SOCIAL EQUITY

LET’S BREAK IT DOWN

When it comes to cannabis, social equity is about making sure legalization benefits the people who have been most harmed by prohibition. This can take a number of forms, but policies usually focus on lowering barriers to entry in the cannabis industry and investing tax revenues in communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs.

• Acquiring the licenses and capital needed to open a cannabis business are two of the biggest barriers to entering the cannabis industry. That’s why some states give people who have been negatively impacted by prohibition a leg up in the license application process or access to financial assistance such as social equity loans.
• Cannabis sales have generated billions of dollars in tax revenue. Many states put this money back into the communities that were most harmed by prohibition by funding things like education, job training, and small business development programs in those same communities.
• Deciding exactly who benefits from social equity programs can be a complicated task. Programs are often aimed at assisting people of color, low-income people, people from neighborhoods with historically high arrest rates and, of course, people who have been incarcerated for cannabis offenses and their families.