“The chief fairness officer is absolutely, actually vital to this course of. That is going to be watched and scrutinized very carefully due to the state of affairs with medical [marijuana].”
By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Impartial
Longtime hashish activist Brennan England has gotten plenty of undeserved reward since Missourians accepted a constitutional modification to legalize marijuana on November 8.
Because the proprietor of a personal hashish consumption lounge in St. Louis, England understood why folks thought he’d have a “go weed or go house” stance.
Nevertheless it wasn’t that easy for him.
He really voted towards the measure, which appeared on the poll as Modification 3.
“This isn’t a day of celebration for me, however a day of preparation,” England, state director of Minorities for Medical Marijuana Missouri, wrote on Fb two days after the election. “The combat for an equitable and accessible hashish business in Missouri shouldn’t be over.”
Modification 3 created a schism amongst social-justice activists like England who usually land on the identical facet of points—and pressure continues to be brewing within the wake of its passage.
The divide was largely over the query of fairness.
Was Modification 3 going to uplift deprived communities by eliminating minor marijuana prices imprisoning those that can’t afford bail? Was it going to present minority enterprise homeowners a bit of the pie?
Or was it going to enshrine prison marijuana infractions into the structure and cement an already distrusted, inequitable enterprise licensing system in place, making certain that the wealthy simply get richer?
One of many first steps in probably mending that divide is the appointment of a chief fairness officer inside 60 days of the measure’s efficient date on December 8.
A lot rides on who is chosen for the place by the Division of Well being and Human Companies, the state company tasked with overseeing the marijuana program.
“The chief fairness officer is absolutely, actually vital to this course of,” stated Justice Gaston, a spokesperson for the Authorized Missouri 2022 marketing campaign. “That is going to be watched and scrutinized very carefully due to the state of affairs with medical [marijuana].”
The chief fairness officer will oversee the fairness measure that Modification 3 supporters boast to be the primary of its form within the nation—a microlicense program designed to spice up alternatives within the business for companies in deprived communities.
That particular person can also be accountable for educating the general public about this system and probably producing stories about minority participation in marijuana business.
Whereas Gaston is a paid worker with the Authorized MO marketing campaign, she additionally leads the Kansas Metropolis advocacy group Reale Justice Community, which gives bail-out help for moms who are sometimes imprisoned on nonviolent marijuana prices. She and others in her group strongly imagine Modification 3 will enhance lives, they usually plan on ensuring it’s an equitable course of.
“That is our child,” Gaston stated, “and so it’s simply been birthed, and we wish to be sure that our child is robust.”
However England and others argue Modification 3 doesn’t have the authorized enamel to make sure minority inclusion within the business.
“There aren’t any incentives or repercussions for current license holders to have enough and efficient social-equity provisions,” England wrote in his Fb publish, “so Authorized MO’s chief fairness officer goes to should be fairly the charmer.”
What does the chief fairness officer do?
DHSS will quickly be posting the fairness officer place to MoCareers, the state’s job board, and it is going to be “stuffed by way of the conventional aggressive hiring course of,” a division spokesperson stated.
By legislation, the division should choose somebody by February 6.
And whereas some wish to their state legislators to push for an fairness officer with integrity, Modification 3 additionally states that “elected officers” can’t “intrude straight or not directly” with the division’s facilitation of the marijuana program.
One of many first issues the fairness officer will do is assist design the microlicense software course of. The division has 300 days from December 8 to challenge the primary set of microlicenses, a minimal of 48.
Then 270 days after the division begins issuing the licenses and the fairness officer ensures they went to eligible candidates, the division will challenge one other 48 licenses. Repeat on the 548-day mark, and that brings the entire to 144 microlicenses at minimal.
In every spherical, there can be a minimum of six microlicenses issued in every of the state’s eight congressional districts — a minimum of two for dispensaries and a minimum of 4 for wholesale services.
Candidates have to fulfill considered one of six necessities: Have lived under the poverty line three of the final 10 years, be a disabled veteran, have been convicted of a non-violent marijuana cost within the final 12 months or be the partner or guardian of such particular person, stay in an space with excessive poverty or excessive marijuana incarceration charges, or have graduated from an unaccredited faculty district.
Adolphus Pruitt, president of the St. Louis Metropolis NAACP chapter, was amongst those that pushed for the microlicense program and its software necessities.
At present, one of many greatest struggles for a lot of smaller medical marijuana firms is acquiring capital, Pruitt stated. Marijuana continues to be unlawful on a federal degree, so financial institution loans will not be an possibility.
“For any individual who has not had the funds and the flexibility to compete with the larger people, we see these microlicenses as no completely different from microbreweries within the beer enterprise,” he stated.
Addressing racial disparities within the business
The NAACP was a main instance of the rift Modification 3 triggered.
Whereas some native chapter leaders like Pruitt supported it early on, the Missouri NAACP introduced its opposition in late September and issued the Authorized MO marketing campaign a cease-and-desist letter to maintain the NAACP emblem off its promo supplies.
Nimrod Chapel Jr., president of the Missouri NAACP, advised The Impartial in September that the proposal had the monetary backing of lots of the state’s largest medical marijuana license holders who’re attempting to “carve out all the marketplace for themselves.”
“They’re actually Caucasian run, led and owned,” he stated of the present medical marijuana license holders, “and minority participation has been fully not noted of the equation.”
On the coronary heart of the opponents’ concern with Modification 3 are caps on licenses to develop, transport and promote marijuana that had been imposed by state regulators after voters created Missouri’s medical marijuana program in 2018.
The state determined to solely challenge the minimal variety of licenses allowed for medical marijuana—60 cultivation licenses, 192 dispensary licenses and 86 manufacturing licenses. Since then, the state has issued round 20 further licenses, together with some which had been ordered to be issued by the executive listening to fee as a consequence of irregularities within the software scoring course of.
Few licenses went to Black-owned companies.
Modification 3 permits the state to proceed capping licenses whereas giving present medical marijuana license holders first dibs on the extra profitable leisure licenses.
When DHSS started constructing the bidding course of for medical marijuana licenses, state lawmakers, the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus, enterprise leaders and the Missouri Medical Hashish Commerce Affiliation urged regulators to make sure there was racial range within the medical marijuana market.
Democratic state Sens. Steve Roberts and Karla Might of St. Louis say they spoke straight with DHSS management in early 2019 asking for the appliance course of to incorporate the Minority Enterprise Enterprise (MBE) program, which might give a set quantity of bonus factors in a aggressive bidding course of to companies which might be a minimum of 51 p.c owned and managed by a number of minority individuals.
The commerce affiliation additionally inspired DHSS to give attention to range in possession as nicely.
“For many massive State of Missouri contracts, every thing from IT companies to highway development, some consideration, together with factors, are awarded for MBE/WBE participation,” in accordance with an April 23, 2019 letter from Andrew Mullins, govt director of MoCannTrade, to the medical marijuana advisory committee. “Medical marijuana licensing shouldn’t be excluded from these identical issues.”
These requests had been ignored.
Below Modification 3, new license candidates—not present medical marijuana license holders who can be grandfathered into adult-use licenses—can submit “voluntary plans” on methods to advertise minority inclusion. Nevertheless it’s not a prerequisite.
Roberts advised The Impartial after the election that the division has but to make any important effort to repair the racial disparity in licensing.
“We’ll proceed to combat for fairness,” Roberts stated.
Monitoring minority inclusion
Pruitt is hopeful an annual report the chief fairness officer will possible assist compile could possibly be the trail ahead for minority inclusion targets.
By January 1, 2024, the measure states the division shall put together a publicly accessible report that gives “combination knowledge for every sort of license.”
Pruitt says the report ought to embrace demographic traits of enterprise homeowners and their workers—which might put the state one step nearer in the direction of weighing racial range within the license software course of.
However to ensure that Missouri to stave off courtroom challenges towards such a transfer, the state should conduct a “disparity examine.” Pruitt stated the combination knowledge would serve the identical objective as a disparity examine.
“With out having knowledge, there ain’t a lot we will do,” Pruitt stated. “If the state enacts [minority participation] targets with out knowledge, they sue and we lose. We’ve been down that highway earlier than.”
A DHSS spokesperson confirmed that the chief fairness officer will possible contribute to the annual report, “however the content material of the report has not but been developed.”