This past weekend marked 3 years since the City of Denver launched its cannabis social equity program aimed at helping residents with previous cannabis convictions or who were disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs launch their own cannabis businesses.
"One of the areas that became a huge focus for Denver was trying to make sure that there's more opportunities for those who were most disproportionately negatively impacted when cannabis was illegal.
"For them to have the opportunity to benefit financially, economically, and hopefully, it can be a positive change to help them overcome some of the negative things that happened to them," said Eric Escudero, spokesperson for Denver's Department of Excise and Licenses. "So we're really proud of the fact that we hit a major milestone in the last week. We issued the 50th license from the City and County of Denver to an owner who qualifies as a social equity business person for cannabis. That's a huge number, and we're really proud of that."
But Escudero said he recognizes this milestone comes at a difficult time in the cannabis industry.
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