Black-owned businesses feel the squeeze

In June, the chair of Oakland’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission sounded the alarm: California’s social equity businesses couldn’t survive in the current business climate. Amid heavy taxes and competition with the illegal market, Chaney Turner told lawmakers in Sacramento, “Only large operators with expendable capital can afford to operate ‘in the red’ long enough for many of their competitors to fail.”

“Why are Black & Brown cannabis equity retailers being ignored?” Turner asked. As Turner noted, two recent relief efforts had overlooked the urban dispensaries and delivery services which comprise most minority-owned cannabis businesses . . .