CANNABIS EQUITY – SIGNATURE – KAY/MALONEY
AIR DATE: 7/31 TRT:
10:42
Kira
Kay: It’s Juneteenth
in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston. The new federal holiday means a long weekend for local residents, who have come to the Seed
Dispensary to pick up their favorite cannabis products. But seed isn’t just a
dispensary, it’s also a museum.
Curator Niambe McIntosh is the daughter of reggae legend and cannabis activist,
Peter Tosh.
Niambe
McIntosh: My father along with
other musicians like Coolio, Snoop, Mick Jagger, James Brown have all been arrested for cannabis possession.
Kira
Kay: The museum charts
America’s so-called war on
drugs that even in the last decade saw nearly four times as many Black people arrested for
cannabis possession.
Niambe
McIntosh: Our country spends
hundreds of thousands of dollars performing raids to this day.
Kira
Kay: This history is
personal for McIntosh: her brother died after an attack by a fellow inmate while under arrest for marijuana possession.
Niambe
McIntosh: This is a multi-billion-dollar industry
and most consumers have no idea. They, you know, have the privilege to walk
into any dispensary, without having the faintest idea about who are the people
who have sacrificed in order
for this industry to exist.
Kira
Kay: This blending of
cannabis business and social justice reflects a core mandate of state law. In
2016 voters approved Ballot Question 4, which made Massachusetts the first
state to require policies to bring people disproportionately harmed by cannabis
prohibition into the newly legalized industry.
The state’s Cannabis
Control Commission requires all businesses to have a plan for positive impact
on regions and communities deemed hard-hit by the war on drugs. This includes
recruiting employees who have a past drug conviction.
Nearly five years on,
the cannabis industry in Massachusetts is blooming, popping up in towns more
known for tourism, like Gloucester with its seafaring history, which is now
home to happy valley – a boutique operation where cannabis is cultivated on
location, then harvested and processed and sold in a space that more resembles
an Apple store.
South of Boston, in
Brockton, Legal Greens opened in March.
Vanessa
Jean-Baptiste:
There's not a lot of Black businesses in Brockton and Brockton is a majority
minority city And it was my priority for me to come into downtown purposely for
me to revitalize this area because it has never been a good area.
Kira
Kay: Vanessa Jean-Baptiste
is the first Black woman to open a recreational dispensary on the us east
coast.
She was an early
participant in another special state cannabis initiative: equity programs that
prioritize qualified applicants for expedited licenses and even offer training
for those from impacted communities wanting to get into the business.
Vanessa
Jean-Baptiste: I
would not be in business without it, and it's huge for them to even do a
program like that because no other state has done that before. I know
people that have been killed by the war on drugs. So it's more so for me to
give back to the community because I know that my community desperately needs
it.
Kira
Kay: But Jean-Baptiste’s
story is rare: she’s one of only 12 equity applicants to actually open their
doors, out of 257 operating licenses issued by the state. Cannabis Control
Commissioner Nurys Camargo agrees, the system is struggling.
Nurys
Camargo: The cannabis industry
does not look like me. It doesn't look like a lot of the communities that have
been disproportionately harmed by the failed war on drugs. We have about 4 to
5% of applicants that either are economic empowerment or social equity applicants.
That's not what we intended in the beginning. It's not what the goal was.
Kira
Kay: Camargo says what's
called “corporate cannabis” is dominating the market.
Nurys
Camargo: I've seen many of the
big players, the big players, come out and open up two and three dispensaries,
but we're still leaving out the little guy. We have, um, folks that have
done this well in the illicit market, and we want them to cross over, but
there's no capital there's no, you know, they don't have the access, they don't
have the network.
Devin
Alexander: It's
funny, 10 years ago when I was arrested, I was considered the worst person
around, um, the local paper, villainized me over a very small amount of
cannabis. Now, flash forward to here we are, I'm considered a young, bright
entrepreneur for doing the same exact thing that I was doing 10 years ago!
Kira
Kay: Devin Alexander is who
the Massachusetts law had in mind. He was arrested for marijuana possession in
high school, derailing his plans of joining the air force.
He learned quickly that
even in his hometown of Quincy, he was priced out of opening a dispensary in
the approved area.
Devin
Alexander: It
wasn't available for lease. We had to buy it outright, which would have cost us
$2 to $3 million.
Kira
Kay: Then there’s what’s
called a host community agreement. Even though cannabis is regulated by the
state, the cities and towns have the ultimate say on who gets to open their
doors.
While municipalities can
tax businesses up to 3% to offset what they see as additional burdens--like
parking, extra policing, or drug abuse programs--these agreements have
sometimes also asked for thousands of dollars in additional fees and donations.
The mayor of Fall River was just convicted of extorting bribes in exchange for
his handful of available licenses.
Devin
Alexander: These
towns don’t have equity in mind and they just want to go to the highest bidder.
You know, if you have the money to play, you have a better chance at obtaining
the host community agreement than a small funded equity applicant. Other states
aren’t doing this. We're the only one in the country that really gives the
municipalities this level of control.
Kira
Kay: If anyone’s story
demonstrates the potentially crippling impact of host
community agreements, it is Chauncey Spencer.
Yamiche
Alcindor: This is huge!
Chauncey
Spencer: Oh, this is only a
small portion of it.
Kira
Kay: NewsHour met him two
years ago, at the storefront he was renting in anticipation of an agreement
with the City of Boston. Spencer was in the first pool of state-certified
priority applicants, in 2018. He thought that was his ticket to success.
Chauncey
Spencer: I’d get my licensing
first, I’d be first to open. And, um, you know, I knew that there would be
crowds. I knew it would be high, you know, all this publicity, I was ready for
it.
Kira
Kay: But Spencer’s
storefront is now an immigration office. He went bankrupt after spending
$100,000 and had to give up the lease. No approval ever came.
Chauncey
Spencer: The longer I waited,
the more competition I began to get.
Kira
Kay: But just to be clear,
they didn't come back to you and say, oh, you missed a form or we need more
clarification. There's a zoning issue for your location?
Chauncey
Spencer: No.
Kira
Kay: You were paying rent.
Chauncey
Spencer: Yes, paid rent, $5,000
a month, um, sitting on location. Meanwhile, I just watched them dole out
license after license, after license.
Kira
Kay: In response to an
investigation by the Boston Globe, city officials said they handled Spencer’s
application like any other, and fairly. But pushed by now-Mayor Kim Janey, an early proponent of cannabis
legalization, the city scrapped that approvals process and created a new
oversight board. But it was all too late for spencer.
Nurys
Camargo: I know people who have
refinanced their homes, I know who have lost their pensions. And I think that
it's up to our legislators, it's up to us as regulators. It's also up to our
mayors, our town administrators. We're going to lose the opportunity and the
window will close and Massachusetts would have done some things
right. Um, and left some things out. And I
think that other states in the country have watched Massachusetts and have
taken from our best practices. Um, but I think I've been a little bit more
progressive in some of their social equity now, um, in terms of their, their
funds and their programs.
Kira
Kay: The Massachusetts
legislature is now considering action to extend the state requirements of
equity down to the municipal level and grant oversight of levied fees to
Camargo’s commission.
And now, new delivery licenses are being reserved only for equity applicants
for at least three years. Delivery is less expensive to set up.
Devin
Alexander: Seeing
the delivery as a sector that is completely untouched and just ready for new
faces and fresh blood in it made me really want to go after the delivery model
instead of having a dispensary.
Bryce
Hall: Coming out of the
vault, and then go right into our sally port and load up the vans.
Kira
Kay: Devin Alexander helped
lobby for that period of exclusivity and is now busy setting up plans with his
partners for a two thousand square foot warehouse and a fleet of secure
vehicles.
He also would like to
see an equity trust fund, something else the legislature is considering.
Cannabis is still federally illegal, making banking very hard for
entrepreneurs.
Devin
Alexander: You
see some states like Illinois and Oakland, California, they're giving their
equity applicants, no interest loans in the six figures. And I could tell you
that goes a long way because when you're talking to some people trying to raise
capital. If you had low interest loans and you show them, okay, I just need
this much more to get to the next level. You would see a lot more equity
applicants getting through the process.
Kira
Kay: Finally, some cities
are taking their own initiative, like Cambridge, which has a special period
right now just for equity entrepreneurs. Chauncy Spencer is now trying there.
He has his eye on a new space in a fast-developing area. It’s currently a pet
store. The location holds a great deal of symbolism.
Chauncey
Spencer: People ask me, why do I
feel the need to come to Cambridge? And I said, you know, I do have a
relationship with Cambridge. Uh, that relationship is that they held me in that
jail right there. I feel as if they should be able to allow me to become
a successful businessman in the same space.
Kira
Kay: When you first came to
look at your new potential storefront down the street here, did you do a
double-take?
Chauncey
Spencer: Absolutely I did. I
did. Um, you know, I said, no, one's going to believe this, no, one's gonna
believe this. I can't wait to tell this story.
Kira
Kay: Still, it’s a hard
process. We went along with Spencer on his crucial permitting hearing at
Cambridge City Hall. He was grilled on everything from window tinting to trash
pick-up.
Board
Member: How do you plan on not
overwhelming the existing parking?
Kira
Kay: And during public
comments, a local community group complained Spencer hadn't consulted with
them. The board made this a requirement before they would grant approval.
He had that meeting and
has now been given his local permit. But he’s starting from scratch--new
architecture plans he drew himself, and a fresh start at fundraising. In a
bittersweet decision, he accepted development support from a major cannabis
company and hopes they may offer him a supplier agreement. He’s excited and
grateful for the help, but realizes his current dreams will look different from
his early ones.
****
|
TIMECODE |
LOWER
THIRD |
1 |
0:41 |
[COURTESY] CORE CANNABIS MUSEUM |
2 |
1:01 |
NIAMBE McINTOSH CORE CANNABIS MUSEUM |
3 |
2:52 |
COURTESY: ULYSSES YOUNGBLOOD |
4 |
2:57 |
VANESSA JEAN-BAPTISTE LEGAL GREENS |
5 |
4:04 |
NURYS CAMARGO CANNABIS CONTROL COMMISSION, MASSACHUSETTS |
6 |
5:24 |
DEVIN ALEXANDER ROLLING RELEAF |
7 |
6:07 |
CHAUNCY SPENCER SANKOFA |
8 |
6:57 |
CORE CANNABIS MUSEUM |
9 |
7:13 |
NURYS CAMARGO CANNABIS CONTROL COMMISSION, MASSACHUSETTS |
10 |
8:08 |
DEVIN ALEXANDER ROLLING RELEAF |