the legal marketplace,” it mentioned.

The grant funds will go towards “a range of activities, including the support of program applicants and licensees who face financial barriers to entry into the cannabis industry by providing low/no-interest loans or grants, reduced licensing fees or waived fees and technical assistance, including one-on-one consulting and training, and navigation assistance with cannabis licensing and regulatory requirements.”

The workplace mentioned that, with this newest funding spherical, this system has supplied $123.4 million to 34 native jurisdictions throughout the state. And as of final December, “the cities and counties that have received these grants have licensed 1,446 Californians who faced barriers to the industry across California.”

Here’s a list of the grant awardees:

• City of Los Angeles: $3,500,000.00
• City and County of San Francisco: $3,324,052.50
• City of Oakland: $2,074,369.75
• City of Sacramento: $1,680,777.31
• County of San Diego: $1,413,134.46
• City of Long Beach: $1,198,263.18
• County of Humboldt: $657,436.98
• County of Mendocino: $612,689.88
• City of Richmond: $600,000.00
• County of Sonoma: $558,102.04
• City of Nevada City: $557,845.81
• City of Palm Springs: $538,328.09
• County of Nevada: $500,000.00
• County of Trinity: $500,000.00
• City of Vista: $250,000.00
• City of Watsonville: $250,000.00
• City of Coachella: $200,000.00

Last yr, GO-Biz awarded $12 million in marijuana tax-funded grants to cities throughout the state to assist fairness packages for individuals disproportionately impacted by the conflict on medicine.

Meanwhile, on Monday California officers unveiled a new report on the current status and future of the state’s marijuana market—with impartial analysts employed by regulators concluding that the federal prohibition on hashish that forestalls interstate commerce is meaningfully bolstering the illicit market.

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Separately, state officers are actually accepting public remark by means of mid-March on a plan that may remove medical marijuana as an accepted treatment for injured employees in workers’ compensation cases. The change would successfully forestall medical doctors in such instances from recommending marijuana and finish any compensation to pay for hashish drugs.

Also, a brand new California legislation permitting marijuana cafes formally took impact firstly of January, authorizing native governments all through the state to allow cannabis cafes to open.

Last September the governor additionally signed a sequence of modest reform proposals, together with a invoice to make it so medical marijuana donated to low-income sufferers is tax-exempt and one other measure to prevent what advocates call the “double taxation” of marijuana by proscribing the flexibility of native governments to calculate their hashish levies after state taxes are already utilized.

While the governor helps hashish legalization, he’s been notably reserved about numerous drug coverage proposals in recent times, for instance vetoing laws to legalize psychedelics and permit secure consumption websites for unlawful medicine, along with nixing laws to allow small marijuana growers to sell their products directly to consumers at state-organized farmers markets.

Meanwhile, a current report launched by a panel of specialists convened by California’s Department of Public Health (CDPH) made a number of major policy recommendations that may radically alter the panorama of the state’s marijuana market, for instance by limiting the THC efficiency of hashish flower and concentrates, requiring merchandise be offered in plain packaging and organising a government-run hashish monopoly alongside the traces of how shops work in Quebec, Canada.

Separately, in October, an trade effort to halt California’s enforcement of recent emergency laws banning consumable hemp merchandise fell quick, with a state decide denying a request for a temporary restraining order.

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Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.