Despite Equity Mandates, Massachusetts Marijuana Industry Is Lacking In Diversity, State Report Shows

“Getting the data in the industry report is a good start because it can show us that we need to do better.”

By Bhaamati Borkhetaria, WidespreadWealth Beacon

A brand new report from the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission reveals {that a} lack of range persists on the senior management stage throughout the hashish trade regardless of Massachusetts’s mandate to make sure full participation of communities disproportionately harmed by the warfare on medicine.

The report, which is required by legislation and was initially due in December 2023 however is a 12 months late, was introduced to the fee on February 25 by the fee’s head of analysis, Julie Johnson. It confirmed that white people occupy 77 % of senior-level positions, whereas Hispanic professionals maintain 4 %, Black professionals maintain 5 % and Asian professionals maintain 5 % of those positions.

These numbers have improved because the final report, which got here out in 2020, when 84 % of the senior management was white, solely 4 % was Black and three % was Hispanic, however they nonetheless lag behind demographic tendencies. According to census data as of 2023, Massachusetts’s inhabitants is 69.6 % white, 9.5 % Black or African American and seven.7 % Asian. And 13.1 % of the inhabitants identifies as being Hispanic or Latino throughout all the races. Senior management positions confer with board members, administrators, executives and managers, to call a number of.

“If our stated goal was to ensure that the folks who were affected were supposed to get first access to this industry, then yeah, we could do better,” stated Ryan Dominguez, the top of the Massachusetts Cannabis Coalition. “There is definitely always room for improvement, especially if those are the numbers that we’re seeing, because there is a lot of interest for folks to be able to access the cannabis industry.”

From the outset, when the poll query legalizing leisure marijuana within the state handed, there was a promise made by the state to assist these harmed by the warfare on medicine revenue from the authorized hashish trade.

Communities most harmed by hashish prohibition face disproportionate obstacles to entry into the hashish trade, particularly into senior positions, as a result of there are usually fewer employment alternatives for folks with prior legal convictions. There are additionally fewer social security nets and fewer entry to capital for folks to enter the trade from deprived backgrounds.

The hashish trade report additionally reveals that common staff who’ve extra entry-level positions map nearer to the census knowledge with 68 % white, seven % Black, 10 % Hispanic and one % Asian.

“It is no different than what we see happening in other industries in and around the state of Massachusetts with low presence of people of color,” stated Dennis Benzan, the proprietor of the hashish firm Western Front with two retail areas in Cambridge and one in Chelsea. The distinction right here is that with hashish and the evolution of hashish in Massachusetts, we had a possibility to get this proper as a result of it’s a brand new trade.”

Benzan has an “economic empowerment” certification—a class of license that’s reserved for candidates who come from and who promise to make use of folks from communities disproportionately impacted by the warfare on medicine.

The state’s Social Equity Program (SEP) and Economic Empowerment Program (EEP) had been designed to decrease obstacles for entrepreneurs coming from various backgrounds, providing technical help, coaching and precedence licensing. There can also be a particular class for woman-owned, minority-owned and veteran-owned companies.

These certifications are likely to have expedited timelines and get different advantages like decreased licensing charges. But Benzan and different social fairness hashish operators have struggled to remain afloat within the trade due to a scarcity of entry to capital and the falling value of marijuana.

Benzan’s classification as “economic empowerment” enterprise signifies that he has to fulfill a set of criteria—one among which requires him to rent folks from marginalized backgrounds, significantly those that stay in disproportionately impacted communities and those that have legal prices associated to marijuana. This requirement doesn’t apply throughout the trade.

“We’re being asked to do something to help remedy the past the criminalization of drugs in our communities in our neighborhoods, particularly disproportionately impacted communities, yet the entire industry doesn’t have that requirement, doesn’t have that mandate,” stated Benzan.

The fee does require all hashish corporations to submit a “diversity plan” by which they describe how they’ll promote range and fairness amongst folks of coloration, girls, veterans, folks with disabilities and LGBTQ+ people as part of their licensing course of. However, there isn’t any enforcement mechanism. The failure to fulfill range targets doesn’t influence the license renewal course of.

“There’s been a reluctance from the commission to penalize folks seeking renewals for failing to complete the [goals in their] diversity plans,” stated Kevin Gilnack, president of the hashish advocacy group Equitable Opportunities Now. “Right now, the data [on the diversity plans] is so scattered, so it’s hard to formulate a policy, but we need to put some teeth on what should be a cornerstone of the Commonwealth’s effort to encourage equitable participation.”

Commissioner Bruce Stebbins, the appearing chair of the fee, stated that he’s desirous about the best way to do extra with the variety plans and lay out clear pointers on what hashish corporations ought to do to advertise range.

“From day one, this commission and our predecessors on the commission have been focused on engaging folks that are disproportionately harmed or lived in disproportionately impacted communities,” Stebbins advised WidespreadWealth Beacon Thursday. “Getting the data in the industry report is a good start because it can show us that we need to do better, and we want to partner with our licensees to do better as well.”

This article first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is republished right here underneath a Creative Commons license.

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Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.