San Diego was awarded more than $880,000 Thursday by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Office of Business and Economic Development to “promote equity” in the local cannabis industry.
According to the state, the money is intended to support residents seeking to enter the legal cannabis industry in the city through funding grants to cover permit and license fees and associated start-up property costs while providing access to the cannabis industry workforce.
“The historical enforcement of drug laws produced profound disparities in business ownership, wage earnings, and mass incarceration within the criminal justice system for African American/Black, Latino, and Native American/Indigenous communities,” said Kim Desmond, the city’s chief of race and equity. “An acknowledgment of historical institutional racism and systemic inequity is key to understanding disparities in the cannabis industry.”
San Diego was among 16 cities and counties across the state to receive a combined $15 million in grants, funded through tax revenue generated from statewide recreational cannabis sales.
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