LOS ANGELES —
As part of marijuana legalization efforts, numerous cities and states have implemented social equity programs that are supposed to help victims of the drug war. Unfortunately, these social equity programs are failing to achieve their goals and enriching politically connected businesses instead, a new Reason Foundation study finds.
“State efforts to promote social equity within regulated marijuana markets have had the unintended consequence of creating a new version of the drug war,” said Geoffrey Lawrence, author of the Reason Foundation study. “To repair past harms caused by drug prohibition, we need to design social equity programs focusing on restorative justice.”
The report recommends expunging all criminal convictions for drug-related charges that are no longer crimes, allowing those people to work in and own businesses in the legal marijuana market, making it easier for people to transition from illegal drug activities to the legal cannabis industry, eliminating caps on marijuana business licenses, reducing government license fees, and focusing financial resources on actual victims of the drug war rather than third parties.
“Governments should begin their efforts toward social equity by ceasing the policies and enforcement patterns that created harm in the first place,” Lawrence said. “This means widespread arrests and asset seizures for marijuana-related activities should give way to a framework in which existing market actors can transition to the legal market.”
But instead of helping victims of the failed war on drugs, the study finds many states are still targeting people involved in the drug trade, making it difficult for those with criminal convictions to enter the legal market. “Out of 39 states with existing medical marijuana programs, at least 35 automatically disqualify individuals with felonies from [cannabis business] licensure,” the report shows.
Meanwhile, well-connected insiders are taking advantage of social equity programs. For example, last November, Illinois issued its first social equity retail cannabis license—not to victims of the drug war but to a group of connected owners, including a former Chicago police detective from the narcotics unit, a former executive of the Chicago Transit Authority, and other investors. “The business qualified as a social equity applicant not on the basis of ownership but because it hired at least six employees who meet the social equity criteria. Its dispensary opened in December 2022 in the affluent River North area of Chicago,” the study explains.
The full report is here and here (.pdf). Reason Foundation’s drug policy and legalization research is here.
