Let’s be Clear, Weed is Good!

420 FILE-Weed works. Weed heals, it unites, and captures the essence of entrepreneurial business spirit. And Weed revenue will benefit the city of Los Angeles and the state of California. 

Clocking in at over three hours, last Thursday’s Los Angeles Department of Cannabis Regulation (LA DCR) “special” public teleconference meeting of the Cannabis Regulation Commission was a mess. Social equity applicants who managed to call in shared accounts of how the protracted the Phase 3/Round One licensing fiasco has left them without locations due to bureaucratic delay. 

These entrepreneurial testimonies were heard by commission members without comment. The conversation simply moved along to the next agenda item, like it has in so many other meetings, and segued into a Department public relations person reading a narration aloud during a slide and video presentation. Instead of that, we need to have that conversation and enact solutions during these sessions so that the promise of Los Angeles being the world’s largest cannabis market will be fulfilled.  

Meeting participants heard that on October 20, 2020, the LA DCR will start processing those “LA 100” invoice applicants who still maintain site control. So, is a “Hollywood ending” possible? Maybe. 

There’s got to be a “morning after,” where the “LA 100” social equity invoiced applicants Phase 3/Round One receive the highly desired cannabis licenses for which they applied, waited for over a year and richly deserve. These folks, who played by the rules, maintained their leases throughout the licensing process, subsequent internal audit, pandemic, city “safer at home” directive, riots, ordinance revision, and change in the market conditions, deserve to open without any further delay.   

Who will be the first licensed “social equity” cannabis retail storefront in Los Angeles? The race towards “Grand Opening” begins October 20. 

With every “social equity” cannabis retail storefront location opened. . .jobs are created.  

Let’s keep on looking for the light, LA.

(Gary Mittin is a commercial real estate broker, specializing in cannabis real estate.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.