$6.5 MILLION PROGRAM AIMS TO BRING BLACK AND BROWN ENTREPRENEURS INTO THE MARIJUANA BIZ

By Bo Tefu | Impact Alameda

The city of Oakland’s Equity Program, which start- ed in 2017, intends to tackle racialdisparities created by the war on drugs. With a $6.5 million grant from the state government, it is aiming to bring more Black and Brown entrepreneurs into the cannabis industry.

The city of Oakland announced the grant earlier this year and its intention to boost the participation ofminority businesses in the cannabis industry. The program leaders say most Black entrepreneurs – especially those who have been formerly incar- cerated — have limited access to real estate and capital.

In the early stages, the program offered cannabis permits, loans, and rent-free working spaces to minority business owners. The initiative now offers grants and shared kitchen spaces for man- ufacturing anddistribution.

Desley Brooks, the creator of the Equity Program, says a cen- tral goal of the effort is to give business opportunities to Black and Brown people who were negatively affected by the war on drugs even after thelegalization of marijuana. It is a way to build wealth, she says, and make up for the losses individuals and families suffered because of biased drug policies and un- equal enforcement of laws.

Brooks, a former member of the Oakland city council, wants to ensure that it is not only White men who benefit from the legalization of marijuana in California.

“We had to recognize that there was a loss and we had to do ev- erything we could going forward tomake it right,” Brooks said.

Although White Americans use and distribute drugs at higher rates than African Americans and Latino Americans, accord- ing to the United States Department of Justice statistics, over the last 40-plus years, judges have convicted three times more Black And Brown people for low-level drug offenses,including the distribution and possession for small amounts of marijuana – which is now legal in California.

When President Nixon first announced America’s War on Drugs in 1971, the country’s prison population hovered around 100,000 inmates. By 2000, the United States’s prison popu- lation hadballooned to more than 2 million people. African American men alone made up about 40 % of that number even though they only account for about 6% of the country’s population. Latino men accounted for another 16 percent.

Greg Minor, assistant city administrator of Oakland, says the cannabis industry is ripe for government intervention because the criminal justice system added a layer to the lack of equity in the industry.

“We’re trying to ensure that those most impacted by the war on drugshave an opportunity to own and be employed in the regulated market,” said Minor.

Because marijuana is not legal at the federal level, there is ambiguity about how California local governments go about writing, enforcing and revising marijuana legislation. Despite that challenge, the city of Oakland still sees an opportunity to evaluate and improve its existing cannabis programs.

Oakland’s Equity Program has made it possible for people with cannabis convictions to access job opportunities. In the past, formerly incarcerated peoplehad limited options for employment or opportunities to build wealth. As part ofThe initiative, people with cannabis convictions from Oakland are eligible for all the benefits in the program.

“We tried to take the negative from the war on drugs and turned it into something positive,” Minor said.

Brooks, who established the program, wants the “equity” in the name of hisprograms to be more than just a title. Looking at the data of how the war on drugs disproportionately affected the African American and Latino community is only the first step, she says.

“Equity is about more than just the numbers. We have to take a deeper look at the program, what it does for the applicants and make sure it has the desired impact,” she adds.

In the midst of the pandemic, the city of Oakland is determined to reinforce its support for minority business owners with the two new shared-kitchen spaces each managed by a minority cannabis entrepreneur.

The city of Oakland is funding the two shared-kitchen sites to help minority manufacturers get their products to distributors such as dispensaries. The objective is to boost income for incoming minority-owned small businesses and other ones already involved in the Equity Program.

To find out how to get started in the Cannabis business, visit: https://www.oaklandca.gov/projects/cannabis-equity-program.