{"id":66907,"date":"2023-07-19T10:14:28","date_gmt":"2023-07-19T18:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2023\/07\/19\/missouri-will-conduct-marijuana-business-demographic-survey-amid-criticism-that-black-people-are-being-left-out-of-industry\/"},"modified":"2023-07-19T19:46:31","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T03:46:31","slug":"missouri-will-conduct-marijuana-business-demographic-survey-amid-criticism-that-black-people-are-being-left-out-of-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2023\/07\/19\/missouri-will-conduct-marijuana-business-demographic-survey-amid-criticism-that-black-people-are-being-left-out-of-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Missouri Will Conduct Marijuana Business Demographic Survey Amid Criticism That Black People Are Being Left Out Of Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is some under representation, no doubt. And the microbusinesses are aimed at creating some more equity for people that are underrepresented.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the first time, a state official has publicly vowed to push for a demographics survey of cannabis business owners\u2014addressing a key criticism of the medical marijuana program that the Black community was left out\u00a0of the burgeoning billion-dollar industry.<\/p>\n

At a June 22 outreach event in St. Louis, Abigail Vivas, chief equity officer with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, said she would advocate for a survey where license holders could volunteer their demographic information.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsidering the spirit of the constitution\u2026I think that data is important,\u201d said Vivas, who was hired in the newly created chief equity officer position in February.<\/p>\n

Vivas led four\u00a0events\u00a0throughout the state last month to educate people about the microbusiness cannabis program<\/a>, which proponents of Missouri\u2019s marijuana legalization amendment said during last year\u2019s campaign was aimed at giving access to communities who have been most impacted by marijuana criminalization.<\/p>\n

This fall, Missouri will award 48 microbusiness licenses, and the window to file applications is July 27 to August 10. The application<\/a> is now available\u00a0on DHSS\u2019 website.<\/p>\n

The program was created as part of a policy response to what industry leaders know the survey will show\u2014that there are very few Black-owned cannabis businesses in Missouri, and potentially few women-owned businesses as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is some under representation, no doubt,\u201d said John Payne,\u00a0a cannabis consultant\u00a0who helped write the\u00a0constitutional amendment\u00a0voters passed in November to legalize recreational marijuana. \u201cAnd the microbusinesses are aimed at creating some more equity for people that are underrepresented.\u201d<\/p>\n

In order for these businesses to be able to compete and succeed, the number of new regular licenses in Missouri by law will stay frozen until June 8, 2024.<\/p>\n

The only new licenses DHSS can issue until then are microbusiness licenses.<\/p>\n

Both state and industry leaders need to spend the next year supporting these new businesses, Payne said.<\/p>\n

St. Louis-based BeLeaf Medical is among several companies sponsoring accelerator programs for microbusiness applicants.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do they get out of it?\u201d said Todd Scattini, founder of Harvest 360, a consulting group brought in by BeLeaf to lead their education initiative. \u201cPeople understand like, \u2018Okay, they get it.\u2019 They\u2019re trying to help this community that has been destroyed by the War on Drugs by giving them information and access to networks and technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Payne\u2019s consulting firm, Amendment 2 Consultants, has also partnered with the Kansas-City-based cannabis company Show-Me Organics to provide assistance to microbusiness applicants.<\/p>\n

Larger businesses could benefit from certain branding opportunities, Payne said, and collaborations that are allowed under the law. But like Scattini, he said it\u2019s also about recognizing\u00a0Black Missourians are 2.6 times\u00a0more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than White Missourians.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that should carry over into a disproportionate good impact of the microbusiness licenses,\u201d Payne said. \u201cBut what we don\u2019t know and don\u2019t control is who ends up actually applying. And we won\u2019t know that until they\u2019re awarded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vivas said she will write an annual report that will include how many people applied and won microbusiness licenses in each of the seven eligibility criteria. By law, the report must be completed by January 1. People can qualify for a microbusiness license, ranging from a lower income level or living in an area considered impoverished to having past arrests or incarcerations related to marijuana offenses.<\/p>\n

Her report will hopefully show who the microbusiness program is opening access for, she said, and ways the department can partner with the business community.<\/p>\n

However, DHSS is also mandated by the constitution to prepare a publicly available report for the entire cannabis industry that provides \u201caggregate data for each type of license.\u201d<\/p>\n

Payne said this is where the voluntary survey would come in.<\/p>\n

DHSS has sent out surveys within the cannabis industry in the past for other topics, including on\u00a0banking status. And that has informed policies and partnerships, including legislation on banking that the\u00a0governor signed<\/a>\u00a0this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf people are willing to put that information out in an anonymized way\u2026,\u201d Payne said, \u201cbeing able to say, \u2018Hey, the industry is this percentage male, this percentage of different racial and ethnic backgrounds,\u2019 I think that is useful information from a policy standpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was first published by Missouri Independent.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

New York Regulators Vote To Allow Marijuana Farmers Markets, While Nearly Doubling The Number Of Provisional Retailer Licenses<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

The post Missouri Will Conduct Marijuana Business Demographic Survey Amid Criticism That Black People Are Being Left Out Of Industry<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Missouri Will Conduct Marijuana Business Demographic Survey Amid Criticism That Black People Are Being Left Out Of Industry<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThere is some under representation, no doubt. And the microbusinesses are aimed at creating some more equity for people that are underrepresented.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent For the first time, a state official has publicly vowed to push for a demographics survey of cannabis business owners\u2014addressing a key criticismContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66907"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66907"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66908,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66907\/revisions\/66908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}