Some local marijuana dispensary entrepreneurs expressed frustration and disappointment with San Jose city leaders’ lack of urgency to utilize more than $700,000 in grant money from the state to create a cannabis equity assistance program.
The city of San Jose’s staff applied for and received a $560,082 grant from California’s Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC) in October 2019 and another $150,000 in April 2020.
Establishing a cannabis equity program can assist individuals, who are from communities that are negatively or disproportionately affected by cannabis criminalization, establish their cannabis business in California’s legal market, according to the BCC Equity Grant Funding memorandum.
Equity programs can help businesses receive grants to fund their operations, acquire permits and license waivers and access workshops related to industrial success.
The BCC designated millions of dollars toward grant funding for cities with cannabis equity programs after it gained support in the California Cannabis Equity Act, which passed in 2018.
The goal of San Jose’s equity assessment is to identify neighborhoods, police beats, census districts and demographics impacted by cannabis criminalization to better direct outreach and develop an equity program, according to an April 28 city council memorandum.
David Rodrigues is a San Jose native and owner of iFly Wellness, a local cannabis delivery service. He said he was excited the city received the grant money, but hearing the lack of progress the city has made led him to apply for existing cannabis equity programs in other Bay Area cities, including Oakland.
“[Equity programs] help people who have been in trouble that are on the right edge now,” Rodrigues said in a phone call. “I like the idea of the program. I’ve seen it work, I just want to see San Jose make it work.”
Oakland and San Francisco began receiving funds from the BCC in 2019 to aid their current cannabis equity programs.
Anthony Russell, a San Jose native and owner of Evergreen Collective, a local cannabis delivery service, said he stopped applying for equity programs in other cities because of how confusing and lengthy San Jose made the process seem.
“We haven't tried for equity at this point because we don't know much about the programs,” Russell said in a phone call.
He said Evergreen Collective is currently inactive and plans to start another service in Burlingame or Emeryville.
Russell said people like him who have operated in the market before it was legalized are the ones who should be given resources from the city.
“We're the grassroots. We're the community. We're the ones that should get a first chance to get equity permits or get our foot in the door,” Russell said. “We should be the one that gets the opportunity. And we're not getting that.”
Daniel Montero, chair of San Jose Cannabis Equity Working Group, said he doesn’t mind that the city is taking its time to approve a cannabis program because it allows for staff to “figure it out.”
“The money given to San Jose [for] studying and implementing the cannabis program is like pre-game,” Montero said in a phone call. “Once you get the program, it's game time. At this stage, we don't see the money. . . we've got to educate our political leaders and our business communities.”
The local equity working group was formed in 2018 and comprises social justice advocates who help ensure people have equitable access to San Jose’s cannabis market, according to the group’s Facebook page.
Montero said city staff has taken steps to make itself ready for an equity program.
In March 2019, after receiving the first grant, city staff changed the municipal code to include criteria for equity applicants. The code defines an equity applicant as someone who’s lived in San Jose for four years or longer, has been arrested or convicted for a crime relating to the sale, possession, use or cultivation of cannabis and lived in an area where at least 51% of residents are considered low-income.
Montero said the city staff doing these things is a sign that people’s concerns about surviving in the industry are being taken into consideration.
Rodrigues, who has been working in the cannabis industry for almost a decade, said stigmas surrounding the cannabis industry hinder many entrepreneurs when they pursue their dispensary business.
“It's hard to fight for your rights in the cannabis industry,” Rodrigues said. “You're already stereotyped . . . [they’ll say] ‘You're not about it. You don't want to do it. You're not a hard worker’ [and] stuff like that when that's not the case.”
