The City of Long Beach is gathering public feedback using an online survey until Jan. 28 on what criteria it should use to choose eight business owners that will receive equity licenses to open new storefront cannabis dispensaries.
Storefront dispensary ownership has remained out of reach for business owners that apply to the Cannabis Social Equity program—which was created in 2018 to help people who were negatively impacted by cannabis prohibition enter the now-legal cannabis industry.
After Measure MM was passed by Long Beach voters in 2016, 32 medical storefront dispensary licenses were awarded via lottery.
When recreational cannabis became legal in 2018, only the original 32 medical dispensaries in the city were allowed to operate as recreational dispensaries; applicants to the then-newly created Cannabis Social Equity program never had a chance to receive a storefront dispensary license.
The City plans to allow eight more storefront dispensaries to open in Long Beach, all of which will be owned by qualified applicants to the Cannabis Social Equity program.
Qualified social equity applicants have a net worth of less than $250,000 and have an annual family income at or less than 80% of the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale Area Median Income—$72,100 per year for a two-person household.
In addition, equity applicants must have previously been arrested for a cannabis related crime or live in an area where over half of residents have an income at or below the Los Angeles Area Median Income.
Now that eight more storefront dispensary licenses are going to be awarded to equity applicants, the City is asking for the public’s help in developing the criteria it will use to decide which eight business owners will receive a license.
The survey consists of nine questions, two of which are multiple choice while the other seven require a short typed answer.
Questions on the survey include “Should an equity applicant currently live in Long Beach to be eligible for a dispensary license?” and “Should an applicant applying for a dispensary license have previous cannabis business experience?”
The survey can be taken on an online form until Jan. 28 at 11:59 p.m.
