Why some say WA efforts to diversify pot industry are not enough

A decade after Washington legalized recreational cannabis, people of color remain locked out of the multibillion-dollar industry, with some calling the state’s new efforts for inclusion a late start to an already finished race.

Set up against a backdrop of racial protests that gripped the United States in 2020, the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board’s belated social equity program is finally expected to roll out in March. Black and brown business owners, however, point out that problems of access to capital, place-making, technical know-how and licensing persist.

Washington’s struggle with social equity in the industry is not unlike the struggles of other states that have legalized cannabis, said Caislin Firth, an instructor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington, whose research focuses on cannabis legalization and racial disparities across the country.

“What is distinct is that it took so long for these conversations to start and then from the time it started, it’s been a couple years now and we’re only now getting close to its rollout.”

When Washington legalized the recreational use of cannabis in 2012, social equity was not a priority in its regulation framework. It became so only in 2020, months after George Floyd’s murder and the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare disparities that sparked a global wildfire of racial reckoning. [Read More @ The Seattle Times]