Weed is easy enough to find in cannabis-legal states. The hard part: consuming legally and ethically.

Most legal states have rules saying cannabis consumption must take place in a private residence. And while there are “420-friendly” AirBnbs in many cannabis-legal cities, most hotels won’t allow you to smoke on premises. There also are strict rules in all legal states against consuming openly in public spaces—primarily due to federal prohibition.

Yet, progress is being made. Here are five lounges where you can legally smoke weed in the U.S.

Denver: Tetra Lounge

Making a place where people can freely and openly smoke cannabis has been a challenge in Denver since the city became the first in the world to fully legalize, regulate, and sell the plant. 

New social equity licenses have changed that. Tetra Lounge, which dubs itself “Denver’s Premier Cannabis Social Club,” has been using a workaround method since 2018. That’s when it opened as a members-only cannabis consumption club. In March 2022, Tetra Lounge received the first social equity “hospitality license” in the state. And it’s taking full advantage of it with daily, monthly, and yearly membership options, plus board game nights and DJ’d parties.

The downside? You must bring your own stuff because Tetra’s license doesn’t allow for product sales. A 420-friendly hotel plans to open soon, too. But it has some hoops to jump through.

You can find Tetra Lounge in the Five Points neighborhood near the trendy River North Art District at 3039 Walnut St.

Chicago area: RISE by Green Thumb

Chicago and its home, Illinois, have a similar problem to that in Colorado. It’s straight-up illegal to consume cannabis anywhere but a private residence—with some difficult-to-navigate exceptions. But just in time for the 2022 420 holiday, a consumption lounge opened in the northern suburb of Mundelein inside a dispensary run by Chicago-based giant Green Thumb Industries. 

The RISE retail outlet not only provides a safe place to buy cannabis but also one in which to smoke it. The lounge includes Mario Kart stations, board games, big-screen televisions, and plenty of water.

The catch? You must make a reservation through the RISE website.

RISE is at 1325 Armour Blvd. in Mundelein.

Los Angeles: The Original Cannabis Cafe

You may not realize it while taking in the smells on the Los Angeles and San Francisco streets, but public consumption of cannabis is still banned in California. The state’s rules are more liberal than most. Still, you should plan on smoking in designated locations—like The Original Cannabis Cafe in Los Angeles.

Described by some as “Instagram-chic,” The Original Cannabis Cafe in West Hollywood is truly an original in the state that made medical marijuana a movement.

A “flower host” will walk you through your entire experience, including the option of ordering cannabis-infused meals in addition to the normal edibles you have in your pocket or the cannabis you’re smoking.

The Original Cannabis Cafe is closed due to COVID-19 but plans to open again soon, according to the company’s website.

Las Vegas: NuWu Cannabis

Cannabis consumption lounges and Sin City may seem to go hand in hand. But newly legal Las Vegas is facing similar obstacles as other states when providing safe, legal places for visitors to consume cannabis.

NuWu Cannabis, sitting on the Native Las Vegas Paiute Tribe’s land, has the city’s only consumption facility, which it calls a “tasting room.”

The venue has “an array of sanitized equipment to utilize for your smoke session, including futuristic devices like the Stündenglass Gravity Bong and the Puffco Peak,” according to its website. It promises to “elevate your Sin City experience with an extremely unique, stoney session in Vegas’ first cannabis lounge!”

You can find the 16,000-square-foot “superstore” and tasting lounge at 1235 Paiute Circle in Las Vegas.

San Francisco: SPARC

Chill out and consume cannabis in a friendly environment at San Francisco’s SPARC—a dispensary chain with five retail locations and a consumption lounge in a more accessible area of the notoriously expensive city. The 1735 Polk St. facility allows vaping but not cannabis combusting.

Leafly calls its consumption lounge “welcoming and relaxing.”

Long story short: It’s not easy to legally consume cannabis in the U.S. Many apartment lease agreements in legal cities like Denver even forbid its use due to federal law. However, if you know where to look, there’s usually a spot.

That may have you wondering if your favorite strain will also be affected? Retail is local for U.S. cannabis enthusiasts. So, global trends don’t have much of an immediate impact when it comes to getting cannabis flower from cultivators (grows) to manufacturers or retail stores (dispensaries).

However, higher fuel prices do impact transport. Plus, the manufacturers of devices like vape pens that rely on foreign metals or parts may see delays and higher prices. But overall, the transportation of cannabis itself is pretty constant, consistent, and straightforward.

According to experts and industry insiders, knowing your state’s rules and regulations is the most significant challenge. Like with everything cannabis, each state has its own requirements when it comes to marijuana’s transport (and the cash associated with it). Ultimately, it comes down to this: Safety first.

Many new businesses—with names like HARDCAR, Plymouth Armor Group, and Speedy Transporter, and staffed primarily by former military and law enforcement types—have cropped up around this new legal industry. And companies like INKAS Armored Vehicle Manufacturing and The Armored Group are turning normal-looking vans into armored vehicles specifically designed for the cannabis industry.

Long gone are the days of dispensary owners stuffing their trunks full of cannabis and taking it from the grow to the store. The pros have taken over transporting marijuana from the cultivator to the retailer, and they’re usually doing it in an fortified, bullet-proof vehicle.

But those pros face unique challenges beyond finding the right armored vehicle and security veterans to transport cannabis and its cash. Federal prohibition means that banking cannabis companies is technically illegal, so cannabis is still a cash-heavy business. And that illegal status at the national level means that transporting cannabis or money associated with it across state lines is a crime, too.

Companies like Plymouth Armor Group, which serves cannabis companies in multiple states across New England, must cross their T’s and dot their I’s and know every rule surrounding the transport of the plant in each state that it works.

In a recent interview with cannabis recruiting firm Vangst, Plymouth CEO Abbe Schnibbe and the former owner of Colorado’s first licensed cannabis transport business, Amy Sharp, gave their top advice for people looking to get into the transport business:

1. Insurance should be priority No. 1. And insurance is notoriously difficult to get in the cannabis industry

2. Law enforcement is your friend. The cops in legal states are no longer the weed-seller’s nemesis. You need them on your good side. Sharp said that goodwill goes both ways. The police appreciate an inside look at the business, its schedule, and what certain documents look like, and they’ll reciprocate that respect by looking out for you on the road.

3. Maintain strong relationships with banks and credit unions. These financial institutions are used to dealing with armored vehicles and understand state rules. For example, some states don’t allow armed guards to travel in trucks. That’s an important thing to know. And these financial institutions, which are already taking a considerable risk by working with a cannabis company, will want you to be as compliant as possible.

4. A cannabis transporter might be moving a lot of product and big money, but they shouldn’t expect to make bank. The overhead is high, and they’re technically plant-touching businesses, meaning they’re subject to Tax Code 280E.

Tax Code 280E is the cannabis industry’s No. 1 foil. The Reagan-era rule means that companies selling federally illegal narcotics, like marijuana, can’t claim the same tax deductions as other businesses. Thanks to that law, many cannabis companies see effective tax rates as high as 80%.

So when it comes to transporting cannabis from the grow to the store, U.S. consumers rarely need to worry about a supply-side crunch. But the people transporting the plant do have a lot on their plate.

By ISABELLA VANDERHEIDEN | Times-Standard

The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors appointed 1st District Supervisor Rex Bohn to serve as a county representative for the California Cannabis Authority (CCA) Tuesday following 5th District Supervisor Steve Madrone’s decision to resign from the appointment. Bohn will represent Humboldt County for the CCA alongside county Treasurer-Tax Collector John Bartholomew.

“The CCA is a Joint Power Authority created by contract between counties with cannabis regulatory or taxing authority,” according to the staff report. “The purpose of the organization is to develop and manage a statewide data platform that will gather, collect, and analyze information from a myriad of data sources into one resource, to help local governments ensure cannabis regulatory compliance and also provide necessary information to financial institutions that wish to work with the cannabis industry.”

Bohn emphasized the need for “more unity” between counties and the Department of Cannabis Control to deliver an across-the-board approach to cannabis taxation.

“I would do it. I mean, it’s not like I don’t have enough committees or anything else. But, I think, after watching yesterday and the importance of getting a focused across the board situation so everybody is on the same page (is important),” he said, referring to the board’s decision to slash the county’s cannabis cultivation tax Monday.

Bartholomew noted that he has served on the CCA “since before it was established as an organization” but questioned whether the $28,000 annual membership was really worth it.

“Data can be tracked from Humboldt County and thereby make the platform that CCA offers useful for county operations and understanding of what’s happening within the cannabis industry here in Humboldt County. Unless the county is going to do that, I don’t know that there’s a lot of value in staying active with the CCA because it’s costing I think $28,000 a year,” he said. “I hate to say this because I’ve been a huge supporter of CCA since the beginning. …I think the county should decide if operators will be required to participate on the CCA platform or not. If not, your board should make a decision for what kind of value the CCA is really providing to the county.”

Bohn made a motion to sit on the board in the meantime. Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson offered a second.

Madrone agreed and encouraged the board to consider a future agenda item regarding future CCA membership.

“The main reason (other counties) are involved, as I understand it, is because they use it as an enforcement tool in terms of trying to use the metric data to figure out if farmers are reporting accurately or not,” he said. “Frankly, it does nothing for enforcement, for compliance, or unlicensed applicants because that’s not the way it’s set up and it costs $28,000 a year for the county to be involved in this and we get very little value out of that.”

County Administrative Officer Elishia Hayes said staff could bring back an agenda item to reevaluate the board’s involvement with the CCA at a future date. “Supervisor Madrone and I did discuss this yesterday and given the reductions to the excise tax revenues, this can also be incorporated into the budget process as well,” she said.

During public comment, Natalynne DeLapp, executive director of the Humboldt County Growers Alliance, expressed her support for Bohn’s appointment to the CCA and asked whether it would be possible for California counties involved with the CCA to negotiate a lower cost for membership. DeLapp also thanked the board for approving tax relief for cannabis cultivators.

The board ultimately voted 4-1, with Madrone dissenting for an unknown reason, to appoint Bohn to the CCA.

Isabella Vanderheiden covers Humboldt County government, environment and cannabis news for the Times-Standard. Isabella earned a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Humboldt State University and has written for several Humboldt County news outlets.

By the Department of Cannabis Control

Cannabis equity businesses can now request a license fee waiver from the Department of Cannabis Control. 

Cannabis entrepreneurs affected by the War on Drugs can have their license or renewal fee waived, following the approval of emergency regulations issued by the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC). These regulations implement Senate Bill (SB) 166, signed into law on September 23, 2021, which outlined broad criteria for the waivers and mandated that DCC have a fee waiver program in place by January 1, 2022.

“Access to capital is the number one challenge for equity operators, and the approval of these regulations puts much-needed financial support into the hands of businesses immediately,” said Nicole Elliott, DCC Director.

Fee Waiver Eligibility

The cannabis business must meet the following criteria:

• Equity ownership: Individuals who meet the equity criteria own 50% or more of the business.
• Gross revenues: The business has gross revenue of $1.5 million or less per year. If a new applicant, the business expects gross revenue of $1.5 million or less for the first year.

Equity owners must meet at least one of the following criteria:

• Cannabis conviction or arrest: The owner was convicted of or arrested for a cannabis offense before November 8, 2016.
• Household income: The owner’s household income is less than or equal to 60 percent of the Area Median Income for the local jurisdiction where they live.
• Neighborhood: The owner lived for at least five years between 1980 and 2016 in an area disproportionately impacted by past criminal justice policies implementing cannabis prohibition. Learn more about qualifying neighborhoods, or use our map tool to see if you lived in a qualifying area.

If you participate in your local jurisdiction’s equity program, you can show you meet the equity criteria through an attestation on the fee waiver form. If you don’t participate in your local equity program or are in a jurisdiction without an equity program, you can submit documents to show your eligibility. 

Resources for Equity Businesses:

New Web Pages

The state cannabis website, cannabis.ca.gov, has two new pages that explain the eligibility criteria and steps to request a fee waiver.

• Eligibility criteria: Describes criteria that businesses must meet to receive a fee waiver. This web page includes:
  • An interactive map to help owners determine if they meet residence criteria
  • A chart of area median income, by county of residence, to help owners determine household income limits
• Apply for an equity fee waiver: Outlines steps for new license applicants or existing licensees to request a fee waiver

Guidance Document

DCC created a guidance document that describes the equity fee waiver program. The document includes:

• A description of eligibility criteria
• A list of documents that can be used to demonstrate eligibility
• Steps to request a fee waiver

Request Form

Download the fee waiver request form. The form will help you submit information needed to evaluate your eligibility.

By JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press

Big cannabis companies are backing a new, celebrity-infused campaign to enlist marijuana users to pressure members of Congress to legalize pot nationwide.

Federal legalization has advanced somewhat but still faces strong headwinds on Capitol Hill. The “Cannabis in Common” initiative launched Tuesday aims to change that.

A website makes it easier for supporters to email or call their congressional representatives and push for making marijuana legal. State-licensed pot companies also plan to email their customers, put up posters in shops, add information to their apps and otherwise encourage consumers to get involved.

“Legalizing cannabis is long past due, and if we make enough noise, we can make it happen,” actor Seth Rogen, co-founder of a cannabis company and enthusiastic user of the drug, says in a kickoff video. Comedian Sarah Silverman voices another, animated promo.

Eighteen states and Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational adult use of marijuana and a voter-approved measure in a 19th state, South Dakota, is undergoing a court challenge. More than two-thirds of states allow medical marijuana.

But pot remains illegal under federal law to possess, use or sell, so many banks shun money from the cannabis industry, fearing it could expose them to federal legal trouble.

That conflict has shut many legal growers and sellers out of everyday financial services like opening bank accounts or obtaining credit cards. It also has forced many businesses to operate only in cash, making them ripe targets for crime.

Pro-legalization groups have mounted state and federal campaigns for years, and advocates are split about “Cannabis in Common,” which isn’t focused on any particular piece of legislation. Organizers say it breaks ground by extensively involving major industry players and mobilizing their customers.

“We just feel there’s a larger, untapped group of individuals that we would love to see weigh in,” said Steve Hawkins, CEO of the U.S. Cannabis Council, an industry-led coalition organizing the campaign with HeadCount, a voter registration group. The council declined to disclose the cost.

While cannabis companies have done individual lobbying, this new effort “reaches across all the peccadilloes that every weed interest brings to the table” in hopes of getting past the patchwork of state legislation, said Jeremy Unruh, a senior vice president of PharmCann Inc., which has dispensaries in six states.

More than two dozen companies have signed on, including the vaping brand Pax and such publicly traded corporations as Canopy Growth, Curaleaf Holdings and Cronos Group.

The effort quickly drew criticism from a national anti-legalization group, Smart Approaches to Marijuana. CEO Kevin Sabet, a former Obama administration official, called the campaign “an egregious example of profit over public health.”

Some nonprofit, pro-legalization groups are joining the “Cannabis in Common” initiative. But others are steering clear.

The Drug Policy Alliance sees the campaign as overly corporate and not dedicated enough to expunging past marijuana convictions and helping communities and people who have borne the brunt of pot arrests.

“For us, it’s not just about getting federal legalization over the finish line,” says Maritza Perez of the alliance, which convened the nonprofit-focused Marijuana Justice Coalition in 2018 to push for legalization coupled with other reforms. “We have a very specific constituency that we are fighting for, and that’s people who have been impacted by prohibition.”

NORML, one of the nation’s oldest legalization groups, is sitting out the new campaign and focusing on specific congressional proposals to make marijuana federally legal, political director Justin Strekal said.

A proposal to decriminalize and tax marijuana, expunge federal pot convictions and direct pot tax money to communities beleaguered by the “war on drugs” passed the House last year. The measure was reintroduced in this year’s new Congress and recently passed a key committee again.

President Joe Biden has said he supports decriminalizing marijuana and expunging past pot use convictions, but he hasn’t embraced federally legalizing the drug.

A Gallup poll released last week found 68% of Americans favor legalization, including 83% of Democrats, 71% of independents and 50% of Republicans. The survey of 823 adults had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Pointing to such polls, the new campaign casts legalization as an issue that crosses political divides and has new potential in the Democrat-led Congress.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D.-N.Y.) in July became the chamber’s first leader to back legalizing marijuana, pledging to “make this a priority in the Senate,” where Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Ron Wyden of Oregon have drafted legislation.

And legalization advocates hope to have a champion in Vice President Kamala Harris, who said before her election that making pot legal at the federal level is the “smart thing to do.” But legalization opponents note that it’s not clear that all Senate Democrats would vote for marijuana legalization, let alone find enough Republican supporters to avoid a filibuster. Congress is otherwise occupied with massive legislation on social services and climate change ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

By ISABELLA VANDERHEIDEN | Times-Standard

Proposition 215 celebrates its 25th anniversary this month. Proposition 215, known as the Medical Marijuana Initiative or the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, enabled cannabis to be a recommended medication by doctors to their patients and also allowed the plant to be grown and sold in California. Proposition 215 sparked a new era for cannabis and since California’s landmark legislation, 35 more states have adopted similar laws.

Prior to Proposition 215, possession or cultivation of marijuana for medical treatment was prohibited by the state and considered a criminal offense.

“The War on Drugs was upon us. Proposition 215 signaled an end to the police state and the oppression we were under,” said Sunshine Cereceda, founder of Sunboldt Grown in Southern Humboldt County. “The biggest change was we were protected, we were no longer oppressed, but it took us a while to feel comfortable and to put our plants just out under the full sun.”

Dennis Peron, one of the co-authors of Proposition 215, pursued the legalization of medical cannabis in San Francisco in the early 1990s because his partner was suffering from AIDS.

“I did Prop. 215 because my lover had AIDS,” Peron told the Times-Standard in 2016. “He ultimately died, but then I did Prop. 215 for all the people who couldn’t get treatment. We had people going to jail who had AIDS. People were intimidating cancer patients. I wanted them to be able to defend themselves, but it turns out I wrote 215 for a sick nation that was being swallowed up by prohibition, a nation that created fear toward anyone who would dare to talk about marijuana.”

Cara Cordoni, an anchor on the Cannabis Cooperative Economics Group, was a close friend to Peron before he died of lung cancer in 2018. She said Peron was tired of seeing people criminalized “for seeking a remedy for their suffering.”

“He was instrumental in the creation of a really big dispensary on Market Street that was sometimes called the ‘Five-Story Felony’ that not only provided cannabis to patients, but it was a place of social healing,” Cordoni said. “People who had AIDS were stigmatized and they were abandoned by their families, their communities, by society in general. The dispensary on Market Street was really a gathering place where people sat together and were company for each other.”

Peron often made the point that the movement wasn’t just about cannabis, “it was the love, the community, the connection, and the camaraderie that was part of the healing for people,” she said.

The passage of Proposition 215 was a gamechanger for cannabis, not only in California but across the United States.

“Prop. 215 enabled cannabis to be seen not as a drug, but as a plant medicine that had positive impacts,” Cordoni said. “It got more medical people involved in studying it and it really illuminated the history of cannabis. This is a plant that has been part of our cultures, our societies, our medicine cabinet for thousands of years.”

Cereceda said she had never really considered the medical benefits of cannabis before the passage of Proposition 215.

“It just really brought it to my knowledge the medical qualities of cannabis,” she said. “It became clear that medical was a pathway to end prohibition, of course, it never should have been prohibited in the first place.”

Mariellen Jurkovich, director of the Humboldt Patient Resource Center dispensaries, said she originally joined the organization to lend a hand with the business but became increasingly interested in the medical benefits of cannabis.

“I still believe that anytime you use cannabis, it’s medical,” she said. “Whether you’re using it when you get off work and you just want to come home and relax instead of maybe drinking alcohol or you’re using it for your for your health or you’re kind of shy and it helps your social anxiety, I find those all of those scenarios to be for our health.”

Jurkovich remembers Proposition 215 being promoted as a way to help people with chronic illness find comfort.

“They billed it as something that people were using for AIDS or for cancer,” she said. “The advertisements were like, ‘Your grandmother is using it because she has cancer, we should legalize it so that she can still use it.’ The War on Drugs, the ‘just say no’ campaign really made people look at cannabis like it was heroin. I think leading up to and the passage of Prop. 215 is when people began seeing it differently. Dennis Peron was instrumental.”

However, Cordoni said the legalization of recreational cannabis with the passage of Proposition 64 in 2016 changed the way the medical benefits of the plant were viewed.

“Before, it was based on compassion and based on well-being, which is unique even now as we look at legalization sweeping the country and the world,” she said. “I think Dennis Peron’s greatest resistance to Prop. 64 is that there was no compassion in it. There’s been no room for people to give medicine away, for patients to have access to low-cost or free cannabis. That that was his biggest fear and heartbreak of seeing the way that we were going about legalization when Prop. 215 had really worked so well.”

Peron argued that legalization, specifically with Proposition 64, was all about money and regulation.

“Money. It’s always money. It’s so cynical,” he told the Times-Standard. “They say they want to help us but they actually want to hurt us. For some reason, they feel like we have to pay taxes because we use marijuana, but if they increase the costs, they limit access to medication.”

Cordoni said the notion of medical versus recreational didn’t resonate with Peron.

“His point was if you’re taking it to alter your consciousness as in to get high, to feel happy to feel more spiritual — that’s all a medical application,” she said. “The loss of that perspective has been a detriment to our more medically challenged patients because now many dispensaries often are not focused on medical applications.”

Legalization has also left behind many small cannabis farmers, she added.

“Legalization has really not taken care of our legacy farmers and we’re one of the only states that really have a history of a legacy community of farmers,” she said. “Especially as we did it here, there was very little to protect them or grandfather them or help them make that transition. As a result, we’re seeing an extinction event of small mom-and-pop or legacy farmers That’s a huge cultural loss for all of us.”

Jurkovich agreed, adding that “We’re losing our story.”

“We used to know the makers of our product we used to bring them in here, we used to tell their story,” she said. “I can’t go to a farmer and say, ‘Hey! I love your stuff, I would love to get it.’ That’s not legal anymore. I have to go through a distributor. I think that’s what’s killing us. I don’t think we will be able to make it in Humboldt County because we don’t have a story anymore.”

Cordoni said she holds out hope that Humboldt County’s small farmers will be able to pull through in the long run.

“I’m working with Cooperation Humboldt on a cooperative cannabis economy group looking at creating a solidarity economy that includes our cannabis community, that doesn’t exploit the land or the people,” she said. “We haven’t given up. You know, Dennis failed many times before Prop. 215 passed. He held that as a message of persistence, of hope, and of doing it for the reasons of being a service to the community and to the plant. That’s the beautiful, lasting legacy that he leaves all of us.”

By ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writer

The U.S.’ expanding legal marijuana market is helping drive strong sales and profit growth for multistate operators like Trulieve Cannabis Corp.

The Quincy, Florida-based company sells cannabis products in 11 states from Arizona to Pennsylvania. It reported $408.9 million in revenue in the first half of this year, an 89% jump from the same stretch of 2020. Its net income surged 67% over the same period.

The company recently completed its acquisition of Tempe, Arizona-based cannabis company Harvest Health & Recreation in a deal valued at $2.1 billion.

Trulieve’s latest expansion bid comes as more states allow sales of marijuana in some form or another.

Adult recreational use of marijuana is now legal in 19 states, with Connecticut, New Mexico and Virginia among those that enacted such laws this year.

Even so, the cannabis industry remains constrained by legal impediments to accessing capital and other challenges stemming from marijuana being illegal at the federal level. The industry is hoping Congress will deliver on long-sought legislation, including the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, which would free up banks to do business with licensed marijuana companies.

Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers recently spoke to The Associated Press about the impact of the Harvest deal, how her company has weathered the pandemic and the need for federal pro-cannabis legislation. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: You’ve referred to your company’s expansion plan as your “hub strategy.” What does it entail?

A: What that means is dividing the country into five regions: the Southeast, Northeast, Southwest, Central and Northwest. And to capitalize not only on near-term catalysts that will likely happen at the state level, but also thinking about how our distribution platform will look as federal change potentially occurs. We started down the path of developing out the Northeast. We acquired two companies in Pennsylvania, began operating in Massachusetts as well as Connecticut, and decided to look broader as we felt that we were positioned at that time to embark on a more transformational acquisition. That’s when Harvest came into focus.

Q: How does the Harvest acquisition fit in?

A: Harvest expands on that national hub strategy by increasing our footprint in the Southeast with additional cultivation, production and retail outlets in the state of Florida, as well as the Northeast. We’ll have one of the largest combined footprints in the state of Pennsylvania, as well as adding a new state, Maryland, to our portfolio, and adding a brand new region to our combined platform in the Southwest. We will be the largest company from a retail outlet perspective. We have 149 locations as well as on the cultivation and production side of the business, we have 3.1 million square feet, which is approximately 50% more than any of our competitors.

Q: The House recently passed the SAFE Banking Act again. How important would this bill be should it become law?

A: There are significant increased costs for those of us participating in capital markets right now. But maybe more importantly is the fact that a lot of small businesses that are cannabis businesses can’t get loans at all because they don’t have that pool of capital available to them. At this point, it almost seems kind of ridiculous that a majority of our states have cannabis programs but banks that absolutely want to participate in the industry are not able to and don’t have protection because of the federal position on the industry.

Q: What impact has the pandemic had on your business?

A: We did see consumption trends increase quite significantly. We had record growth, posting like 25% quarter over quarter, so it did have a significant positive impact on the business. What we’re seeing now is a normalization, of course, post-COVID. And what’s really exciting, I think for many of us, is that we’re still seeing growth even off of those highs.

By Rebecca Olmos | TheCannifornian.com Correspondent

In 2020 cannabis thrived and is expected to continue to do so. The projected legal sales of Mary Jane by 2022 are over 22 billion dollars.

Despite the uptick in acceptance for cannabis, the money made from it, those who sell it and those who use it, people of color are still predominantly negatively affected by the ripple effects of the War on Drugs. 37 states have legalized medical cannabis, and 19 have legalized adult usage, resulting in fewer arrests across the country. However, Black people are still 3.64 times more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession than white people, according to a 2020 ACLU report.

On the business end, the inequality and underrepresentation of people of color are also prevalent. While 70% of CEOs in the top 14 cannabis companies in the country are white men, only 7% identify as Black according to an insider report.

So what is social equity?

The definition of social equity varies.

Put simply, social equity is the idea and practice of “justice and fairness in public policy.” Multiple cities and states have equity programs to support people and companies in their quest to break into the legal market. Especially concerning those who the War on Drugs has impacted.

Each jurisdiction has its requirements for equity applicants. In San Francisco, an applicant must meet three of six conditions that range from household income, previous cannabis arrests to where you’ve lived.

Equity programs help to reduce some of the barriers equity applicants might face as they enter the industry. This assistance includes but isn’t limited to waving application fees, help with rent, and support with tech for their business.

How can you support equity brands?

The first step is to check the dispensary. Sometimes dispensaries will tag equity, black-owned, Latinx-owned, etc, items for you. Other times, you may have to ask your budtender. If you don’t see equity brands on the menu, ask how you can request them.

The second way to support equity in cannabis is with your voice. Word of mouth, personal recommendations, reviews, and even social media shoutouts greatly support these brands.

There are so many great equity brands out there to support. Here you can find a few to start with.