Michigan’s marijuana social equity program — a provision in the licensing regulations to lower the barrier of entry for residents impacted by marijuana laws — is broken.
Three years into the legal selling of adult recreational-use marijuana in the state, there are only 155 social equity license holders of the roughly 3,100 licenses issued to date. The Cannabis Regulatory Agency issued 122 regular adult-use licenses in September alone.
And who qualifies for a social equity license is pretty ubiquitous. The state, which leaves the actual licensing to municipalities, has a criteria for equity applicants to receive up to a 75 percent discount of state application and license fees, which range from $1,000 to $24,000 per license.
An applicant must at least meet one of three criteria: Be a resident in a community for at least five cumulative years that was disproportionately impacted by marijuana laws (25 percent reduction in fees); be convicted of a marijuana-related offense (25 percent reduction for misdemeanor, 40 percent reduction for felony); and/or be registered as a primary caregiver under the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act for at least two years between 2008 and 2017 (10 percent reduction in fees).
Under the state’s definition, a “disproportionately impacted community” is any municipality where marijuana-related convictions are greater than the state median and 20 percent or more of the population is living below the federal poverty level. That totals roughly 184 communities statewide, according to MJBizDaily.
To read more, click on Crain’s Detroit Business