The Arizona Division of Well being Providers introduced the winners of the state’s 26 social fairness licenses final month, the Associated Press experiences. In a weblog publish, Interim Well being Providers Director Don Herrington stated the drawing was live-streamed.
There have been over 1,500 purposes for the 26 extremely profitable licenses that have been created following the 2020 approval by Arizona voters of the state’s adult-use hashish legalization initiative. The social fairness licenses enshrined within the initiative have been an effort to provide members of communities most affected by the drug warfare a chance to open a hashish enterprise.
Herrington stated Arizona’s course of must be a mannequin for different states and that varied authorized challenges didn’t delay the licensing course of, based on the report. These authorized challenges embody a lawsuit by the Larger Phoenix City League and an organization that stated the licensing course of lacked safeguards, prohibiting issues like license transfers and requiring income from hashish gross sales to stay locally the place a enterprise is positioned.
These claims have been thrown out by a Maricopa County decide in February, who stated the licensing provisions glad the regulation, the report says.
With a view to qualify for one of many 26 social fairness licenses, principal officers or board members proudly owning at the least 51% of the enterprise will need to have met three of 4 standards: a family earnings of lower than 400% of the poverty stage in three out of 4 years between 2016 and 2020; a state or federal hashish conviction expunged; an in depth relative with a hashish conviction; or having lived in a group disproportionately affected by Arizona’s earlier hashish legal guidelines for 3 out of 4 years between 2016 and 2020.
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