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Lawmakers \u201ctried to loop in all these other groups that weren\u2019t very well defined, and it\u2019s because they really wanted to put race in the bill.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n By Christopher Ingraham, Minnesota Reformer<\/strong><\/p>\n Between 30 and 40 percent of Minnesota adults could plausibly qualify as \u201csocial equity\u201d applicants for cannabis business licenses, according to a Reformer<\/i>\u00a0estimate based on the\u00a0new equity rules\u00a0approved by the Legislature this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lawmakers initially created the social equity category as a way to prioritize business applications from Minnesotans who have been harmed by marijuana prohibition in the past.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is the state\u2019s responsibility to undo\u201d the harm of prohibition, Sen. Lindsey Port, DFL-Burnsville, told<\/a> the\u00a0Star Tribune<\/i>\u00a0in March. \u201cThat means we have to aim the benefits proportionally at the communities that were harmed,\u201d said Port, a chief author in the Senate.<\/p>\n But the\u00a0social equity criteria written into law<\/a>\u00a0now include a number of economic and social measures that go beyond individuals and communities who have been targeted for past marijuana enforcement. They encompass anyone who:<\/p>\n Rep. Nolan West, R-Blaine, was the only Republican member of the conference committee that hashed out differences between the House and Senate versions of this year\u2019s bill. He says many Republicans supported the idea of granting social equity status to individuals with prior cannabis convictions and military veterans, but \u201cthen they tried to loop in all these other groups that weren\u2019t very well defined, and it\u2019s because they really wanted to put race in the bill.\u201d<\/p>\n Numbers for the first three items on the list above can be estimated using federal data from the Census Bureau and CDC. Residents of more than one-third of the state\u2019s 1,504 census tracts, which are small subdivisions of cities and counties, likely qualify based on the poverty, income, food stamp and social vulnerability criteria, provided they\u2019ve lived in those neighborhoods for at least five years.<\/p>\n Roughly 1.1 million people\u201425 percent of the state\u2019s 4.4 million adults\u2014have lived at the same addresses within those tracts for more than five years, according to the U.S. Census data. Adding in the state\u2019s 327,000 veterans, and then subtracting the roughly 100,000 veterans who live in the qualifying census tracts, brings the total up to 1.3 million adults, or a little over 30 percent of the total adult population.<\/p>\n This is a low estimate that doesn\u2019t include prior cannabis convictions, which number\u00a0at least in the tens of thousands<\/a>\u00a0and likely hundreds of thousands once family convictions are factored in. It also doesn\u2019t include hundreds of small farm operators with revenue less than $100,000, or people living in neighborhoods that have experienced disproportionate cannabis enforcement, as the study to determine that hasn\u2019t been released yet.<\/p>\n The estimate also uses a strict definition of time in residence that excludes an unknown number of people who move to a different home in the same census tract.<\/p>\n These numbers are hypothetical, and much will depend on how the Office of Cannabis Management interprets the language of the statute. Factors like poverty rate definitions, social vulnerability thresholds, and neighborhood delineations can all affect which geographic areas are ultimately included.<\/p>\n Other states have used similarly broad definitions in setting up their social equity programs, according to the Minority Cannabis Business Association, a trade group. The organization notes that living up to the promise of these programs has proven to be a challenge, and that \u201cthe use of non-race criteria in the social equity qualifications and definitions has not yielded diverse cannabis markets.\u201d<\/p>\n This story was first published by Minnesota Reformer.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Biden Drug Czar Says Marijuana Rescheduling Will Have \u2018Historic Impact,\u2019 But Overstates Effects On \u2018Racial Disparity\u2019 In Criminalization<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post More Than One-Third Of Minnesota Adults May Qualify For Marijuana Social Equity Business Licenses Under New Rules<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers \u201ctried to loop in all these other groups that weren\u2019t very well defined, and it\u2019s because they really wanted to put race in the bill.\u201d By Christopher Ingraham, Minnesota Reformer Between 30 and 40 percent of Minnesota adults could plausibly qualify as \u201csocial equity\u201d applicants for cannabis business licenses,Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":75729,"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\/75728"}],"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=75728"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75730,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75728\/revisions\/75730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: More Than One-Third Of Minnesota Adults May Qualify For Marijuana Social Equity Business Licenses Under New Rules<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"