The cannabis landscape in Long Beach will soon grow, allowing room for more diverse, city-based residents to apply for eight highly-coveted new equity licenses that will be awarded in November.
The City Council unanimously moved forward with the Equity Dispensary Ordinance Solution on Tuesday, May 10, which will create eight new recreational dispensary licenses for equity applicants.
The item will also reduce and remove buffers around the city in order to increase possible dispensary locations. In response to the sheer number of already existing applicants, the item will return to the council in a week with revisions to the resolution to favor those “grandfathered in.”
The motion comes four months after the City reached out to the community for feedback on the guidelines for the social equity program.
The program is part of an effort from the City to diversify the recreational cannabis industry with owners who are lower-income, have or are related to someone with a criminal cannabis charge, live in an underserved part of the City, and have been a Long Beach resident for more than three years, among other requirements.
There are currently 32 dispensaries in Long Beach. No new licenses have been issued since Measure MM passed in 2016, which awarded 32 dispensaries with medical storefront licenses via lottery.
The City’s Cannabis Social Equity Program has resulted in 156 open applications for recreational dispensary licenses, according to Emily Armstrong, cannabis program manager.
In response to the already staggering number of applicants, many prospective owners and current applicants took to the stand to voice their frustration with the years-long wait.
“Our communities, Latino, Black, Brown communities, minority communities, we’re impacted by years and years … folks are still in prison by something more affluent folks are benefitting from,” said Jose Hernandez, political director of Catalyst Cares.
The process to choose the eight applicants includes a total of seven steps, although Armstrong explained that the full list of criteria would not be made public. The phases include a stakeholder meeting, a 30-day submission period for new applicants, eligibility verifications, interviews and finally, the decisions in November.
The social equity program was made “to support equal opportunity in the cannabis industry by making legal cannabis business ownership and employment opportunities more accessible to low-income individuals and communities most impacted by the criminalization of cannabis” according to the City’s website.
As of July 2021, after three years of program operation, only one equity applicant had successfully opened a cannabis business, according to the Office of Cannabis Oversight.
A few legal cannabis business owners however, claimed that the program is already too crowded to accept new applicants.
“We’ve been here since 2018 and you bring in other people to come and do what? The application process for dispensaries is closed,” Gillian Xavier said. “You have more than enough, you have 40 people in the room, 32 people aren’t going to make it. You got to give us a chance to make it.”
Councilmember Al Austin responded to complaints similar to these, acknowledging the already bloated list. He asked city staff to amend the measure to put a “moratorium on the retail application process,” although the number at which the list would cap out was not identified.
“I understand the apprehension of anyone who has been waiting four years for a license,” Austin said. “I want to say, ‘Hey, the people who have already been in this process should be awarded and given opportunities.’”
Austin also pointed out that one speaker in support of the measure identified themselves as a 2018 lottery winner, saying that allowing a lottery winner to receive the equity license would be “a little counterproductive and unfair.”
In order to further ensure that the equity licenses benefit only those qualifying for the program, Councilmember Cindy Allen suggested adding a 10-year ownership plan into the criteria, rather than a five-year plan.
She also voiced concern that “allowing non-equity businesses to buy these licenses after five years will compromise the viability of the equity program,” and urged the licenses only be resold to equity-verifiable applicants.
Other community members argued that despite the measure and its many amendments, the social equity program is still not enough for local dispensaries to compete with large sellers.
“I just want to bring to the council’s attention the obstacles facing social equity applicants in the city when it pertains to lack of capital and obtaining a location,” social equity applicant Jody Davis said. There’s currently 32 dispensaries in this city and most of them are multi-location or multi-state operators and they have deep pockets and all of the prime locations in this city.”
