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% discount of state application and license fees, which range from $1,000 to $24,000 per license.
H/T: grbj.com